Among My Souvenirs
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Among My Souvenirs Wilfred Huskisson To those who may wish to know a little of my ancestry or more than they know already of the tears and joys of my childhood and youthful pursuits. It has been said that inside everyone there is a book waiting to be written. For me it's true, so here it is. -------------------- INTRODUCTION. Much that I have written concerns my own life but inevitably includes facets in the lives of innumerable associates, friends and relatives. High in importance among the latter has to be my mother and father of whom mum was unique, ranking high as a woman, tallish, good looking, a perfect wife to my dad and mother to her children, with an almost uncanny gentleness. Although not well educated, she was of high intelligence, a superb manager of her affairs through many traumatic times. One man who needed such a woman, especially at the very time he met her was to be our dad. For many years I have come to realise that their beginnings should not be allowed to sink into the oblivion, and that is why I begin this work with a biographical outline of their early lives with those around them, information known to Ivy (my sister) and I, or gleaned from other information supplied by relatives etc. The first three chapters then, cover their story from years 1889 to 1923 (the year of my birth), thereby setting the scene for what follows. I must thank Ivy here for her considerable help to me as my memory checker, and her supply of facts I had not known but as a result have been able to add to my own recollections. The odd swear word occurs here and there, where it is known to have been spoken, it intends to indicate truthfully the colour of the language of the people, period, place and situation depicted. The exact chronology of some incidents is unknown but included in a manner that I hope makes for reasonable continuity. Also there is much you may consider irrelevant, but I wanted to record here every known item, in order to impart as true a picture of the times as possible so that you may gain a sort of 'flavour' or atmosphere surrounding the events described. These less than significant features are interspersed within the main stories in an attempt to avoid tedium as the narrative moves along. I do hope that in spite of my inadequate writing style you find the narrative reasonably enjoyable. 2 PART ONE 3 Chapter 1 MAY (Mum) Period 1889-1918 May Daisy Binks saw her first light of day on May 4th 1889 at 24m Peabody Buildings, Dufferin Street, Whitecross Street, Finsbury, London. Some (unknown) time later the family moved to 14 Woodbridge Street near there. It seems she was third or fourth to survive infancy, among a family of children which eventually numbered eleven out of a total of seventeen. The maturing eleven were Esther (Ciss) b.1884 d.1956, Elizabeth (Liz),b.?. d.1924, Christina Emily (Emmy),b.?.d.1955, May Daisy (Maisie) b.1889.d.1960, Clara,b.?.d.1932,Joseph William Ernest (Ernie) b.1894 d.1973, Charles (Charley) b.?.d.1937, Vivienne Lillian (Lilly) d.1974, Albert Herbert (Bert) b.1899.d.1916, Edith Alice (Edie) b.1901.d.1971 and Cyril Charles.b.1904.d.1973, we believe in that order. To produce seventeen children may show an appalling lack of birth control knowledge but huge families, though maybe not the rule, were nevertheless common. Their mother Emily hove from Somerset originally, we know not what brought her to London, but recall her well, a lovely cuddly lady, a picture book granny to Ivy and I. The father Joseph's origin is unknown but was a London policeman, eventually sacked for having a drink in a pub while on duty, he was caught by a colleague who could have been shopped for thieving many a time it was said. We never knew him, he died in 1919, he was held in high reverence by the entire family and refered to as "daddy", a term May used when talking about him even late in her life. Even so, he was a very strict disciplinarian whose cane was placed along the table at meal times for use on those who dared to speak unnecessarily or tried any other misdemeanor. One recipient for example was Ciss who once on breaking wind said the mandatory "Manners" quite politely but followed it with "before pigs" not realising the gravity of her insult. On leaving the force Joseph became a warehouse man. We never saw their home in Peabody Buildings (George Peabody had been a successful American business man in England who left part of his fortune for homes to be built to house London's poor, in 1865 I think). Apparently the rooms were reached by great flights of stone steps that served the numerous floors. A lavatory for several occupants being provided on the nearest landings, young Cyril or Bert if on the toilet would to every one's annoyance, keep them waiting in queues on the stairs, while loudly singing some popular song of the day until the very last note had been reached, it was the girls of course who were the main recipients of this and other harassments. 4 For example young Edie was lucky to escape serious injury when in devilment young Ernie shot her with an air gun at point blank range. It seems they were a happy family of course but like their heircontemporaries they did not have two halfpennies to rub together, and often no shoes, or at best had card-board insoles for shoes worn through. These were the years embracing lives of the monarchs Victoria and Edward VII . The local school was the Hugh Myddelton Complex (Sir Hugh Myddelton was the goldsmith who brought water by canal from Hertfordshire to London).Surprisingly, for those days, they taught French at the school, among the more usual subjects. May thought the French mistress quite a case! her remarks included "Vot ees it you av in zee mouf ? no matter eef it be a votch I vill chuck it out of zee vindow!" but her teaching could not have been at all bad, for many years later May could recite a French poem she had learned there and also sing to Ivy and I the French song `Sur le pont d'Avignon'. We suspect that she had loved poetry, as quite late in life she was able to quote much of a very long poem called "The building of St Sophia" by S. Baring Gould, this was rediscovered in recent years by Ivy in a large old book of poems which she kindly gave to me. Her embroidery was somewhat unique being exactly replicated on both sides of the cloth rather than the usual single sided method. She also liked Bible studies and could quote whole passages from it, one we especially recall her reciting to us being John 14 "Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you ---- etc,etc". On quotations her cheeky sister Ciss (real name Esther), when asked to state the Bible's shortest verse, responded with "Jesus wept----and well he might!" and another of her more punishable distortions was "There will come a time when the trumpet shall call!, not one of those penny buggers but a bloody great big un!" Once when Ciss was absent the teacher asked May "Where is Esther this morning?" May did not know to whom 'Esther' referred! she'd never heard Ciss called that before and was chastised for not responding to the question. Singing was May's great joy, and in the course of her music lessons, she was able to learn the tonic sol fa system of notation, becoming more and more proficient with it, this was to serve her in good stead musically later on. We imagine she adored school, but none of the girls could abide a certain Miss Hartley a rather cruel character by all accounts. May told us that she and Ciss encountered the woman in the distance one day, whereupon Ciss yelled out "Old mother Hartley, Old mother Hartley"! and ran off only to acquire a painful punishment by falling over heavily. 5 Few children knew what a holiday was but some of the Binks children were included to go away to Kent for a week's work hop picking which was such a change. May thoroughly enjoyed it all. In the due course of growing up, the children of London became what we call today "Streetwise". There could have been no better example of Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest. Like kids of today, scathing insults were hurled at one and other. "May Binks stinks" was typical of such hurtful retorts for example. Witness too either Ciss or May's farewell remark to Miss Hartley on leaving the school----"If I die before you do,I'll come back and bloody well haunt yer"---- Let us draw a veil over whatever Miss Hartley would have thought to reply! May, by now affectionally known as Maisy, (some called her ÿ`Maidy') continued school on certain evenings for her singing lessons and joined a choir, a vast conglomerate of singers who performed at the Crystal Palace "in long blue sashes", she was so proud of being chosen for it! Paradoxically, she had a soft, yet sonorous contralto voice of large compass and was strongly advised to be trained to go professional, an impossibly tall order without the necessary wherewithal in those days.