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Post by Stinky on Feb 3, 2022 21:51:05 GMT 1
I am lucky, I knew both of mine into my adulthood.
My Daddy’s father was, as were his brothers, a miner in Doncaster.
A loving semi literate man.
His brother, died in Bentley Mill, two days after asking May to marry him.
Her family were no help,so she turned from them to our family for support and one year later married Albert, my Granddad.
11 children and 64 years of marriage followed.
Two of his sons died in the same pit as his brother.
When May died, he just gave up and lasted only days.
For him, life was Black and White.
Good or Bad.
Right or Wrong.
Loved my Mum, but could not understand why she wanted my Dad.
Posh Lass, he said.
Unable to pay the rent one time, he spent seven days in the Debtors Prison.
Fourteen hours a day of work, learning to cobble.
The proceeds from repairing shoes, boots and plough horse harnesses, payed for their food.
Talking to me in the Working Man’s Club, he said that, that week was the best thing that happened to him.
For the rest of his life he made a few shillings mending shoes on the estate.
An inveterate better on the horses, he kept quiet about his winnings.
But May knew he kept his money in his work waistcoat.
And would take half, which payed the shopping bills.
Their little game, neither ever mentioning it.
He was so proud of his children.
But never more so than of my sister.
One Sunday lunchtime, comfortably ensconced in the Miners Club, pre Sunday lunch beers with his sons and friends, my sister, the only woman in there, got up and bought a round of beers.
Women did not buy drinks in there and not many even went there.
He ‘dined’out on that story for many Sunday lunchtime sessions.
Daughter of my son’s Posh Lass, bought all a drink.
Like to think he smiles about that now.
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Nifty
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Post by Nifty on Feb 4, 2022 7:31:08 GMT 1
Not enough
Before ww1 mother’s father was a mechanic
He married in Maidenhead before joining the ASC as a driver Sent to France.
was involved with various aspects of his families business
Became cafe proprietor, became wealthy, or, at least, put on a show by dressing in expensive suits in the style of Al Capone with gold watch chains etc.
Racing fanatic
suspect that is how he got to know paternal grandfather, an ex coal miner ‘stone man’ from Crook, damaged his had in a work accident abt 1924, married, possibly for the second time, was supposed to have walked south after hunger marches.
He used to ‘run a book’ among his workmates.
In 1938 he applied to Slough Council for permission to build a garage of the house that he owned.
It 1939 he was a wedding cake icing decorator. Hmmm..
after the war he had set up as a legitimate Turf Accountant ( my father was his Representative)
He died in 1960
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Post by tim17 on Feb 4, 2022 8:36:32 GMT 1
Mother's father died when I was 5 so can't even picture him, carpenter by trade which ultimately caused his premature death aged 62 following years of working with asbestos in the 40's and 50's. Joined the army in 1942 aged 38 and served in N.Africa, Italy and then Germany, I have his medals, service record and a few things that he brought home from the war.
Other grandfather worked for what is now British Gas, he was a 'lamplighter' until gas street lamps were phased out in the 50's after which he re-trained as a fitter, died of cancer aged 67. Due to a family dispute I didn't see him for several years when I was a child which I meant I didn't really get to know him.
I've not done too well on the grandparent front, first grandmother went 'gaga' shortly after her husband died and the other one committed suicide.
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Nifty
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Post by Nifty on Feb 4, 2022 9:39:23 GMT 1
never say never
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2022 10:50:03 GMT 1
Who knew Nifty was a Peaky Blinder?
My grandfather appears regularly at the foot of my bed in the middle of the night. SWMBO says either I put a lock on his bedroom door or he goes into a home.
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Aardvark
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Living in soggy 22 and still wondering what's going on.
Posts: 2,172
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Post by Aardvark on Feb 4, 2022 11:31:31 GMT 1
I know quite a lot about my grandfather because he was my father figure all my life. My scumbag father fecced off before my first birthday leaving my mother in a shabby flat with rent in arrears.
My grandfather's mantra was that hard work would pay off in the end. Even though it didn't really come true I don't regret having followed it.
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Nifty
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Post by Nifty on Feb 4, 2022 12:02:22 GMT 1
I thought that aardvark and I had something in common.
except, the shabby flat bit.
Mum and I ended up back with her parents.
Gf must have had some pull ( and, maybe a few enemies) he brought a large town house in Alma Road and mum and I moved in there with the remainder of his family who were still at home.
I have spent much of the last twenty years finding things out.
