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curiouswombatI had the most unexpected conversation with my mother on Saturday – it is suddenly as if she is not the person I thought I knew – although not in a nasty way.
I suppose that because I’ve known her all my life, I tend to forget that I haven’t known her all her life – and that she might have done things of which I was unaware.
I must have had conversations with her so many times in the past, when we have discussed how far-travelled so many of the older generation of Manx people are, not just those who emigrated, but those you meet here, too. There was the elderly lady who had travelled across Canada by train in the early 1920s, or my great aunt who circumnavigated the globe four or five times after the age of 60.
Yet never has my mother mentioned travelling herself. When she went on holiday to Germany with my sister and brother-in-law 25 years ago she applied for her ‘first and only’ passport. She said so!
Then, today, when her arthritis and gout were making walking difficult, she was saying she really didn’t mind that she didn’t get far from home these days; the only thing she wishes she had done was go back to Kenya to see how it had changed.
Kenya? Pardon?
Oh, yes, she said, she had travelled to Kenya with her great-uncle Charlie, an officer in the Kenyan police force back in colonial days, after he had been home on his three-yearly furlough, in 1938!
Uncle Charlie Christian was quite a character – Mum has quite a few pictures of him, I have one.
Here he is on the right-hand side of a family group -
That must have been taken about 1920, my great aunts are still in their FANY uniforms, but my uncle Eric (born in 1917) looks at least three. (By the way, anyone who remembers my post where I thought I might have seen my Aunt Emily on TV - she is the one on the left in uniform - her sister Eleanor is on the right - hmm - could the person on the TV clip actually be her?)
Here is Charles Augustus Christian -
He was the illegitimate son of my great-grandmother’s sister; she died, probably of puerperal fever by the description handed down, and when my great-grandmother got married she took him with her and brought him up as an older sibling to her own four.
He was in the British army for years, in the cavalry. My mother says he was the first Manxman to be injured in WW1 – he was shot through the leg and then the bullet killed his horse – or so she has been told. When he left the army he went to Kenya and became an officer in the colonial police force – Mum has pictures of him organising a tug-of-war, I remember. She also has a tobacco jar made from a rhino’s foot – he shot the rhino himself.
He came home every three years on furlough, and always stayed with my grandparents, where he was like some sort of fairy-godfather figure to my mother.
In early1938 he suggested that he take this 11year old niece back with him – he was due to retire in 1940 and so would be returning home for good then – two years in Africa would be a wonderful opportunity for her which her parents wouldn’t ever be able to provide themselves.
Mum says ‘he could be very persuasive’ – she thinks her parents weren’t really all that keen, but thought he had a point. So she was added onto his passport, had new clothes made/bought, and set off by sea. She thinks they sailed from Tilbury, as she thinks they went to London.
The sea trip was just long, mainly she saw water, sometimes they stopped at ports but usually they stayed on the ship, although they got off a couple of times, she thinks possibly in Accra and Cape Town. She made friends with another family also going out to Kenya on the same vessel, and can remember playing with them on the ship.
Eventually they disembarked at Mombasa, said goodbye to her new friends, and went by train to Nairobi where they were met by some of Uncle Charlie’s ‘boys’ – native policemen. They travelled by ox cart to ‘somewhere with lots of bungalows’ – she thinks, looking back, that it was probably a police compound. Her abiding memory is that almost every bungalow was surrounded in roses! The ‘boys’ lived in a barracks nearby.
She said that, to be honest, she didn’t see much outside the compound, because Uncle Charlie was mainly working – and then, before he took her ‘up country’ or anything else, ‘There was Neville Chamberlain with his bit of paper, and whether there were telegrams, or just letters, it was quickly decided that it would be a good idea to send me home.’
Uncle Charlie sent her back with another family who were bringing children home. But she had no passport. So she remembers lots of bits of paper with official looking headings and things, and a lot of ‘discussions’ at Mombasa before she was allowed on the ship; and not getting off this time until she got to Southampton.
She says she realised her parents must have really wanted her back as her father actually took three days off work to sail from home to Liverpool, travel to Southampton by a series of trains, collect her, and do the trip in reverse. Apparently he never took time off work!
So during 1938 she did the round trip from England to Kenya and back, by sea, and her main memory of the whole thing is ‘lots of sea; and roses.’
By the time Uncle Charlie did retire the war had started. Only essential people could travel easily, and he decided to stay and make himself useful in Mombasa managing some sort of official ‘troops and navy’ comforts place. He caught a fever and died. He never did get to retire back to the island.
‘Probably,’ my Mum said, ‘it’s a good thing he sent me home. Otherwise I would have been all alone in Africa at the age of 13 or 14.’
I still find it weird that she did that, and yet it had never cropped up before in conversation! I asked my sister on Sunday if she knew, and she said "Kenya? Pardon?"....
I suppose that because I’ve known her all my life, I tend to forget that I haven’t known her all her life – and that she might have done things of which I was unaware.
