Tag Archives: Plymouth Devon

Genealogy

The BBC – British Broadcasting Company

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While my youngest son’s 20-year career at the BBC’s flagship programme, the BBC World Service, is a source of personal pride, this story delves into the rich history of this iconic British institution. For me, as we observed the 80th anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day, on the 8th of May, 2025, the story felt both poignant and emotional.

THE BBC’s BUSH HOUSE 1928 – 2012

Bush House was restored after being bombed twice during WWII

First known as the BBC Empire Service, the World Service was launched on the 19th of December 1932 as a shortwave service aimed at English speakers across the British Empire. The BBC World Service is the international broadcasting service owned and operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Its goal is to provide impartial and accurate news to global audiences through 42 language services.

When I was growing up in post-war England in the early 1950’s not many people had television, so the radio was my first contact with entertainment. The radio played in the background all day long. There were talks, songs, comic shows, classical music, and the hourly world news.

Saturday mornings, we had Uncle Mac, a show especially for children. Uncle Mac read stories, played songs, and greeted children when they got home from school. Uncle Mac was played by Derek Ivor Breashur McCulloch, OBE (1897 – 1967), who was born in my hometown, Plymouth, Devon. He was a radio producer and presenter and the head of children’s broadcasting for the BBC from 1933 until 1951. He became known as Uncle Mac on Children’s Hour and Children’s Favourites. (1)

The BBC, originally known as the British Broadcasting Company, first began broadcasting on the 18th of October, 1922. Its first broadcasts were made from London. Broadcasts began in November from Birmingham and Manchester, and in December from Newcastle upon Tyne. In Plymouth, the first broadcast was heard in March 1925.

The BBC began daily broadcasting in Marconi’s London studio, 2LO, in the Strand, on the 14th of November, 1922. The majority of the BBC’s existing radio stations formed the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programmes. Throughout the 1920’s many firsts were added as the BBC began broadcasting from studios all over England and Scotland. (2)

By September 1923, the first edition of ‘Radio Times’ was produced, listing the few programmes available. When I grew older, I found the Radio Times a great read, as it included not only programme times, but gossip about the actors. Below is an early addition of the BBC’s “official organ’

THE RADIO TIMES – THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE BBC

A few notable programmes included the first Scottish Gaelic broadcast, heard on the 2nd of December, 1923, and the opening, by King George, of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium, in April, 1924.

IN 1925, the six electronically generated ‘pips’ to indicate the Greenwich Time Signal (GTS) – now, GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) – were heard for the first time. These pips were invented by the Astronomer Sir Frank Watson Dyson (No relation to Sir James Dyson, inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaners) and John Reith, the Director General of the BBC.

The majority of the BBC’s existing radio stations formed the BBC National Programmes and the BBC Regional Programmes. Through the 1920s, many ‘firsts’ were added as the BBC broadcast from studios all over England and Scotland.

In September 1939, the fledgling BBC Television Service was suspended, around 20 minutes after the conclusion of a Mickey Mouse cartoon, owing to the imminent outbreak of World War II. There were fears that the VHF transmissions from Alexander Palace would act as perfect guidance beams for enemy bombers attempting to locate central London.

For me, the most interesting part of BBC history was the war era, beginning on the 3rd of September, 1939, when Britain declared war on Hitler’s Germany. In the fight against fascism, broadcasting played a starring role as informant, morale-booster, entertainer and propaganda weapon. For the public, BBC radio provided a constant and reliable source of information about the war’s progress. The BBC also broadcast to occupied Europe, providing moral support to the resistance. (3)

On the radio, National and Regional Programmes were combined to form a single Home Service. Additionally, the service’s technicians and engineers were needed for such war efforts as the development of radar.

The wartime BBC was involved in a range of top-secret activities, working closely with the intelligence agencies and military and the BBC played an important part in WWII, frequently transmitting secret words, music and coded messages to the French underground.

For example, to indicate the start of D-Day, the operation was given the code name “Overlord” and the BBC’s Radio Londres signalled to the French Resistance with the opening lines of the 1866 Verlaine poem “Chanson d’Automne” The first three lines of the poem, “Les sanglots longs / des violons / de l’automne” (“The long sobs of autumn’s violins”), would mean that Operation Overlord was to start within two weeks. These lines were broadcast on 1 June 1944.

The next set of lines, “Blessent mon coeur / d’une langueur / monotone” (“wound my heart with a monotonous languor”), meant that it would start within 48 hours and that the resistance should begin sabotage operations, especially on the French railroad system; these lines were broadcast on 5 June at 23:15.

