Family Matters 3: Maternal Grandmother
Posted 10th January 2012 at 12:05 PM by Perpetual Man
My grandmother was born in the early 1900’s, in Birmingham, and unlike my grandfather she did not come into wealth, and although not poor her family did not have much. She was one of four siblings, the youngest. Like my grandfather the set up was three girls and one boy.
Soon after she was born her father died. Although she did not talk about it much her childhood was not a good one; she was virtually brought up by her oldest sister and grandmother. She was virtually ignored by her mother, and was often left to sit on the step outside the house while her mother ‘entertained’ a succession of ‘uncles’.
Despite all this she was a very intelligent girl, to the extent that the school she attended were determined to see her go to University, stating that she would easily get a place at Cambridge or Oxford. One of my great aunts used to say that they could have secured the necessary funding, but their mother (some would say vindictively/drunkenly) said that University was no place for a woman, and that she should get her act together and find herself a husband and a suitable ladylike job.
With the outbreak of war she became a nurse and began training for the job at hand, and while she was doing this she met a young man training to be a medic.
I’ve heard a few different versions about timescale here, but whatever it was fast – some said only a week, others a few months, but then the war was on and it seemed that time was of the essence. By the time my grandfather went off to war, they were married and my grandmother was pregnant.
Soon after she was born her father died. Although she did not talk about it much her childhood was not a good one; she was virtually brought up by her oldest sister and grandmother. She was virtually ignored by her mother, and was often left to sit on the step outside the house while her mother ‘entertained’ a succession of ‘uncles’.
Despite all this she was a very intelligent girl, to the extent that the school she attended were determined to see her go to University, stating that she would easily get a place at Cambridge or Oxford. One of my great aunts used to say that they could have secured the necessary funding, but their mother (some would say vindictively/drunkenly) said that University was no place for a woman, and that she should get her act together and find herself a husband and a suitable ladylike job.
With the outbreak of war she became a nurse and began training for the job at hand, and while she was doing this she met a young man training to be a medic.
I’ve heard a few different versions about timescale here, but whatever it was fast – some said only a week, others a few months, but then the war was on and it seemed that time was of the essence. By the time my grandfather went off to war, they were married and my grandmother was pregnant.
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