..to find out loads of stuff aobut your Grandmother you never knew!


Some of her memoires were read out in church yesterday, and I'm still trying to absorb it all!

at 15 she left school and worked in Selfridges to get her hair dressing apprenticeship... cutting the hair of the moviestars of the 1930s...even saw the then prince of Wales "flirting" with Miss Simpson just off Oxford St!..

Cycling to Wimbledon to watch Jack Crawford play ( & win )

Moved to Yorkshire during the 2nd world war after my Grandfather was rescued from Dunkirk and had been discharged due to medical reasons (shell shock)

But then had to watch the German Bombers flying over them on route to Coventry

The list went on and on...

makes the limited "How you feeling today Nan...the weather's nice" conversations I used to have with her in her final years a bit lacking... RRS gone
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Last edited by awd man on Wed Apr 06 2011 10:02am. Edited 3 times in total

My Grandma passed away in January and when the speeches were made I too learned so much I never knew!

We also found out when we were clearing the house out that my grandad was one of the first SAS commandos in WWII!

It's the age old saying, you don't know what you've got until it's gone, and I miss them every day

Chin up though mate, times a good healer

I spent a large amount of time when I was really young with my grandparents and only recently realised that they never talked much about their time during the war years,something I now regret but I guess, especially for my grandad, who fought on The Somme that it was just too painful to recount.
I took my kids to the war memorial at Vimmy Ridge on the way to the Alps skiing once so that hopefully they wouldn't forget the debt we still owe them. MY2011 HSE Santorini/Ivory/Piano Black/Privacy Glass/TV .Sadly gone.
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I went to a dinner some years ago at RAF Lyneham..it was the Annual Air transport Auxiliary dinner.

The ATA was a group of civilians that during the second world war delivered aircraft from the factories to the front line and brought back broken aircraft for repair.

Sat in front of me was a little 80 year old lady, you wouldnt have given her a second glance in tescos or down the post office..just a normal little old lady.
....
She asked me what sort of aircraft I flew..so off I went..Sea King, Lynx, Jetstream, Gazelle, bulldog etc.............................

I then asked her what she had flown......I had to ask her three times she was so modest

Spitfire (all variants), Mustang (all variants, Sea Fury, Mosquito, Corsair, Wildcat, after she had recounted over 40 aircraft types I felt so so very inadequate.

And then I realised that she hadnt been formally trained to fly any of these, no 2 year flying course or 6 month conversion on each...they had a standard set of checks and just got in and flew it.....that made me feel even humbler.

You just cant tell by looking at someone. Theres a lot of great people out there with fantastic histories.

My condolonces on the loss of your Grandmother awd man.

We all owe so much to that generation and it's so sad that they get
such little respect. I work in the care industry & some of the people
that we end up caring for have had amazing lives, especially in relation
to WWII.

My own Grandmother moved from the relative safety of just outside Glasgow
to Coventry so she could "Do her bit" working in the munitions factories! Talk
about looking for trouble.... My Grandad must have had one of the shortest
careers in the Army.... He joined up with his mate and was then kicked out 6 days
later when they found out he was in a reserved occupation! He was promptly put
on a train back to the Glasgow shipyards! 10 out of 10 for effort though  2013 Discovery HSE Luxury - 3.0 SDV6 - Santorini Black
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Endjin, I was amazed to learn that a similar thing happened to my grand father on my fathers side - signed up to fight and got returned to his reserved occupation.............. he was a train driver! 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
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