Holiday Time in the 1950s - Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph shows a happy family striding along, carrying suitcases  - heading for a holiday perhaps?  Cue for me to share my family, setting out in the car for our holiday in the 1950s.  

We lived outside Blackpool, the famous English north west seaside  resort, but for our summer holiday we travelled to Bournemouth on the  south coast, where a close friend of my mother (known as Auntie Phyllis)  had moved to open a hotel. 

It was a long journey, before the days of motorways, through industrial Lancashire.  My brother and I (below) hated crossing the swing bridges over the Manchester Ship Canal at Wigan and Warrington with visions of the bridges   swinging around whilst we were on them.  We would crouch down behind my parents' seats and hide our eyes.

With my brother , c.1948 

Another journey was crossing the  hills of the Pennines through the Peak District to visit my aunt and uncle in Sheffield, passing over the Snake Pass,  or in the Lake District going over the  Kirkston Pass - we must have seemed such wimps, but we hated the twisty roads and sudden drops below us, so it seemed safer not to look out,  until we reached  safer ground.

 

A family group with my auntie Fran  in the middle - with my Uncle Fred at the camera.  

This was  long before the days of electronic games , Walkman and I Pads - I don't think we even had a car radio. To pass the time, we did the usual car games of I Spy, I went to the seaside or the market , and bought A ...B..C ...etc.. ,and making up silly sentences from the registration numbers of cars MXD - Mummy kisses Daddy  and also making up silly songs.  My father was a commercial traveller (sales rep.) for the Beecham Pharmaceutical Group and one ditty we came up with was: (I still remember it!)

There was a hermit in the hills

Living off his Beecham Pills

He ate two in the morning

And two at night

To make him feel so merry and bright.

We usually stopped somewhere for a picnic, prepared by my mother.  One notable time, she excelled herself by making chicken pieces instead of the usual sandwiches and a fruit tart - and left them all behind at home  in the pantry!   We had to stop somewhere and find a cafe for lunch. My father got the blame here, as he was always chivvering us get a move on and get away, whilst m,y mother eas seeing to everything domestic.  We returned home a week later to discover the food covered in fur! 

Like all children, the excitement of going away quickly turned to boredom and the perennial question was voiced   "Are we nearly there?"

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Once there - we enjoyed ourselves! 

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Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity 

to share their family history through photographs.

 

 

Look HERE to see more contributions 

from Sepia Saturday bloggers.

 

 

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A Grand Life in the Scottish HIghlands - Sepia Saturday

This week's  Sepia  Saturday prompt image is rather different from usual - it is of a bedroom with a four poster bed in a grand house.  Cue for me to look back at a wonderful   gift  we were given of a weekend break at Ardanaseig House Hotel, a 19th century manor house in the West Highlands of  Scotland on the banks of Loch Awe. 

 

 

This was our bedroom 

 

 

 

 Other grand rooms - 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 An atmospheric early morning view of Loch Awe

 

 

 

Getting to know the neighbors -  My husband meets Hamish and Dougal  - the "pets" at the hotel where we were staying ne

 

 

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Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity 

to share their family history through photographs.  

 

 

Look HERE to see more contibutions 

from Sepia Saturday bloggers.  

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Women in Wartime - Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday theme is "Groups" with a prompt photograph showing a group of nurses.  Cue for me to feature women in uniform  in wartime, with thanks to my local heritage group Auld Earlston in the Scottish Borders  which  holds the photographs below in its collection. 

 

 A group of VAD nurses in World War One in 'Earlston 

The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) referred to a voluntary unit providing field nursing services, mainly in hospitals.  It was   founded in 1909 with the help of the Red Cross  and  Order of St. John.  By the summer of 1914 there were over 2,500 Voluntary Aid Detachments in Britain and members eagerly offered their service to the war effort. 

 Most volunteers were of the middle and upper classes and unaccustomed to hardship and traditional hospital discipline, but for many this was an opportunity for freedom from their restricted home environment. 

VADs carried out duties that were less technical, but no less important, than trained nurses. They organised and managed local auxiliary hospitals   throughout Britain, caring for the large number of sick and wounded soldiers. As the war went on, the growing shortage of trained nurses  opened the door for VADs to work overseas.

Well known VAD's included crime writer Agatha Christie, who said  "It was one of the most rewarding professions that anyone can follow”.   Vera Brittain was most famous for writing "Testament of Youth: an autobiographical study of the years 1900–1925".   She became a VAD in 1915 and was posted to France in 1917. She lost both a brother and a fiance in the war and wrote  a  vivid, moving and poignant account of her experiences.  Well worth reading.  

 

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 Onto World War Two and nurses joining a parade in Earlston to mark War Weapons Week.  

 Voluntary organisations were  on parade, including nurses and the Home Guard.