The coded messages can be heard below in this video.

Operation Overlord, launched on June 6, 1944, D-Day, was the Allied invasion of Normandy, France. This large-scale amphibious operation aimed to liberate Western Europe from Nazi control. It involved massive land, air and sea assaults, with nearly 160,000 troops crossing the English Channel. The assault targeted five beaches in Normandy: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. It was the largest amphibious invasion in military history.

THE BEACHES OF NORMANDY, FRANCE

Today, I regularly listen to the BBC World Service, Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra, which repeat programmes from the early 1950s to the 2000s, bringing back nostalgic memories of ‘home’.

SOURCES

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_McCulloch

(2) https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/timelines

(3) https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/ww2/secret-war(2

(4) https://orwellinstitute.com/orwell-bbc.html source for the Orwell photo

THE BBC TODAY

The BBC Home Service ended on September 30, 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. The first broadcast on Radio 4 was “Farming Today”.

BBC HOUSE TODAY

The famous writer of 1984 and Animal Farm worked in the Empire Service of the BBC from 1941 to 1943.

George Orwell at the BBC in 1943.

Outside the new BBC building in London stands a statue of George Orwell, and behind him these words:

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

The head of BBC history, Robert Seatter, said of Orwell and the statue that “He reputedly based his notorious Room 101 from Nineteen Eighty-Four on a room he had worked in whilst at the BBC, but here he will stand in the fresh air reminding people of the value of journalism in holding authority to account”. (4)

Genealogy

Great-Grandfather Thomas Bevan

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Thomas Bevan Royal Navy, Australia 1908

I was too young to know my maternal Great-Grandfather, Thomas Bevan. However, I do have some memories of him – mainly in his casket – in the front room of his house at number nine, Pellow Place Stoke, Plymouth Devon. The coffin stayed in the house for 7 days before the burial. My gran said I had to kiss him goodbye so that I would have pleasant memories of him and no nightmares!

Thomas was born in the little ancient town of Okehampton in West Devon on the Northern edge of Dartmoor and had a population of less than 6,000 in 2011.

The name Okehampton means settlement or estate (tun) on the River Okement and was founded by the Saxons. The earliest written record of the settlement is from 980 AD. The early form of the name Okementone is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, and later in 1167 and 1275 as Okemento(a).

Like many towns in the West Country, Okehampton grew on the medieval wool trade. Notable buildings in the town include Okehampton Castle, now a ruin, established by the Norman Sheriff of Devon, Baldwin FitzGilbert. following a revolt in Devon against Norman rule.

The 17th-century Okehampton Town Hall.

My Granny used to pronounce it as “Okenton”. Apparently, as late as the 1930’s the older people of the district pronounced it “Okington” or “Okenton” I asked Granny why she said it that way, and she said that was how her Father pronounced it. (1)

On the 18th of October, 1893, when Thomas was 18 years and 10 months old, he joined the Devonshire Regiment for ‘Short Service’.

The term “short service” refers to a type of enlistment in the British Army, introduced in 1870. It allowed soldiers to serve for a shorter time than the standard 12 years of service. Thomas served for eight years and then joined the Royal Navy at age 25.

According to his records, when he joined the Royal Navy for a 12-year engagement on the 20th of March 1900, two years were added to his birth year. He was born in 1875 but his Royal Navy service Records show 1877.

Thomas became a Cooper and Master Carpenter on HMS Vivid II. This was a shore establishment, in the Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth, where I was born and lived. He may have learned of the rules regulations and history of the Royal Navy whilst there and probably picked up the basics of his trade too. According to his Service Record below, he served on many different ships and finished his service 12 years later, also on HMS Vivid III. (2)

Thomas Bevan’s Royal Navy Service Record

Granny told me that Thomas made and repaired wooden barrels, casks and other containers. The daily Rum ration for the Royal Navy, called the ‘tot’ for the crew was stored in a barrel such as Thomas would have made. The daily tot was abolished in 1970; I remember it made headlines in England. The reason was concerns that the intake of strong alcohol would lead to unsteady hands when working machinery.

A Scarce Royal Navy Rum Barrel made of English oak painted overall in blue faded to green on the front. Bound with four iron bands, the front was painted with post-1901 Royal Arms and R.N. and retained trace imprints of earlier bands.

Thomas lived with his wife, Lilian, their daughter Edith O’Bray (my Granny) and her husband Percival Victor (my Grandfather) in the early 1950’s in Plymouth at number nine Pellow Place Stoke. I lived with my parents five doors down from them at number four.

