Women’s History Month: Jenny tells the story of her maternal grandmother Betty.
To celebrate Women’s History Month, we’ve asked members of the SAY team to tell us the stories of female family members with incredible stories and how they have influenced their lives. In our latest article, Jenny tells the story of her maternal grandmother Betty.
My maternal grandmother, Betty was born in 1919 and was in her twenties during the second world war. She lived in the East End of London during the Blitz and witnessed many harrowing bombings. She worked for PLUTO, which was top secret (it was all building up to D Day) and she never spoke of it. But she also had a job as an Inspector of Shadow Factories, where she went to check on the women working to make aircraft parts and weapons as most of the men were abroad at war. Part of her role was to raise morale among the workforce, even including typists by telling them what a great job they were doing for the war effort, just as good as being in the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) or the WAAFs (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) as they kept things going. Her work took her to different parts of the country, including Coventry – the day before it was destroyed by bombs. She was to have stayed but something prompted her at the last minute to go home. She only made the last train by hitching a ride from a fire engine.
Her father died when she was 8 and her mother just couldn’t cope so she did a great deal to help and to bring up her younger sister (5) who was very sickly and her brother who was only 18 months old. Her mother remarried but sadly her stepfather was very cruel and used to hit Betty. She wasn’t allowed to do homework or to read so she had to hide with a book and a torch under the blankets. She was offered a scholarship to Lille University in France because she was so talented at French but her stepfather made her go out to work instead.
She was very musical and taught the piano as well as loving what was called ‘old time dancing’ when she danced with Sydney Thompson who was a well known dancer and band leader and she also danced as a professional dancer on television for a precursor of Strictly Come Dancing. And we still have many of the paintings that she did as she was also very artistic.
Betty was also a great entertainer and cook and she and my Grandfather hosted many parties. I recently had asked my Mum for Betty’s famous coronation chicken recipe and was a little shocked to find out that the first ingredient was 6 chickens because she’d always made it for large gatherings.
The loss of her father so young and her treatment at the hands of her stepfather made her very resilient and determined to succeed. But she was also very kind and thoughtful. She died when I was only 6 but I do remember her lovely smile.
I cannot believe the things that my Grandmother lived through and still managed to make such a success of her life. When I compare her life to mine I think I have been so lucky to have so many opportunities given to me.
Comments are closed.