 

 Children taking part in the fancy dress parade  - spot the little girl in a nurse's uniform.  

In 1941 War Weapons Week was held across Britain as a major national fund raising campaign to provide for the replacement of weapons,  lost in the evacuation from Dunkirk.

Each town was given a figure to raise. Earlston's target was £8000. In fact "the patriotic investors of Earlston" raised £23.006, 18 shillings and 4 pence - a phenomenal amount and equivalent to over £1 million pounds today. [Source: Measuring Worth]

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 Land Army Girls gathering in Earlston for service on local farms. 

The Women's Land Army  was a  civilian organisation,  created during the First and Second World Wars,  to recruit  women to  work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the armed forces.  At first volunteers were sought. but  numbers  were increased by conscription.   By 1944 the Women's Land Army  had over 80,000 members across Britain.   It was officially disbanded in 1949. 

 A personal account of life as a Land Girl 1944-45   is given HERE by Barbara  as part of Auld Earlston activities in gathering wartime memories. 

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Members of Earlston Girls Training Corps 

The first Girls Training Corps units were formed in 1941.with the aim  to prepare young people aged 14 to 20 (too young for official war work)   for service in their community and to support the war effort upon reaching adulthood.  

Activities included learning to act as bicycle couriers, learning morse code and airforce recognition, gymnastics, homemaking, craft-work, public affairs, land navigation, learning first aid and marksmanship,  firefighting, and assisting with air warden duties.Within a year of forming, over 120,000 girls had joined a GTC company.  

The GTS was disbanded  in 1948.  (Source:  Wikipedia) 

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Earlston women munition worker.  A member recalled being sent to college in Edinburg to learn how to operate a lathe. She said there were two shifts working seven days a week involving dozens of women.
 
Around 950,000 British women worked in munitions factories during the Second World War, making weapons like shells and bullets. Munitions work was often well-paid, but involved long hours. Workers were also at serious risk from accidents with dangerous machinery or when working with high explosive material. Some munitions workers handled toxic chemicals every day. Those who handled sulphur were nicknamed ‘Canary Girls’, because their skin and hair turned yellow from contact with the chemical. [Source: My Learning.Org ]

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Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity 

to share their family history through photographs.

 

 

Look HERE to see more contributions 

from Sepia Saturday bloggers. 

 

 

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Big Decisions - Week 8 of "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks".

We can  generally find out the "who, where, and when" about our ancestors’ lives, but the "why" remains a mystery and we can only hazard a guess as to motives when making a Big Decision - the Week 8 theme in this year's challenge "52 Ancestors in 52 Days"".  

Why was 6 year old John Robert Donaldson left behind when his parents moved 350 miles south?

 

John, my husband's great grandfather,  was born in 1854, the son of Robert Donaldson, a shipwright, and Isabella Walton of South Shields, a town on the north east coast of England, dominated by the sea and maritime activity. An obvious next step in research was to find the family in the 1861 Census, but frustratingly, in the days before online records, this proved impossible to trace. Yet all the indications were that direct Donaldson descendants had remained in South Shields down the generations.

It was only much later the opportunity to do national searches online revealed that,  by 1861 Robert and Isabella were at Portsea in Portsmouth on the south coast of England. With them were two young sons Thomas, aged 4, born South Shields and one year old Frederick W. (Walton perhaps after Isabella's maiden name?) born at Portsea, indicating a move c.1857-1860. But there was no mention of their eldest son, John who would have been 6 years old. 

How had the family travelled 350 miles from South Shields to Portsea, by rail or more likely by sea? Was work the reason, with Robert now employed at Her Majesty's Dockyard as a shipwright? But why had Robert and Isabella taken the decision to leave their first born son John behind?  Why was John not with them?    Many questions!

Back in South Shields, I returned to the 1861 census and found John's maternal grandparents, John and Hannah Walton, with the household also including their grandson "John Robert Walton" aged 6. This must be "my" John Robert Donaldson, mistakenly recorded in the census with the wrong surname. An entry in the 1871 census gave further confirmation - a John Donaldson, aged 16, born c.1855 was living at the home of his maternal uncle Robert Walton. Death records showed that John must have lost his grandparents (and his home) in 1868.

Eight year later John married Jane Elizabeth Rushton. and they had four sons - John Robert, Henry, Thomas, Frederick and one daughter Isabella. Interestingly these names echoed those of his siblings in Portsmouth. For Robert and Isabella had more children - Thomas, Fredrick, Henry, Robert, Charles, Isabella and Alfred.

The fact that John retained the name of his father and mother for his eldest son and daughter suggests that the split had been amicable. One cannot help wonder did the two families ever meet again.

Why was Maria Rawcliffe, my great grandmother, recorded on her birth certificate as  Maria,  but  in later official records, called "Martha Maria"  - on her 1877 marriage certificate, her 1881 census entry , her burial record  and my grandfather's 1897 birth certificate?    