Although my Granny, Edith was born in 1900, her mother Lillian was single. Lillian’s father, a gardener named Thomas Symons, went to the Royal Navy to find the child’s father. Thomas had no idea he was a father as he was at sea for three years. When Thomas did arrive home on HMS Cleopatra in 1904 he married Lillian and the family went on to have six more children. Granny was already four years old then. The following link explains those circumstances.

https://genealogyensemble.com/2015/11/18/the-family-secret/

My Granny, his daughter, told me that her father tragically died in her house, whilst asleep in his chair. Everyone had gone shopping and when they arrived home, the house smelled of gas and Thomas was dead. Apparently, gas had leaked into the house, killing him. She told me he was a kind, quiet man.

The photo below of him at 71, was taken about one year before his unfortunate death on the 31st of May, 1947.

Great-Grandad Thomas Bevan

SOURCES

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okehampton

(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vivid_(1891)

(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okehampton_Town_Hall

The Royal Navy in the year 1900 had several tradesmen who were responsible for the maintenance of the ships and their equipment. One such trade was that of a cooper. A cooper is someone who makes wooden, staved vessels, held together with wooden or metal hoops and possessing flat ends or heads. Examples of a cooper’s work include casks, barrels, buckets, tubs, butter churns, vats, hogsheads, firkins, tierces, rundlets, puncheons, pipes tuns butts, troughs pins and breakers. 

Genealogy

Granny’s Ornament Part Two…

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Kenneth Victor O’Bray aged 10 months May 1922

My Mum and her brother, Kenny c. 1932 my Mum would have been about 9 and Kenny 11 years old.

Two years into Uncle Ken’s apprenticeship, his life takes another turn…

A few days before Christmas, a neighbour visited Granny and saw her putting Holly branches around the fireplace and remarked “You should not put up Holly, it means a death in the family’ Gran chose to ignore this ‘old wives tale’

The United Kingdom declared war on Germany on the 3rd of September 1939, after Germany invaded Poland. France also declared war on Germany later the same day. The state of war was announced to the British public in an 11 am radio broadcast by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. (1)

Most of the country was in shock. Kenny as my grandparents always called him, was 17 years old that July 31st, and I have no doubt that he would have signed up as soon as he was 18 years old.

On about the 20th of December, Kenny complained of a tummy ache, so he stayed home from work. The pain got progressively worse, so the family doctor was called in. This was before the National Health Service was formed in 1948, so all house calls were to be paid in cash.

Because Kenny was feeling so poorly, Granny put a stool next to his bed, piled it up with books and put his food and drink on it, so it was eye level and easy to reach.

When the doctor arrived he examined Kenny and said it was nothing just an upset tummy. My Mum also had the same stomach pains so the doctor thought it was this. Days later, he worsened and the doctor was called in again.

By this time, my gramps was very worried and asked for him to be taken to the hospital as the pain was getting worse, but the doctor refused to admit him saying” With all those books piled up next to him, he can’t be that ill’

The next day, 23rd December and again, Gramps called the doctor in. This time he examined my Mum and left some mixture for her to take. Mum told me, that she refused to take it, because he had a strong foreign accent, and she was certain he was a ‘spy’ and the mixture was poison! Kenny worsened on the 23rd of December.

My mum remembers her parents and neighbours at his bedside, whispering ‘Is he still breathing?” Get a mirror and hold it up to his mouth’ Mum was in the bedroom next door worrying and in pain herself. Kenny died that evening. He was 17 years old.

Once again, the doctor was called and Gran and Gramps made him examine Mum at the same time. She was admitted to the hospital immediately with the same symptoms as Kenny had.

She had appendicitis and was operated on that day, and she recovered. Kenny meanwhile was autopsied. They discovered he had peritonitis. A ruptured appendix spreads infection throughout the abdomen. it requires immediate surgery to remove the appendix and clean the abdominal cavity or death occurs.

Mum was lucky her appendix had not yet burst. Kenny was not. My Granny and Gramps were so upset they tried to sue the doctor. I read Gramps’ diary of these events leading up to Uncle Ken’s death and wept.

My Gramps was not successful in suing the doctor although he tried very hard. Granny told me of her visiting the cemetery after Kenny’s burial and sitting on his gravesite and weeping, every day.