I must have had conversations with her so many times in the past, when we have discussed how far-travelled so many of the older generation of Manx people are, not just those who emigrated, but those you meet here, too. There was the elderly lady who had travelled across Canada by train in the early 1920s, or my great aunt who circumnavigated the globe four or five times after the age of 60.
Yet never has my mother mentioned travelling herself. When she went on holiday to Germany with my sister and brother-in-law 25 years ago she applied for her ‘first and only’ passport. She said so!
Then, today, when her arthritis and gout were making walking difficult, she was saying she really didn’t mind that she didn’t get far from home these days; the only thing she wishes she had done was go back to Kenya to see how it had changed.
Kenya? Pardon?
Oh, yes, she said, she had travelled to Kenya with her great-uncle Charlie, an officer in the Kenyan police force back in colonial days, after he had been home on his three-yearly furlough, in 1938!
Uncle Charlie Christian was quite a character – Mum has quite a few pictures of him, I have one.
Here he is on the right-hand side of a family group -
That must have been taken about 1920, my great aunts are still in their FANY uniforms, but my uncle Eric (born in 1917) looks at least three. (By the way, anyone who remembers my post where I thought I might have seen my Aunt Emily on TV - she is the one on the left in uniform - her sister Eleanor is on the right - hmm - could the person on the TV clip actually be her?)
Here is Charles Augustus Christian -
He was the illegitimate son of my great-grandmother’s sister; she died, probably of puerperal fever by the description handed down, and when my great-grandmother got married she took him with her and brought him up as an older sibling to her own four.
He was in the British army for years, in the cavalry. My mother says he was the first Manxman to be injured in WW1 – he was shot through the leg and then the bullet killed his horse – or so she has been told. When he left the army he went to Kenya and became an officer in the colonial police force – Mum has pictures of him organising a tug-of-war, I remember. She also has a tobacco jar made from a rhino’s foot – he shot the rhino himself.
He came home every three years on furlough, and always stayed with my grandparents, where he was like some sort of fairy-godfather figure to my mother.
In early1938 he suggested that he take this 11year old niece back with him – he was due to retire in 1940 and so would be returning home for good then – two years in Africa would be a wonderful opportunity for her which her parents wouldn’t ever be able to provide themselves.
Mum says ‘he could be very persuasive’ – she thinks her parents weren’t really all that keen, but thought he had a point. So she was added onto his passport, had new clothes made/bought, and set off by sea. She thinks they sailed from Tilbury, as she thinks they went to London.
The sea trip was just long, mainly she saw water, sometimes they stopped at ports but usually they stayed on the ship, although they got off a couple of times, she thinks possibly in Accra and Cape Town. She made friends with another family also going out to Kenya on the same vessel, and can remember playing with them on the ship.
Eventually they disembarked at Mombasa, said goodbye to her new friends, and went by train to Nairobi where they were met by some of Uncle Charlie’s ‘boys’ – native policemen. They travelled by ox cart to ‘somewhere with lots of bungalows’ – she thinks, looking back, that it was probably a police compound. Her abiding memory is that almost every bungalow was surrounded in roses! The ‘boys’ lived in a barracks nearby.
She said that, to be honest, she didn’t see much outside the compound, because Uncle Charlie was mainly working – and then, before he took her ‘up country’ or anything else, ‘There was Neville Chamberlain with his bit of paper, and whether there were telegrams, or just letters, it was quickly decided that it would be a good idea to send me home.’
Uncle Charlie sent her back with another family who were bringing children home. But she had no passport. So she remembers lots of bits of paper with official looking headings and things, and a lot of ‘discussions’ at Mombasa before she was allowed on the ship; and not getting off this time until she got to Southampton.
She says she realised her parents must have really wanted her back as her father actually took three days off work to sail from home to Liverpool, travel to Southampton by a series of trains, collect her, and do the trip in reverse. Apparently he never took time off work!
So during 1938 she did the round trip from England to Kenya and back, by sea, and her main memory of the whole thing is ‘lots of sea; and roses.’
By the time Uncle Charlie did retire the war had started. Only essential people could travel easily, and he decided to stay and make himself useful in Mombasa managing some sort of official ‘troops and navy’ comforts place. He caught a fever and died. He never did get to retire back to the island.
‘Probably,’ my Mum said, ‘it’s a good thing he sent me home. Otherwise I would have been all alone in Africa at the age of 13 or 14.’
I still find it weird that she did that, and yet it had never cropped up before in conversation! I asked my sister on Sunday if she knew, and she said "Kenya? Pardon?"....
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no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 07:19 pm (UTC)It's great to know of life during the first half of last century. And, I love those pictures.
Wonder what my parents will spring on me - although I don't think Kenya is on the horizon!
no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 07:40 pm (UTC)I thin it is well worth while sitting and getting our parents to simply talk about their childhood - so many amazing things come to light.
no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 07:42 pm (UTC)There were more tales about Uncle Charlie Christian too, once she got started, I must write some of those down sometime, too.
no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 07:54 pm (UTC)What a fascinating family you have!