One day, I will relay all in my own way.
and. Though I enjoyed it in the right circumstances, hard work for wages is a mugs game.
#
I mentioned the enemies as I am not sure how the garden wall that bounded Alma Road came to be lying horizontally on the ground.
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Nifty
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Post by Nifty on Feb 4, 2022 12:22:48 GMT 1
@ Tim do you know much about your grandfather's time in Africa?
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Post by tim17 on Feb 4, 2022 12:51:23 GMT 1
@ Tim do you know much about your grandfather's time in Africa? Nothing apart from what's in his service record and the postcards he sent home which were obviously censored. |
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Post by tim17 on Feb 4, 2022 13:24:26 GMT 1
All family stuff is kept by my mother in the UK, next time I'm there I'll see what I can find.
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Nifty
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Post by Nifty on Feb 4, 2022 13:27:36 GMT 1
Gf seems to have done very well out of ww2
Great uncle, left above was in tank Corps in North Africa.
he made a career in the army as a Barrack Store cAccountant and continued to work as such until his retirement when he went into keeping poultry and breeding cage birds.
One of these days I might get his service record.
I think that he was involved in the trials after the war.
He would be able to tell a few stories but never did.
He was due to complete his service, but, recognising that war was imminent at the time of his discharge and did not want to loose any rank he may have gained decided to stay in.
He was evacuated from Brest in the retreat but was posted to Libya. Before he left, he gave my grandparents a revolver with ammunition to allow the grandparents to shoot the family and themselves if the Germans should invade.
I remember playing with the bullets which my grandfather kept in a cigar box with his medals in a large role-top desk.
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Veem
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Post by Veem on Feb 4, 2022 13:39:07 GMT 1
I know virtually nothing about either of my grandfathers nor one grandmother. My father's father worked at a mine in Yorkshire, but I don't think as a miner. A cousin recently told me that he 'went away a lot', but she didn't know where. Whenever he came home my grandmother would give birth to yet another baby 9 months later. When she'd had 12 he decided to leave home and I never met him. I understood she was classically trained on the piano and after her husband left home she played in pubs in Barnsley to raise money.
My mother's father was chief engineer on a fishing trawler out of Grimsby. Her mother also had numerous children. I never met either of those grandparents as my mother was brought up by one of her mother's sisters and her husband, who were childless. I don't even know the names of my actual grandparents.
Like many people I hardly gave it a thought until it was too late when there was nobody left who would remember them.
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Nifty
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Post by Nifty on Feb 4, 2022 13:42:43 GMT 1
Great uncle, left above was in tank Corps in North Africa pic, taken abt 1947 during a visit home from Germany. One of these days I might get his service record. He would be able to tell a few stories. He was due to complete his service, but, recognising that war was imminent at the time of his discharge and did not want to loose any rank he may have gained decided to stay in. He was evacuated from Brest in the retreat but was posted to Libya. Before he left, he gave my grandparents a revolver with ammunition to allow them to shoot the family and themselves if the Germans should invade. I remember playing with the bullets which my grandfather kept in a cigar box with his medals in a large role-top desk. |
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Post by tim17 on Feb 4, 2022 13:45:02 GMT 1
Great uncle, left above was in tank Corps in North Africa One of these days I might get his service record. He would be able to tell a few stories. He was due to complete his service, but, recognising that war was imminent at the time of his discharge and did not want to loose any rank he may have gained decided to stay in. He was evacuated from Brest in the retreat but was posted to Libya. Before he left, he gave my grandparents a revolver with ammunition to allow the grandparents to shoot the family and themselves if the Germans should invade. I remember playing with the bullets which my grandfather kept in a cigar box with his medals in a large role-top desk. With a friend and aged 8 or 9 I set off a bullet given to me by my grandfather, we put it in a vice and hit it with a centre punch and a hammer, luckily we didn't get hit but the rest of the bullets were taken off me and I never saw them again. |
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Le-Dolly
Member
La Souterraine (23) depuis '05.
Posts: 569
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Post by Le-Dolly on Feb 4, 2022 13:49:01 GMT 1
On the distaff side, my grandfather, who was from Taneẓroft Tutrimt, now called Moroccan Western Sahara, had passed before my birth but the grand-mere remarried a Canadian church building mason and hopped it to Ontario in late '45. Returned to the UK after his death and shared lodging with us and my mothers brother, oh what fun that was!
On the spear side, both grandparents and eleven assorted cousins, aunts and uncles were killed by the russians (small r as I have no respect for them) between '44 and '46.
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