Plymouth was one of the most heavily bombed British cities during World War Two. The first bombs fell on the city on 6 July 1940, with the heaviest period of bombing occurring in March and April 1941. (2)

Many years later when she related this sad family history to me, we were at the cemetery visiting Uncle Ken’s grave. I noticed a large chip in the granite headstone and pointed it out to Granny. ‘Oh, yes” she replied, “I remember that!” She continued, “One day when I was visiting the cemetery, sitting on the edge of the grave, when the air raid sirens went off. I just carried on weeping and shouting to the sky ‘Take me now! I don’t care!” when a large piece of shrapnel hit the side of the headstone!

I asked her if she was afraid but she said ‘Not in the least!” and told me, that she continued to sit there and cry and shout, all whilst the air raid roared and blazed around her. I think this was her expressing her grief in a most dramatic but cathartic way, and was probably a good thing to do.

Grief can drastically alter a person’s attitude to life and I know families who lose a child never really recover from the shock. My grandparents, whilst not always talking about Kenny, did answer my questions and let me look through all his sketches and drawings they had.

My Mum was affected by her brothers’ death. Her parents were strict she said, timing her outings and expecting her home at a certain time, if she was spotted talking to boys she was called into the house.

She was constantly “kept an eye on” not allowed much freedom, or chance to meet people, and consequently, married far too young and too fast. However, I believe that they were afraid that they would lose her too, especially during the war years with constant bombs and air raids.

When her brother died and Mum’s infant son, my baby brother Christopher, died at three days old and she thought they were ‘cursed’ I must admit when my own son was born, the thought did cross my mind that the boys of the family did not live for long….. but I quickly quelled that thought! (3)

Today, my two ‘boys’ are healthy happy men and I am grateful.

October 1938. A sketch by Uncle Kenny of the Barbican where the Pilgrim Fathers sailed for America on the 16th September 1620
August 1939, This was taken four months before Uncle Kenny died. He is 17 years old, and it was taken at the Whitsands Beach, near Plymouth Devon.

The above photo was the one that I always remember, it is hung on the wall when I lived with my grandparents and is still there today. Below is Kenny’s Death certificate. The cause of death reads: “Perforated appendix generalised peritonitis Certified by W. E. J. Major Coroner for Plymouth after post mortem without inquest”. Because there was no inquest, I believe this is why my grandparents decided to try and sue the doctor. There should have been an inquest, so they could express their outrage, grief and sorrow at the behaviour of the doctor.

A few days ago I received an email from HM Coroner’s Office in Plymouth Devon. I had inquired about obtaining the Post Mortem report.

OFFICIAL: SENSITIVE

Good Afternoon

Thank you for your email and for updating the information provided.

I have made enquiries with our archivists and unfortunately, they do not hold any Post Mortems reports for 1939. Unfortunately, we are unable to assist with your enquiry any further.

Kind regards

Debbie, HM Coroners Office 1 Derriford Park, Derriford Business Park Plymouth PL6 5QZ

I had hoped to obtain them to add to this story. It was not to be. Perhaps, in the future, I may be luckier. I am sure they are held, just not digitized yet.

A Brief Note on Holly Beliefs in the West Country of Devon, England.

https://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/holly_moor.htm

“It was always considered terribly unlucky to bring holly into the house before Christmas Eve and even more so to leave it in the home after Candlemas Eve (1st February)“.

SOURCES:

(1) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/06/second-world-war-declaration-chamberlain

(2) https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/newsroom/plymouthnews/plymouthblitzremembered

(3) https://genealogyensemble.com/2018/01/14/my-brothers-keeper/

Read Part One of ‘Granny’s Ornament” here:

https://genealogyensemble.com/2022/02/23/grannys-ornament-part-one/

Genealogy

Granny’s Ornament Part One

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Noun: ornament; plural noun: ornaments
A thing used to make something look more attractive but usually has no practical purpose, especially a small object such as a figurine
Noun: figurine, plural noun: figurines statuette, especially one of a human form. The photo above is the ornament.

The underside is printed “Suvesco Foreign”

Granny always called it Ken’s ‘ornament’ so, for the purpose of this story, ornament it is.

Further searching tells me it was made in Japan in the 1930s and is in the style of ‘Art Deco’ (1)

When I lived with Granny and Gramps in the late 1950s there was not much colour around her house or indeed anywhere. We were still rebuilding our city after WW2 and things were still rather bleak.

However, I do remember in Granny and Gramps’ bedroom, on the shelf above the fireplace, a small lady holding out her colourful skirts, with her head on the side, she was the only bit of colour in the house. I often admired the pretty pastel colours and ‘the ladies’ pose.

Many years later, when I was visiting Granny, she must have been in her late 90’s, she took it from her cabinet and gave it to me! She said, that she knew how much I had admired it whilst I lived with her and she knew I would appreciate it. She was right! I was thrilled!

