Dean Schooling (General)

by downunder , Saturday, September 28, 2013, 04:06 (4076 days ago) @ Jefff

That’s brilliant - thank you so much. It’s terrific background material for us.
I recently found a Gloucestershire newspaper report of Allan T, aged 9 in 1925, going to the petty sessions for nicking coal from the colliery heaps. (I hope he didn’t get into too much trouble from his dad for getting caught since I think we can safely assume it was his dad who told him to do it). Just before the General Strike when the miners were on short time.
And what you describe about your family and the moves to London is exactly what I think happened in mine so thanks again. I’ve found one Preest girl from Lydney working in London as a chambermaid on the 1901 and 1911 census records.
Then in the 1930’s Renee, the youngest girl in William and Edith’s family, went up to London to work. When she married in January 1936 she seems to have been in service at a rather posh block of flats. And we think it was her cousin Rosie who went up to London with her. Just like your Maud and her school pal. 1935 is the most likely year Renee and Rosie went to London, based on what we know so far.
Your info about the RAF is so helpful too. Phyl’s first husband was in the army – his name is on the war memorial in Bideford, Devon. But I do indeed think that her second husband was in the RAF. I wonder if she met him in Devon after her first husband’s death.
Getting married in Hendon would make sense too. Renee and her husband had a flat there. It was where their two children were born.
Actually at first it seemed odd to me that Renee had her second child in Hendon in 1940 when she could have given birth in the FOD in more safety. But now I think it was because London was much more central for soldiers on leave and her husband might well have been on leave. He’d just been at Dunkirk with the Glosters. Travel to rural Wales would have been much more difficult than to London.
And now, you’ve got me thinking about the war-work that women did. I know that Renee did something while her children were evacuated. Very interesting.
Cheers!