Mary Harris - Le Lievre nee Dray.

Children:  Edith, Ernest, Millie, Jack, Sidney, Reg.

My grandmother, Nanny to all of my generation, came from Sevington, a village south east of Ashford. The Dray family belonged to the Ashford area and the men were mostly farm workers. Great Grandfather was a farm foreman in charge of horses.  My mother said that her grandparents were hardworking, pious and very kind. She loved them dearly.

Mary went into domestic ‘service’ at 12. When and where she married Harris, Christian name unknown, I do not know. His occupation is given as Marine. Whether that meant Royal Marine or simply a sailor is uncertain. He died when Mother was 2 and she had no recollection of him.

My mother was born at East Peckham,  Kent but when she was small the family moved to Southborough, Tunbridge Wells.

It was at Southborough that Nanny married again this time to a tailor called Le Lievre from Jersey.  He was crippled from a childhood accident that was not treated properly.  I think he was considerably older than his wife and died when his two youngest children were still at school.

His children hated him, I never heard a good word said in his favour. “Sarcastic, spiteful, destructive, a beast” was Aunt Millie’s description of him to me.  All the children left home as soon as they started work and never returned until he was dead.

Why Nanny, a warm, generous, friendly woman married him is a mystery. It was probably poverty. She had two small children to bring up and no real income. At that time there was no Widows Pension and no social service security to help those in need.

Aunt Mill was born in Southborough but when she was young the family moved to 11, Cecil Road, Redhill. Jack, Sid and Reg were born there. I was and so was your father.

Nanny was a much loved mother and grandmother, she died of cancer at our home in Dartford and is buried in Dartford Cemetery.

THE CHILDREN OF MARY

Edith Hilda Harris (Keeler)

As the eldest child, and a girl, my mother was made deputy guardian to her brother and all her step sibblings.  She was never allowed to go and play with girls of her own age or allowed to read at home. She had a hard upbringing that bordered on slavery.

At school she was a clever, bookish girl.  The headmistress wanted her to sit for a scholarship for the local grammer school and even came round to press her case to Mother’s step father. It was refused.  No doubt for many good reasons but the one that hurt Mother most was to hear her own mother saying “she wasn’t going to have her daughter educated above her station”. It was this remark, a view commonly held at the time, made my mother resolve that should she ever have children they would have every chance available to further their education.

She was as good as her word.

Mother left school and home at 14 to go into service.  Contact with her mother was by letter c/o The Bicknells, two sisters who lived at 7, Cecil Road.  Letters sent direct to her mother would have been torn up by step father.  Arrangements were made for mother and daughter to meet at another neighbours house that was out of sight of No 11 where step father worked.  The conspiracy was known to all the neighbours, and to her step father, but he was powerless to interfere.

From the age of 14 to her late teens she worked in domestic service which she disliked.  It was hard work, long hours, poor pay and, worst of all, no mental stimulation. Her real ambition was to be a nurse but that required a secondary education and money for the uniform - it was quite out of the question. However some time in her late teens she heard that if you went into mental nursing, where there was a nursing shortage, the conditions for entry were not so rigid.

She applied to Netherne Hospital, Coulsdon, Surrey, passed the entrance exam and became a student nurse.  (There is a photo of her in the evelope).

Whilst she was at Netherne her mentor was someone I knew as Nurse Shaw, a ward sister. (There are several pictures of her in the collection). Nurse Shaw stayed on at Netherne until she retired.  They kept in touch until Nurse Shaw died.

After she had trained as a mental nurse Mother discovered she could get into general nursing by becoming a midwife through a Nursing association. They paid for the training plus wages of £10 rising to £15 A YEAR (!) over three years. After qualifying you worked for the Association for two years. To accept such onerous conditions showed just how determined Mother was to achieve her ambition. Training was in Derby and she qualified in 1919 as a midwife. By this time her brother had returned from Galipoli and he lent her money so that she could buy herself out of the Association and return to Surrey.

At that time babies were customarily born at home, not in hospital.  If the family was middle class the midwife moved in for two or three weeks to look after the mother and baby. Midwives were self-employed and worked through a doctor’s practice.  Very often the midwife and the family kept in touch for many years and sometimes they became close friends. Such a family were the Tickners where I spent many a summer holiday. I came between their two boys’; Paul and David. Paul was killed in Burma.

I don’t know when Mother’s step father died but he must have gone by 1918 because brother Ernest came home on leave and brought a shipmate - one George Keeler.