As I grew older, I kept Granny’s ornament in my cabinet and I admired the pose and colours. Much later in life, when I was taking art courses, I painted it and called it ‘Dancing Lady’

Dancing Lady

Living with Granny and Gramps, I one day asked if the lady was old, and where and how Granny got it, she was silent for a moment, and then told me the story.

Her eldest son, Kenneth, had bought it for her with money from his very first job. I knew who Ken was, he was my Uncle the older brother by two years, of my mother. I had always seen his photo on the wall in their house, at the bottom of the stairs, a dark-haired young man, looking similar to Gramps in his first – so Gran told me – pair of long trousers! At the beach, barefoot and leaning against a cliff in shirtsleeves.

Uncle Ken about 16 years

Uncle Ken was apprenticed to Mr Henry Mallett Osborne on the 27th of October, 1937, from the age of 15 years until he was 21 years. He was to “Carry on the art trade of business of a House and Decorative Painter Glazier and Paperhanger at 20 York Street City of Plymouth”

I know this because I have Uncle Ken’s Deed.

Gran told me he was so excited and the business of “THIS DEED” gave him a feeling of being, at last, a grownup.

The Deed was large and cannot be shown in full here, as the document measures 41cm in length (16 inches) and 27cm in width (101/2 inches). However, I can show the top of the Deed and the bottom with the signatures of Gramps, his son, Uncle Ken and the ‘Master’ Mr Osborne.

Frontpage of the Deed

First Page of the Deed.

Included in the ‘Deed’ are these words…… “he will faithfully serve ‘The Master’ until the full end and term of six years shall be fully complete and ended. (Such term to expire on the 11 September 1943)

Who could have known, that full out war and destruction would have been wreaking havoc all over the world for four years by then? The United Kingdom had declared war on Germany on the 3rd of September, 1939, two days after Germany invaded Poland.

One interesting note in the Deed was Kenneth’s salary which says:

……the Master does now or shall hereafter use and practice the same and shall and will pay or cause to be paid to the Apprentice during the said same wages at the rates and in manner following (that is to say) the sum of six shillings and sixpence per week during the first year of the said term and sum of eight shillings per week during the second year of the said term the sum of nine shillings and sixpence per week during the third year of the said term the sum of Eleven shillings and sixpence per week during the fourth year of the said term the sum of Thirteen shillings and sixpence during the fifth year of the said term and the sum of Sixteen shillings and sixpence during the sixth and last year of the said term”

The last and
Signature Page

So, with the handsome salary of six shillings and sixpence, (worth approximately $2.50 in today’s Canadian dollars) during the first year of his apprenticeship, he bought Granny the lovely little lady.

Granny said that Kenneth was keen to learn the signwriting part of the Apprenticeship as he was quite a good artist. Granny kept all his paintings sketches and drawings between two large pieces of cardboard. I often got them out and looked at them. I could spend hours looking at his art.

Whilst I was still at school, I had to do a project on the City of Plymouth History. Granny let me have the Royal Coat of Arms, painted by Uncle Ken to put on the front of my project book, I was thrilled and still have the project book and Uncle Ken’s painting on the front.

Uncle Ken’s painting of the Royal Coat of Arms – not finished.

The picture below is the present Royal Coat of Arms, with the crown of Queen Elizabeth II.

The motto at the base reads: ‘Dieu et mon Droit’ (‘God and my Right’) and the shield bears the motto Hon soit qui mal y pense (‘Evil to him who evil thinks’ (2)

Two years into Uncle Ken’s apprenticeship, his life takes another turn which will be told in Granny’s Ornament Part Two.

(1) When did Art Deco start and end?

Art deco (c. 1908 to 1935) Art deco began in Europe, particularly Paris, in the early years of the 20th century, but didn’t really take hold until after World War I. It reigned until the outbreak of World War II

Of course, Art Deco covered a great many items including homes, buildings, clothing, home furnishings and sculptures.

If you Google ‘Art Deco Ladies’ many of the ladies are in similar positions and colours. Some just marked ‘foreign’ and some made in Germany and Austria.

I have no idea of value, but to me it is priceless and I hope when I have shuffled off this mortal coil, one of my sons or grandchildren will treasure it too.

(2) This symbolises the Order of the Garter, an ancient order of knighthood of which the Queen is Sovereign. Uncle Ken’s painting shows the crown of the then-King George V

England, Genealogy

Floods!! Then And Now

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‘Here it comes’  Dad yells out and we all rush to the front door with our brooms. Sweeping frantically we try to stop the floodwater from creeping into the house but to no avail.

