A DAY TO REMEMBER AND REFLECT

I can’t believe that it is a year since Mum died on 22nd December 2019 - so today will be a day of remembrance for her.  Mum never spoke much about her early life, but occasionally, when she knew that I was doing more research on our Family History, she would tell me little snippets about her life.

After Mum died, I found a Certificate of Character from Ferndale Road School, amongst her papers, dated 14th April 1938, which said, “Elizabeth is a reliable girl, and is very willing and good natured.”

Mum was particularly proud of a letter, which I now have, that she had received from Lilian Preater,  who was a director of Preaters, a Ford Motor Dealership in Swindon and also the Chairman of Young Britons, a juvenile branch of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, to which Mum belonged.  However, I never heard her speak about her involvement in this organisation.  At times like this, I do wish I had spoken to her more about her young life.

In 2003, probably as a result of something she had read in the local paper, Mum had obviously written to them - something she often did - because online I found an article about her in the Wiltshire Gazette & Herald.  However, she wouldn’t have been very happy because they had spelt her surname incorrectly, and she was very particular about that!

When Mum was 14 years old and about to leave Ferndale Road School, she was going to apply for a job at Comptons, a garment factory in Swindon that made tunics, coats and hats for British Army Officers, so she asked Mrs. Preater for a reference.  I guess she thought that Mrs. Preater, in her role not only as a director of a company, but also as Chairman of the Young Britons, would have a fair bit of clout if she gave Mum a reference.  

Mrs. Preater wrote, among other things:

“I have known Betty for several years and have had good opportunities of studying her character and I would like to say that she has always been conscientious and painstaking in her work.  I have every confidence in recommending her.”

Mum got the job but when she was 17 years old in 1941, soon after World War II started, she left to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service, known as the ATS, a new women’s unit formed to free up male soldiers for the front line.  In her later years, and she was 95 when she died last year, she often mentioned friends she had in the ATS and wrote to several newspapers, in different parts of the country, trying to find these friends, but sadly never did.

She often mentioned that she “waited at table” on Officers who were stationed at Chiseldon and Wroughton, villages just outside Swindon, and was very proud of that.  

Mum was always a good cook and her cakes and pies were legendary - particularly her Lemon Meringue Pies.  As well as various certificates and letters, I also have her hand-written Cookery Book, which is so good to have - and her recipes were noted down meticulously.  I have already made her Dutch Apple Cake, which turned out well, but not quite like she used to make it!

I used this photograph of Mum and me, taken when I was about 9 or 10 years old, on Mothering Sunday this year, but wanted to use it today, as it’s the only one I have of her and me when I was younger.

On this day of remembrance, we give thanks for Mum and all she was - thinking about it now, she probably had quite a hard life in the ATS, which was why she didn’t speak about it that much, but it’s good to know she was well thought of by different people in her early life.  We miss you Mum and thank you for all you were to your family.  

“God gave us memory 
     so that we might have roses 
          in December.”
James M. Barrie