I was not a pretty child and this continued the whole of my life. I was always told that I was the image of my father and whilst this is true it is not something which is easy to grow up with for a girl.
As the youngest, it was accepted that I had the hand-me-downs, the put-me-downs and was allowed much more freedom than my big sister.
As the youngest, it was accepted that I had the hand-me-downs, the put-me-downs and was allowed much more freedom than my big sister.
This picture was taken in about 1948 and shows me and my grandmother, who was known to us all as Nind or Ninda. Her given name was Belinda and my big sister was apparently unable to master this so Ninda was born.
She didn't seem to mind and of her surviving six children, only two daughters living in the UK managed to produce children so I suppose she just accepted it.
I have discovered whilst researching my family tree that her name, Belinda which was very unusual when she was born in 1889 was in fact the name of her Irish grandmother, Belinda Burke.
Because of the difficulties in researching Irish records there are large gaps in the tree but I am working on it but is seems likely that the origins of both sides of this particular family are in Dublin.
I was born in this house in north Liverpool and lived there until my marriage to a rugby playing Londoner in the late sixties.
I loved living there.
My Mum was called Eileen and was the eldest of six from a loving Irish family. Her father died in a drowning accident off the coast in Liverpool in 1931 and I do not think she ever recovered from that as it was a swimming picnic and she was there when he was lost.
During my research into this I found the story reported in the Liverpool papers which was very moving as it included photographs of both Mum and Dad as well as Grandpa.
During my research into this I found the story reported in the Liverpool papers which was very moving as it included photographs of both Mum and Dad as well as Grandpa.
All her life Mum danced and sang. In her early days she was a soubrette, that is singer, dancer and acrobat and she toured with a company for a couple of years when she was about 16.
Mum and Dad met when they were both sixteen and stayed together until his untimely death at 62. A lovely, caring and gentle man I sometimes wonder how he put up with his tempestuous and short tempered wife - I suppose it must have been love!
It was a shame that I didn't listen more closely to my Dad's stories of his war. Now that I am older I am interested in family history and realise that there are huge gaps in the story of my parent's marriage and their life between December 1936 when they were wed at Liverpool Register Office and the family life which I remember, probably from about 1952.
It had to be a marriage in a Register Office as Mum came from an Irish Catholic family and my Dad from English Protestants although by the end of the war I think Dad had lost any faith which he had held but he was enormously tolerant of anyone else's beliefs.
It was a shame that I didn't listen more closely to my Dad's stories of his war. Now that I am older I am interested in family history and realise that there are huge gaps in the story of my parent's marriage and their life between December 1936 when they were wed at Liverpool Register Office and the family life which I remember, probably from about 1952.
It had to be a marriage in a Register Office as Mum came from an Irish Catholic family and my Dad from English Protestants although by the end of the war I think Dad had lost any faith which he had held but he was enormously tolerant of anyone else's beliefs.
My elder sister was born in the war and was always the pretty one. Here she is in a studio portrait in 1945 with Mum.
This was us in December 1947, again in a studio portrait.
During the process of tracing our family tree, big Sis has obtained Dad's Army record which, although not as yet complete, has already given us an insight into his service in the Second World War. It seems that he was a bombardier in the Reconnaissance Unit, Special Operations in the Royal Artillery and he rose through the ranks fairly quickly. By the time of big Sis's arrival, he already had three stripes although, as the RA has different ranks we are not quite sure what this means.
We do know that he was with the Liverpool Scottish Regiment who were part of the British troops who relieved the Belsen camp in April 1945 and it is hard to imagine what horrors he witnessed there; most certainly this was one part of his war which he never talked about and it is hardly surprising.
We do know that he was with the Liverpool Scottish Regiment who were part of the British troops who relieved the Belsen camp in April 1945 and it is hard to imagine what horrors he witnessed there; most certainly this was one part of his war which he never talked about and it is hardly surprising.
Here Dad is obviously on leave wearing three stripes with baby big Sis in about 1942