With all the news about the Harvey Irma and Jose hurricanes and the resulting floods and damage, I was reminded of our house when I was about 9 years old in 1954. We lived in Watts Cottages, St. Levan Road Plymouth in Devon England. There were four cottages situated in a small park, in a pretty grassy ‘dip’. and St Levan Road outside the park’s elegant metal railings was the main road for cars and buses. Upon opening our garden gate it led directly to the grass and the park. It was idyllic,  except for one thing…..It flooded when it rained heavily. Plymouth is a very hilly area and our cottages were situated in that dip.

Shortly after my father bought the house, our neighbours could not wait to tell Dad that the four cottages flooded when rain was particularly heavy. Of course, nowadays a sale like that would never happen but this was only 9 years after WW2 and housing in our Naval city was in crisis. Thousands of people lived in prefabs – prefabricated homes built quickly after the war, intending to last for 10 years –  and many families lived together, due to the bomb damage and shortages of homes, so for my Dad to find this pretty cottage, next to a recreation field and a main bus route was wonderful.

Side view of the Cottages in the park from the recreation ground, Our cottage was the third from the left.

We had lived in our home for about a year before it flooded. It had rained heavily all day and suddenly, the garden had a few inches of water in it, which rapidly became two feet. It crept towards the front door. When Dad had heard about the flooding from the neighbours, he had built a waist-high cement wall and a wooden door to slot in place when it rained. He was hopeful that this would keep the water out of the house – it didn’t.

After our frantic efforts to sweep the water out, it was obviously a useless exercise so my Dad made Mum me and my baby sister all go upstairs, whilst he waded out the front door to try and clear the sewer drain, which was outside our gate in the park area. He was over 6 feet tall, but soon, the water reached his chest. We all watched the drama unfold from our bedroom window. He managed to get the drain cover off, and a huge fountain of water shot up into the air! It kept going for ages and we waited for the floodwaters to recede but it did not happen and I must admit that at nine years old, it was kind of exciting to see! All the neighbours across the street were watching too. Buses stopped on the main road to watch the huge fountain of water cascading over the park. Such drama! What excitement!

The aftermath the next day was not so much fun though. No kind of help from anyone in those days. We just waited for the floodwaters to subside, and then started the usual clean up. No Fire Engines to help pump out the water, no help from the local city officials, no shelters no home insurance just us, Dad Mum and me sweeping out all the stinking mud and trying to dry everything out.

None of the surrounding homes (pictured below) suffered flooding as those four cottages did, and always afterwards, the place smelled of mould and dampness. No wonder I was always sick with bronchitis. It took many years – 18 actually – before those cottages were officially condemned and boarded up.

Long before then the residents including us had just moved out and left behind their dreams and investment. It took another 7 years before they were bulldozed and grassed over. Once officially condemned, the local council paid residents a nominal fee but nothing like the money put into our homes.

Front view of the site today, after the demolition of the Cottages, still a pretty site. for cottages. The bare green area was where the cottages were situated. You can see how the area slopes downwards.

I have to admit that when I went back to England one year and visited the park, it was a shock to see the houses gone and an empty spot grassed over. It did make me sad and although the victims of the recent Hurricanes had a far, far worse time of it than we ever did, I do know exactly what they went through afterwards…..

Genealogy

Bomb Sites, School and Rebuilding A City

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My first memory as a child born at the end of WW2 was of playing mainly in our streets and neighbouring streets.  I was still very small, but I do remember the barrage balloons still flying high in the sky, floating gently on the breeze, and we would lie on the ground and watch them. It was many years before I realised what they actually were, which was a large balloon anchored to the ground by cables and often with netting suspended from them, serving as an obstacle to low-flying enemy aircraft.

We would play among bricks wood rubble, stones large slate roof tiles and broken water pipes, at a site at the end of our street. The reason for all the rubbish was because it was a bombed site. A house, like the ones in our street, had once stood there but no more. We had adventures at those bomb sites especially with the broken water pipes. What young child can resist playing with water? Especially if you can make dams and ponds with all the available stones bricks and wood. It was a sad day when the water was eventually turned off.

We also knew not to play in a bomb site with tape around it, as that likely contained an unexploded bomb. There were parks in Plymouth, but because of the massive damage caused by bombs dropping on this Royal Naval city, these had still not been cleared of the debris and were dangerous.

