Grams

Grams was born Elsie Evans in 1900, and was one of 12 kids.  Many of her siblings died, but we are not sure who and when.  Her father's first wife died, and he married again with a widow- they ended up with a family of his, hers and theirs.  Again- we are not sure which ones they all are.

She clashed big time with her sister Edith.  But she loved Esther, Hannah, Mary, Albert and David.  The other names haven't emerged from Dad's memory banks yet.

Love the socks and shoes combination in the photo below.... Grams would be in her 20s here...

Below is her sister Mary who lived in Manchester- she was a spiritual medium.  Grams also had such skills...

Grams was the youngest of all the kids, but legend (hers, of course) has that she ran the household.  I remember her telling me about her standing on boxes to iron the old fashioned way- with a cast iron heated on the wood stove.  They make great door stops these days they are so heavy.

She left school when 12, but never stopped reading and really valued education.  She was street smart, extremely stubborn, and resolute in her opinions.  Take a look at that chin, and tell me you can't see it in her...

Dad has just come up with a great word for her: obdurate.  Sometimes these words come out of his mouth and you wonder where it came from.  The next minute he can't remember "diamond" and calls it a lump of carbon that comes out of the ground.

Photo below shows her and her chin on the right, and her sister Hannah on the left.  Playing croquet, of course!

Grams was a bit of a rebel and didn't care much for what people thought of her- here she is with a girlfriend on a motorbike.  She's wearing her "Don't mess with me!" attitude.

She worked at whatever she could- she was a private cleaner, hospital worker, barmaid.  Dad doesn't know anything about when and where she met her husband, Harry Wright.  But they had married probably in 1920, as they had their first child, Cynthia, in 1921.  Cynthia had a hole in the heart which took her life when she was around 11 years of age, and when Dad was around 1 year old in 1933.  Most likely, Harry and Elsie's relationship never recovered from that.

There are a series of these photos taken while they were on holiday in Bridlington.  She and Harry would hire a caravan by the beach and stay a week or so every year.  The dog is called Topsy, and she was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

The photo below shows them all at Bridlington on another stay.  Cynthia probably died not long after this photo was taken.  She appears to have her arm linked through his.

Grams kept all the documents from Cynthia's death- below is the burial certificate and the stonemasons' bill:

During the war Grams assembled shells in a munitions factory.  She always had 2-3 jobs on the go.  But, she really had to- Harry went off to war, and after the war abandoned her and Dad -she really did it tough.

Below is the divorce certificate with reason for divorce noted:

Grams refused to let "that strapping lad" (Dad) go down the coal mines, despite pressure from family.  It would have been an easy solution for her, and brought quick money into the household.  Instead, she supported Dad's education- Dad got a day scholarship to Castleford Grammar.

These photos were taken when Dad was around the age of 15.

Dad left England on an Orient Line boat The Orcades around 1949, as his Auntie Esther and her husband George had emigrated the year before and settled in Narrogin, Western Australia.  (I can't believe that he remembered the name of the boat!)

Here's a poster of the boat, and if you click on the link you can see the staterooms, ballrooms and other shots of the boat.  The power of Professor Google!

Esther and George had followed their daughter, Terry, who had married Mick Kendall, an Australian airman who she met during the war.  

So Dad trotted off to Narrogin with 10 shillings in his pocket to see how he liked Australia.   And discovered he liked it very much. 

Consequently, Grams packed a sea trunk and headed over to join her boy.  She travelled on the Orient Line SS Oronsay (yes- he remembered that too!)  The link shows photos of menus, staterooms etc....

Below is the identity document she was issued on her sea journey of 2 months, the second page showing that she arrived in Australia in June 1951 after leaving London in April 1951.

And that brings her to Australia.  Her sister Edith (Ada) followed soon after.