This young man was, according to my mother, a great hit with everyone.  She was bowled over, completely captivated and by the time he left, hopelessly in love, George was similarly attracted.  The courtship must have been very difficult; George was often at sea and leave was scarce.  They married on July 30^th 1921 at Redhill.

My mother had a good voice and sang in the Church choir until her mid eighties.  She also had a very good memory for poetry which I loved listening to when a child. I would say she was a very fair minded person at most times but should some one offend she could be tenaciously immovable in her dislike.

Her religious views were simple and unalterable, it was a solid, rock-strong foundation of her life.

For someone who was brought up in abject poverty she rose above such petty constrictions and behaved, as she was, a lady.

ERNEST , or ‘Gus’ HARRIS married Florence Turk

Three sons: Jack, Brian and Roy

To get away from his step father.  Ern’ advanced his age by one year and joined the Navy as a Boy Seaman on the training ship, HMS Ganges.  A hard ship.

When Father and Ern’ became chums I do not know but they served together on HMS Lord Nelson in the Dardanelles.  As he introduced my father and mother it was Mother who introduced Floss Turk of Egerton, Kent to Ern’ and they got married.

As Mother was obsessed by her nursing career her brother had similar feelings about the Navy. When it came time for him to retire the depression was at its worst. He had several very badly paid jobs and then went back into the Navy on an annual basis which lasted for another 20 odd years.  He never really left Chatham Barracks.  He was the oldest and longest serving Chief Gunners Mate in the Navy. When he left he was awarded the MBE.

He had a marked personality and strong, parade ground voice. He lacked reticence, conversationally was self-assertive and sometimes boastful.  He was nevertheless kind, helpful and respected.

MILLIE the first Le Lievre child. Married Bill Gunner

One son: Maurice

Ten years younger than my mother she followed her older sister to Netherne.  She effortlessly passed any exam but was almost without any ambition.  It is doubtful that she would have even considered nursing as a career if it was not for Edith.

She married Bill Gunner, painter and glazier, at Netherne and the pair were consistent prizewinners at the Netherne Horticultural Society’s exhibition.  Bill was a good gardener and Mill a fine cook, needle woman and flower arranger.

Bill died early in the early 50’s so Mill returned to work organising the hospital linen.  She later helped out at an old peoples home when she was as old as some of the inmates.

She was about 90 when she died.

JACK married Vi

One son: Peter

He was the most go ahead, ambitious Le Lievre. His working life was spent on the railway starting at Redhill as a signal boy.  Railway work was permanent but badly paid and with slow promotion.  Jack slowly climbed the ladder until 1940 when the bombing of London started the railway track was a principle target and it gave Jack the opportunity he needed: he was the right man at the right place at the right time

Several promotions followed one after another and he finished as a Track and Signal Inspector - a key figure in keeping trains on the move.

He was also a Captain in the Home Guard.

After the war he was made Station Master at Brighton & Hove one of the railways ‘Top Hat’ positions - he wore full morning dress for Royal and ceremonial occasions. His area was extensive and his work force numbered some 500 men.

When the railways began the first of their numerous reorganisations he retired early. Jack was very proud of his 1^st class pass which gave him free travel anywhere in the UK, and I think Europe.  He was very active in St John’s Ambulance Brigade as an area commander. He had a very good baritone voice and used to sing at local events.

I think he was perhaps rather vain about his accomplishments but he deserved a lot of praise.

SID

In someways like Mill he could do most things without too much inconvenience to himself but didn’t bother.

He was an electrician by trade and for most of his life was self-employed which was a great mistake. He couldn’t, or wouldn’t, get up in the morning. His laziness used to drive the family mad. All the time my grandmother was well he got fed and his clothes washed but gave little in return. When she fell ill and came to live with us he tried looking after himself, with disastrous results.  He got an ulcer and was seriously ill. It was then he got a housekeeper and started to earn some money.  The housekeeper and he got married and had three children.  I think that it was Greta, his wife, who provided most of the money. She was exceptionally hard working.  They made a strange couple.

He was awkward, moody and lazy but when I was small he was a wonderful Uncle to me and I remember him with great affection.

REG married Ella

Two children:  Derek and Jill

He was the one I know least of all and didn’t really understand.

Until war started he worked in the boot and shoe trade and was a shop manager. He went in the army and when demobbed joined the civil service.

He did quite well but when he was sent to somewhere in Shropshire he gave up his position to get down south again.

I think he was an unhappy man who never quite got his life settled as he wanted.

He could be very witty and I suspect just as bright as the rest of the family but there was something missing.  I don’t know what it was.

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