When I started school, at three years of age that same rubble was negotiated as we walked over it to get to the school building and again when I was 11 and starting at the ‘big school’ – the same one my mum had gone too – there were still signs of war damage.

Shortages of everything was acute. Years later we had no books in our school. The teacher had one for each subject, which he or she would read aloud to us and then pass it around. We had paper pen and ink, but no copybooks to write on, only a sheet of paper. Later, copy books were issued when I was about 14.

The school was OK, but all the teachers were old and not very interested in anything new and certainly, they did not catch my interest but I did love History, Geography and reading. English comprehension writing and spelling were favourites too. Sums were completely beyond me, and nobody cared to go over them again if I got lost, or to take the time to explain anything. There were about 45 children in each class so on reflection, there must not have been much time to explain everything again, but just to get the lesson over with.

Re-building our country was a long time coming It was the early 1950’s before the clearing of bomb sites even began, and I grew up in the 60’s watching our city being completely razed and then rebuilt.

Years later as English social history became an interest, I was to learn about the Anglo-American Loan that helped the rebuilding of our country. ¹ ²

¹https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-American_loan

“The Anglo-American Loan Agreement was a post World War II loan made to the United Kingdom by the United States on 15 July 1946. The loan was for $3.75 billion (US$57 billion in 2015) at a low 2% interest rate; Canada loaned an additional US$1.19 billion”

By the way, these loans were eventually paid off in full, in 2006!”

²BBC NEWS | UK | UK settles WWII debts to allies

“It is hard from a modern viewpoint to appreciate the astronomical costs and economic damage caused by this conflict. In 1945, Britain badly needed money to pay for reconstruction and also to import food for a nation worn down after years of rationing.  “In a nutshell, everything we got from America in World War II was free,” says economic historian Professor Mark Harrison, of Warwick University. “The loan was really to help Britain through the consequences of post-war adjustment, rather than the war itself. This position was different from World War I, where money was lent for the war effort itself”

Below are newspaper cuttings that my Gramps saved during the war and gave to me for a project I had to write for school about our ancient city. They show Plymouth before and after the blitz and were the kind of bombed sites I played in as a child.

These two photos show Plymouth City Centre before, in 1939 and after an enemy raid in 1942.

I find the captions very interesting. The one below reads: ‘The City Centre as it was, tomorrow we intend to post a photo of the same scene as it appears today after most of the buildings have been smashed by enemy action” img_20161102_0005img_20161102_0003

Below, 1942 St. Georges Baptist Church a before and after view

george-st-baptist-church-1942

Plymouth Shops before and after the Blitz

plymouth-shops-before-and-after-raids

Credit is given for photos from ‘The Plymouth Evening Herald’ Plymouth, Devon UK.

England, Genealogy, Great Britain, Writing

Plymouth Navy Days

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by Marian Bulford

Our group or ‘gang’ never went out with the local lads. Every Saturday night we went dancing at the NAAFI and met up with the young sailors from all over the British Isles who were stationed in Devonport. The NAAFI was a huge social club ….
It was always with the young sailors stationed in Devonport, from all over the British Isles that we met every Saturday night when we all went dancing at the NAAFI – the Navy Army Air Force Institute – a social club for all the services and service families situated in the centre of Plymouth and covered a whole city block. At one end, it was a hotel for service families and the other end was a restaurant three bars and a huge dance floor.

I was an excited 16 year old, with the whole world in front of me. Plymouth Devon, in the UK was my home town.

It was a naval port and had been for centuries. Who has not heard of Sir Frances Drake, the celebrated Tudor seafarer, famous for circumnavigating the world on the Golden Hind and fighting the Spanish Armada? Or the Mayflower, the tiny ship that transported the first English Separatists, known today as the Pilgrims, from Plymouth to the New World in 1620? [1]

Most of my family on both mother and father’s side, were Royal or Merchant Navy and had lived in or around the areas for centuries the same places I lived as a teenager.

Ships of all sizes were always in and out of Devonport, the area I lived in and when a ship arrived ‘home’ there was much celebration in the local pubs and dance halls. This was my town and I loved it.

It was also a very popular summer holiday area with lovely hotels and guest houses. This area of Devon was described as the ‘Riviera of the South’ we even had our own palm trees.

This poster shows ‘Plymouth Sound’ and ‘Drake’s Island ‘ in the background, the beautiful Tinside Art Deco Lido Pool and of course, the sailors. I could have been one of those girls in the poster……

Holiday Poster

Over the last year, my 16 year old school friends and I had built up a close group of boy sailors, ‘Matelot’s’ as we called them, the young 15 to 16 year old Navy boys learning their trades as apprentices on board various ships at the Devonport Dockyard, where many of my ancestors had worked over the centuries.

