My Brothers and Sisters

 My Mum had three girls and 6 boys.

 My sister Ann was the eldest and the first to go to work. Her first job at 14 was working in a knitting needle factory, stamping "Made in England" on the needles and then highlighting the words in gold paint.

After that Mum took her to a house in Kensington for a place in service.  The Housekeeper came towards them with a large bunch of keys hanging from her belt.  Annie hoped that she would be unsuitable but was taken on as an Under‑parlour maid.

Later on after leaving this job she was out of work for sometime. With a friend who lived next door she went out looking for work. While passing the Anti‑Viv Hospital they found some papers. On opening them up they found two ten‑shilling notes.  They rushed home and gave them to Mum who was really pleased. Annie was given six pence and went to the pictures (4d) and had fish and chips (2d).

Annie was very quiet and she was married in 1929 when she was twenty-one and lived in the house next to Mum.  All three sisters married a Bill.  As we had a brother Bill there was a lot of confusion in the family.

She spent many years working for Waste Paper company near Waterloo. She had a bench overlooking the Thames and enjoyed watching the barges going backwards and forwards on the river.  During the 39‑45 war the factory was bombed and while they were in the shelters her coat and handbag were destroyed.  The company refused to pay compensation so Annie left them.  Because she did not have children she was compelled to work so she moved to Morgan Crucible making parts for planes and boats.  She stayed there for 25 years. 

During the war the church where my two sisters and I were married was hit with a land‑mine.  The whole of the surrounding area was devastated but fortunately the railway arches protected Mum and Annie's houses.

On another occasion, just as Annie and Dad were going into the street shelter, they saw the searchlights pick out a string of 50 bombs, which fell near Clapham Junction and did a terrible amount of damage. Later they were not so lucky and lost their windows and parts of the roof.

Annie married Bill Baldegger.  He was a very funny man, always telling jokes.  We got on with him very well.  After we were both married we used to stay up late at night playing cards or darts.  When they lived next door to my Mum, he used to keep chickens in the back yard.  When my children visited he would often buy grapes, which the children fed to the chickens until they became grape bound.  He was very kind to Ann and everyone else.  He was taken ill suddenly while living in Roehampton.  He was cremated at Putney Vale Cemetery, aged 73.

Next in age was my brother Joe who was a carpenter. 

Joe married Vera in 1956 when he was about 46. She was a very friendly person and everyone in the family liked her.  She had been married previously but her husband had died and she had no children.  She met Joe when they worked together.  They had just moved into their house, which they were buying when Vera was found on the floor in the kitchen on a Saturday. She was rushed to hospital.  When we visited her she took the mick out of Bill's tie, but as we were leaving she pulled herself up in bed and kept waving until we were out of sight. The next day she passed away aged 59.  She was older than Joe.

Joe was very good to his parents, so after Vera's death my parents went to live with him at Kyle Road, Clapham.

Soon after Mum and Dad died, Joe came home from work one Wednesday feeling very ill. The Doctor came and gave him some pills, and told him to go to the surgery on Monday for a check up. Unfortunately he died on Friday with perforated ulcers, aged 59 in 1969.  He was buried in a private grave with Vera at Morden Cemetery, Raynes Park  (the same cemetery as my Mum and Dad).

I was next.

Then came my younger sister, Hilda.  I could never get on with Hilda because, before I went into service, she used to pinch my clothes and I didn't have many myself. We had an argument one day as she was soaking her feet in a bowl. I threw a pair of her shoes, which had cardboard soles, in the bowl and that were that.   I didn't see much of her after she married  (about two years after me).

Next was my brother Tom; he was a civil servant; a bachelor and a very kind person who lived with Joe and my parents until they died in brother Joe's house.

My poor brother Joe died a year after my Mum; and Dad died a year before my Mum.  It was a sad three years running for us all.  As Tom couldn't afford to keep the house going by himself he came to live with me.  (More later about Tom).

Next was my brother George who died when he was about five.  He fell off the table and hurt his shoulder and was taken to the children's' hospital at Chelsea, where they found he had meningitis. George was a very pretty little boy with lovely fair hair, born to be an Angel.  He was buried at Streatham Cemetery. Mum used to send us with flowers and we had to walk all the way across Wandsworth Common, a long walk.  When we arrived back home we were very hungry for our Sunday dinner.

After George came my Brother Bob. He was very clever and won a scholarship and went to Surrey Lane Grammar School.  He went into the Air Force in the 1939‑45 War and had a rough time as he was a rear gunner and was wounded in his leg.  Then he was promoted to Flight Sergeant, and fought in the desert with Monty.  Anyway he came back just the same and he was married in his uniform. It was a very nice wedding that we went to.    Bob got on in the world and worked for a wine importer and then an Aluminium Company but is retired now with his wife.   We keep in touch always, as I am fond of him and remember how good he was to me during the war.

When he was home on leave he took me for a day out to Hampton Court.   I was carrying my second child at the time. It was a stinking hot day so we stopped and bought an ice‑cream wafer each.  Bob loosened his tie and pushed his cap to the back of his head.   We were both licking away as the ice‑cream was melting fast, when an Officer came by.  He pulled Bob up for not saluting and for being improperly dressed. So Bob pulled his tie straight, put his cap on tidily and saluted the Officer.  Seeing my bump he took pity on me and told me to see that Bob kept to regulations in future.  We made our way into the maze and had a good giggle.

Next came brother Will.  He went to the same school as Bob but didn't make much use of it. He was conscripted to the Air Force but didn't like it.  He was over six foot tall and boxed as a heavyweight.

Will used to like a pint of beer.  When he was on leave all of us would go along the canal footpath to Denham Village where there are little country pubs.  Well he got chatting up the birds and he was getting free drinks given to him all evening. Well I am afraid he had one over the eight and was blind drunk. We had to hang on to him like mad as he would certainly have fallen into the canal.  A good many times we were glad to get him in the train and home again to bed.

He also got married in uniform, and had four children. He was a butcher working in a shop. He married Doris. She was a very sweet person but suffered with her heart and had a pacemaker but to no avail.  Her last wish was to have Christmas with her children and grandchildren.  She died shortly afterwards. He is still alive, retired, goes walking everywhere.

Next was the youngest, my brother Alfred.  I didn't see much of him as he was evacuated early in the war to Havant, near Portsmouth, out of London.  He joined the Naval Cadets and went to sea very young.  He was signalman on the aircraft carrier, Ark Royal, which was on convoy duty to Russia in the 1939‑45 War.  He came home safe, married a nice girl, but they lived with her parents who interfered and they were divorced. He now has a lovely wife and two sons.  A very happy family, but unfortunately I do not see him often as he lives too far away.