 

This was a puzzle, as Maria's granddaughters,  who were still alive,  referred to her as Granny Maria.

Further research established that Maria's sister (the youngest of eight daughters) was christened Martha, born  20th January 1863, and died 22nd May 1863.  Maria would have only been around 4 years old, so could have had little memory of her youngest sister.  Moreover their mother had died two years later so could not have kept  the memory of baby Martha alive for her other daughters.

 

So why did Maria take the decision to adopt Martha's name?    

 

Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe (1859-1919)
with her only daughter Jennie (after 8 surviving sons) 
and granddaughter Annie Maria

Why did Maria's sister Alice Rawcliffe  and family (husband John Mason, a general labourer,  and six children under 11 years old)  emigrate  from Fleetwood, a fishing town in Lancashire to Brooklyn, New York in 1886-7.  

No Rawcliffe of Mason family had connections with the USA.  No light was shed on the decision to persuade them to take the leap into a new life in America.  

Alice and John had a further five children in New York (three dying in infancy).   My big blog success story was a descendant making contact with me and contributing  stories and photographs on the family. 

Alice and John Mason and their eight surviving children c.1920's

These questions on how the families made their big decisions remain mysteries and I may never know the answers - another factor that makes family history so absorbing a hobby. 

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oin Amy Johnson's Crow's 
 Facebook Group  "Generations Cafe." 

to read posts from other bloggers taking part in the

 "52 Ancestors" Challenge, 2026.

Valentine Cards from Flanders Field: Sepia Saturday

A loving couple, (the girl saying goodbye to her sailor boyfriend?)  features on this week's Sepia Saturday prompt.  

 As we mark Valentine's Day, I like to look back again  on the cards my grandfather William Danson (1885-1962) sent  from the Battlefields of World War One to his wife Alice, at home with their four young children in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. 

This first card below was posted  on 7th ebruary 1918,    and I like to think it was sent to Alice for Valentine’s Day.

 I never knew my grandmother who died when I was a baby.  Grandad was a taciturn countryman, who was working as a cattle man at the local auction mart when he was called up in 1916.  He was not given to flowery language, so the emotions expressed through these cards seemed out of character, but revealed his closeness to Alice.  In contrast the pencilled messages on the back were very prosaic. 

 

Field Post Office - Feb. 7th 1918    

Dear Alice, received your letter allright.  I have landed back at the Batt. and am in the pink.  I have had a letter from Jennie  [sister] and am glad they have  heard from Tom [brother].  Your loving husband, Billy   XXX.

 

 

The "In the pink" phrase seemed to be a favourite term that William used in other messages as well.

"Batt" - I take it to mean the battalion.

"Blighty" in the address was used as   a nickname for Britain, or often specifically England.  It was first used by soldiers in the Indian army in the 19th century and was popularised in the First World War.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word derives from "bilayati", a regional variant of the Urdu word " meaning "foreign", "British", "English" or "European." or "Anglo-Indian".

A "blighty wound" was a wound serious enough to  require recuperation away from the trenches, but not serious enough to kill or maim the victim - it was hoped for by many, and sometimes self-inflicted.

 

Field Post Office 29 April 1918

Dear Alice, just a line to let you know I am in the pink and hope all at home is the same. There is nothing that I want.  Will write again shortly.  Your loving Billy, xxxx.

 

My aunt thought this was a very "risque" card, and totally unlike her father!  

More cards to his children:  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

My grandmother Alice with her daughters Edith and my mother Kathleen, young Harry and baby Billy - taken 1916/ 

 

I don't know when the card below was sent, but it was in the family collection and again the love my grandparents shared shines through. 

 

Inside verse 

"Oh, Can you read the secret of my heart?

You surely must, dear wife  

 

??? of myself, you are the better part, 

Companion for my life.

The secret is, wherever you may be,  

No power on earth can change my love for thee,

Your loving Billy XXXX

William and Alice, c.1916 

 

          William and Alice, 1938 at my own parents' wedding 

 

 

 

The Danson family, c.1941 - Edith, Peggy, William & Alice, Harry and Kathleenwith son Billy, serving in he navy,  absent.  Youngest daughter Peggy was born after the First World War. 

  

Like many of those who had experienced the horrors of the First World War, Grandad would never talk about this time.  He lost two brothers  during the war - John and George. 

 The cards, kept for over  100 years stand out as a symbol of love and remain amongst my family treasures. 

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A happy ending 23 years later in 1941,   when my uncle,   William's youngest son, namesake Billy, a sailor in World War Two,  married   Louisa Cerrone.    

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 Image courtesy of Pixabay 

 

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Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity 

to share their family history through photographs.

 

 

 Look HERE to see more contributions 

from Sepia Saturday bloggers.  

 

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