What an extraordinary surprise!
I'm so glad that this bit of family history will not be lost to history!
no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 08:26 pm (UTC)There were 3 or 4 (I can't remember) scrapbooks with old,old photos of his parent's families. Some of them have names written on the back, some don't. That's a sadness.
I remember looking at some of the albums when we went to visit before The Princelings were born. HL plans to scan them all into the computer. I love old pictures.
no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 09:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 08:32 pm (UTC)We didn't find out until after his death that my grandfather (who was I think 15 years older than my grandmother) had been married before. It came a quite a surprise. Divorce was much less common in those days, and no one talked about it. His family never really approved.
But what an intriguing story. I wonder why your mom never never told you guys? It's interesting and not at all scandalous!
no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 09:07 pm (UTC)Still weirds me out though!
no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 08:47 pm (UTC)D on Skye
no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 08:47 pm (UTC)I still have grandparents around, so I try to chat with them about their younger lives whenever I visit. I had an amazing time talking with
no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 09:13 pm (UTC)Families have the power to surprise us
no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 09:19 pm (UTC)My Mother had an Uncle Charlie who was quite the adventurer as well, must be a "Charlie" thing.
no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 09:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 11:43 pm (UTC)Fascinating. I'm glad she told you all this - such family history can fade away and vanish all too easily.
no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 07:45 am (UTC)When you look at all the females in the picture you can see that there must be a lot of dominant genes there... there is a likeness all down the generations - Eleanor-Jemima is quite clearly related to me, my sister, my nieces and, as you say, D-d at that age looked very like Aunty Lily.
no subject
Date: 11/05/2010 11:53 pm (UTC)She was a fashion model for a court dressmaker in the 20's, which included visits to show the clothes at Buckingham Palace. She had also appeared in a few early films, was an advertising model - for Silverkrin shampoo and was 'the face' of some brand of cigarettes, and been a showgirl at a famous London club (thats name escapes me at the minute) then she married her bosses son at the fashion house... and from there I believe they drank and danced the family fortune away!
I never did get to untangle all her tales so I wish now I'd taped them - for instance she met both Edward VIII and George VI when they were unmarried princes and 'lads on the town'. And during WWII, she and her husband owned a private drinking club in central London where Battle of Britain pilots would come for an evening and end up spending the night/weekend leave sleeping on the floor.
Such a lot of social history lost because I didn't have the patience to listen to her.
no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 07:52 am (UTC)I think taping would make my mother self-conscious of her post-stroke speech - but when she does start any conversation that leads to 'I remember when...' I encourage and then write down when I get home. My daughter is also a fascinated listener when she is there, and asks the right questions, even when the conversation is tending to 'it was all good clean fun in my day, not like today's young people...'
Of course that was attached to the story of how her friend Marjory had somehow managed to lose her camiknickers in the company of a couple of young airmen one night...!!
no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 12:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 12:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 12:37 am (UTC)When I was still homeschooling and teaching middle school history, I assigned my kids to interview the oldest surviving member of their immediate family about their lives. If they didn't have anyone at home they could use a family friend or even an elderly neighbor. It was absolutely fascinating what they came back with.
no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 12:28 pm (UTC)There is a whole project ongoing, here on the island, where the school children interview over 70s - The Tell Me Project (http://www.gov.im/lib/news/education/tellmeprojectboo.xml).
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Date: 12/05/2010 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 01:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 12:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 12:33 pm (UTC)But it did come as a total shock that Mum had been that far from home as a child!
no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 04:38 am (UTC)It is so strange how mothers can always surprise us with things we didn't know and would never have guessed.
I share:
The S.O. is always complains about what he considers to be my "bisexual" tendencies. What he really means is that I've never hesitated to say when I find a person to be physically and/or mentally (and it's the latter that's the turn on) attractive regardless of their gender. The day my mother went into the hospital with respiratory distress and congestive heart failure before coming back out to come home to pass, she and I were in the Emergency Department. The S.O. finagled his way in (I think he told him he was a doctor and his mother-in-law was dying, which was technically accurate on most points) and we all three sat listening to a young female resident explain what we could expect. My mother, bless her, didn't care --- she just wanted to go home. Nevertheless, she listened in rapt attention to the resident, then turned to me when we were asked if we had questions and said "Mi piace cuesta. E bella." Which means, appropo of nothing that was happening, "I like this one. She's pretty." Elgar looked at me, laughed and said "I guess the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree after all."
This is not a story I can tell my sister or my brothers, but I felt it is was something to share.
You never know everything about your mother. One day Daughter-Dearest will be saying the same thing.
no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 12:36 pm (UTC)We quite often get my Mum to talk about things when she was a child, or things she remembers her own parents telling her; I think that is why this was such a surprise, as I thought I knew quite a lot about her!
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Date: 12/05/2010 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 05:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 12:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 05:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 12:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 09:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 12:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/05/2010 09:22 pm (UTC)