Friday
some family history...
As far as i know the family goes thus... Rare sir name, either Hugonout thrown out of Holland/ Belgium in 1712ish or closely related to a manga robot suit....first reported as Wheel wrights in sussex. Way back they were Church Organ fitters till Granddad got recruited to make Mosquitoes in the war (made of ply wood and organ fitters laminated wood all the time) He fire watched on Hadley Pages roof all through the Blitz, armed with a bucket of water (for high explosive bombs) and a bucket of sand (for "fire bombs"). And worked all day in the number one target for the Luftwaffe. And still found time to build his own bungalow, which was the first residential home made of reinforced concrete (at least in the home counties) Occasionally he was plagued by architects visiting and asking how he did it....back in Victorian times my great granddad was a fine upstanding Church Organ fitter who would every night get drunk and walk home, along the Regents canal to happily knock his wife about till bed time... one day he didn't arrive home, the wife didn't report anything amiss, then the coppers found his body floating, face down, and she was "asked a few questions" but released..! Grandma on that side is almost 100 now and was a maker of fur coats and previously a Taxiderists sewing person (yes she sewed up stuffed elephants and lions for the aristocracy and some of her works are to be seen in Tring arm of the Natural History Museum)
Mums side are farm workers from way back, Granddad worked at Mentmoor Towers (bought by George Harrison and given to the Maharishi) (his relatives were Bargies and Lock Keepers on the Grand Union Canal, his great Uncle was the lock keeper at "Three Locks Tring" where there is still a pub that he would walk out of and fall in the canal every Saturday night) He was the milk boy hanging off the back of a milk tanker pulled by a team of four horses until he joined up under-age in WW1 where he said for the first time he had a full belly and under ware! Oddly posted as a cook to a cavalry regiment he trained at the infamous camp where a week latter there was a HUGE mutiny (he did say one of his mates managed to fall off a plank and stick his bayonet in a red cap..) Anyway the Cavalry got slaughtered the first action an event he viewed with some humour. After the war he went back to the farms and was a champion hedger and ditcher, then worked at GEC probably sweeping up as he couldnt wire a plug. Mum had one "flighty sister" who went with Americans in the war and wore a rabbit skin fur coat with shoulder pads, two brothers, one was in the RAF in WW2 in North Africa and kept a small album of pictures of dead Germans and became a Security guard, and one who was handicapped as he was illiterate from begin left handed and the school clouting him every time he tried to write at school....in his spare time he was a skilled gunsmith bt he worked carrying frozen food in a ware house.
As far as i know the family goes thus... Rare sir name, either Hugonout thrown out of Holland/ Belgium in 1712ish or closely related to a manga robot suit....first reported as Wheel wrights in sussex. Way back they were Church Organ fitters till Granddad got recruited to make Mosquitoes in the war (made of ply wood and organ fitters laminated wood all the time) He fire watched on Hadley Pages roof all through the Blitz, armed with a bucket of water (for high explosive bombs) and a bucket of sand (for "fire bombs"). And worked all day in the number one target for the Luftwaffe. And still found time to build his own bungalow, which was the first residential home made of reinforced concrete (at least in the home counties) Occasionally he was plagued by architects visiting and asking how he did it....back in Victorian times my great granddad was a fine upstanding Church Organ fitter who would every night get drunk and walk home, along the Regents canal to happily knock his wife about till bed time... one day he didn't arrive home, the wife didn't report anything amiss, then the coppers found his body floating, face down, and she was "asked a few questions" but released..! Grandma on that side is almost 100 now and was a maker of fur coats and previously a Taxiderists sewing person (yes she sewed up stuffed elephants and lions for the aristocracy and some of her works are to be seen in Tring arm of the Natural History Museum)
Mums side are farm workers from way back, Granddad worked at Mentmoor Towers (bought by George Harrison and given to the Maharishi) (his relatives were Bargies and Lock Keepers on the Grand Union Canal, his great Uncle was the lock keeper at "Three Locks Tring" where there is still a pub that he would walk out of and fall in the canal every Saturday night) He was the milk boy hanging off the back of a milk tanker pulled by a team of four horses until he joined up under-age in WW1 where he said for the first time he had a full belly and under ware! Oddly posted as a cook to a cavalry regiment he trained at the infamous camp where a week latter there was a HUGE mutiny (he did say one of his mates managed to fall off a plank and stick his bayonet in a red cap..) Anyway the Cavalry got slaughtered the first action an event he viewed with some humour. After the war he went back to the farms and was a champion hedger and ditcher, then worked at GEC probably sweeping up as he couldnt wire a plug. Mum had one "flighty sister" who went with Americans in the war and wore a rabbit skin fur coat with shoulder pads, two brothers, one was in the RAF in WW2 in North Africa and kept a small album of pictures of dead Germans and became a Security guard, and one who was handicapped as he was illiterate from begin left handed and the school clouting him every time he tried to write at school....in his spare time he was a skilled gunsmith bt he worked carrying frozen food in a ware house.
posted by jon | 12:41 PM
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