NAAAFI Building, Plymouth Devon c. 1961

The Plymouth NAAFI Club

We were all very excited in 1961 because the NATO [2] fleet arrived in Plymouth!
About 15 foreign ships would be arriving and the population would swell. The local population was pleased as money would be made and our group noticed a lot of ‘strangers’ in town when the fleet arrived. Lots of ‘ladies’ from London arrived, or ‘unfortunates’ as my Gran called them, and they stood out because of their accents.

Many foreign languages were also heard in the streets of Plymouth, some I was only hearing for the first time, and we tried to communicate with some of the sailors with lots of miming laughing and hand waving.

The biggest ship in town was a United States Aircraft carrier, USS Wasp, which caused great excitement: it was as big as a small town.

But imagine our reaction on the following Saturday, when we went to our usual dance at the NAAFI and saw our very first black men in the flesh AND they were doing the twist, the dance craze at the time!

We had never seen black people before, there were none in our part of England, and especially not ones doing the twist! Boy, they were ever good! Not a patch on us or the local sailors and we could not wait to copy them. But that is another story….

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower

[2] NATO Fleet: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1952,
Greece and Turkey became members of the Alliance, joined later by West Germany.

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England, Genealogy

The Family Secret

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By Marian Bulford

My Gran told me that her mother Lilian, did not like her very much and was not very nice to her, and consequentially for some peculiar reason Lilian did not like my mother or me, either.

I remember Lilian as a very stern presence so I steered clear of her. She did live with my Gran for a time, but by the time I was a teen, she had moved to another daughter’s house to live, so I never had much contact with her.

A photo below shows the four generations myself, Gran Mum and Lilian and I do not look very happy to be in this photo!

When my mother found out she was pregnant with me, 2 years after being married, she told me that Lilian said “Well, you made your bed now you have to sleep in it” Not a very nice thing to say about becoming a Great Grandmother! I never did understand why she did not like us and what she meant by that remark but years later, I was to find out.

For a while, I lived with my Grandparents from 11 years to 14 years. They were very strict but loving and Gran and I went everywhere together, to church the church fétes and shopping trips. Gran taught me to cook and bake.

One day, Gran wanted to go and see her mother who was living in Okehampton, Devon, a train ride away from us in Plymouth.

A train ride, what a treat! I was about 14 and we lived a very quiet life. Off we went, sandwiches and tea packed for the two-hour train journey to visit great-grandmother Lilian.

After my  Gran’s meeting with her mother lunch with the cousins and visiting, it was time to go. We had the train carriage to ourselves.

‘That was a lovely day, wasn’t it Gran?’ In answer, Gran burst into tears I was astounded, my Gran crying? She never cried.

I put my arm around her and asked her ‘Gran! What is the matter are you sick?” she cried some more, blew her nose and then said “I am a bastard”

Well! You could have knocked me down with a feather. Gran NEVER swore let alone say THAT word.

Eventually, she calmed down and I asked her what she was talking about. She must have been very very upset to divulge her mother’s secret to her young grand-daughter.

Apparently, Gran wanted to be baptized in the Church of England, and needed her birth certificate and to eventually claim her Old Age Pension, she also needed this document. That was the purpose of our visit.

When Lilian heard that Gran wanted her Birth Certificate SHE burst into tears and said that she hoped she would be dead by the time her secret came out.

Then, she had to reveal the reasons why she was so upset. Lilian was by then in her late 80’s and told Gran that she had given birth to her in the Leicestershire work house, because she was an unmarried mother. When she received Gran’s birth certificate it had stamped across it, in very large letters the word ‘ILLEGITIMATE’  Lilian had ripped it up and threw it away.

Lilian had, like many before and since, become pregnant at 17. The father Thomas was a Royal Navy Cooper a master carpenter. They met and she became pregnant. My Gran told me years later, that Lilian told her that she ‘fell off the style (or kissing gate) and never got up’ When Thomas did eventually come home from sea, they married. Gran was then three years old so yes, she WAS illegitimate for a while, but the parents had married, just a little late!

This seemed to be the reason Lilian did not like my Gran very much and Lilian did show a great deal of resentment towards Gran, my mother and me.

 

The four generations

IMG_0002
Standing, left Gran. Standing right my mother Front: Marian and Great Grandmother Lilian, 1948

This article is a continuation of a previous story, called “Illegitimate”

https://genealogyensemble.com/2015/07/13/illegitimate-2/