Auntie Gertie and Mother (Topsie)

Here is Lorna’s mother Topsie (right) in later life, with her sister (and Lorna’s aunt) Gertie. Gertie was the eldest of seven children born to Lorna’s maternal grandparents. They were:

1. Gertrude born 1870
2. Ada born 1871
3. Robert born 1872
4. Alice (Topsie) born 1876 - Lorna's mother
5. Beatrice born 1878
6. Cecil born 1880
7. Beaumont born 1886

Their father had four more sons and a daughter with two different women, one a mistress and the other his second wife (see the blip of 4th April 2020):

8. Claud born 1907
9. Eric born 1909
10. Philip born 1910
11. Rupert born 1915
12. Mary born 1919

Gertie, her husband Fred (Alfred), and her grand-daughter Beryl (aged 12 in 1940) will feature later in Lorna's war diary on July 2nd 1940, and December 2nd 1940.