Alice Andrews (nee Gane) and my father Donald
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Andrews Family
Elaine Smith Photos courtesy the Andrews family June 2022 My father Donald (Don) S Andrews was born in Box at 8 Barn Piece in 1932. In 1939 he was the youngest child living there with his mother Alice Andrews (3 September 1903-1941), his sister Gwendoline EA (1925-2017) and his twin brothers James and Peter John (born 1 March 1929). His sister Gwendoline was working as a Glove-Maker aged just 14 and all the younger children were at school. The houses at Barn Piece had been built by Wiltshire County Council in 1931, part of a government initiative to provide modern local authority accommodation for those who couldn’t afford to buy or rent a private property. The houses were built on the site of an exhausted quarry and were greatly in demand, requiring tenants to have a good track record of timely rental payments and offered to those in overcrowded accommodation. My grandparents weren’t the first tenants but they were admitted as replacement occupants as their young family grew up and needed more space. |
My Grandparents
My grandfather, James Arthur Andrews, was in the RAF during both the First and Second World Wars. He was really too young to enlist in the Great War but joined the RAF in July 1918, aged 17 years 10 months. He described his previous occupation as Wineman (unknown meaning) and gave his next of kin as his father James John Andrews, once a butler but later a house painter. The family were living at 62 Lorne Road, Bath and had previously lived at various tenanted houses at Larkhall, Bath. James Arthur served three years in the RAF until demobbed in 1920 and transferred to the RAF reserves. In the difficult times between the wars, he just about found employment as a shop assistant whilst living at Prospect, Kingsdown. Despite having four small children, he enlisted again in June 1938 as the Second World War approached.
My grandfather, James Arthur Andrews, was in the RAF during both the First and Second World Wars. He was really too young to enlist in the Great War but joined the RAF in July 1918, aged 17 years 10 months. He described his previous occupation as Wineman (unknown meaning) and gave his next of kin as his father James John Andrews, once a butler but later a house painter. The family were living at 62 Lorne Road, Bath and had previously lived at various tenanted houses at Larkhall, Bath. James Arthur served three years in the RAF until demobbed in 1920 and transferred to the RAF reserves. In the difficult times between the wars, he just about found employment as a shop assistant whilst living at Prospect, Kingsdown. Despite having four small children, he enlisted again in June 1938 as the Second World War approached.
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Above: My grandfather James Arthur Andrews in the Great War and World War II
In 1939 the children were being cared for by their mother Alice but she passed away when my father was 8-years-old in 1941. With their father away at war, the younger children went to the care of their older sister, my auntie Gwendoline. Gwen met Francis (Frank) Kay during the early years of the war at the RAF station in Ashley, at which time she was working at the Neston Glove Factory, which once stood at the corner of Rough Street. They married in 1945 at the close of the war and my grandfather remarried in August 1945 to Marion Macdonald. My grandfather and step-grandmother lived at Barn Piece until Marion died in 1975 and my grandfather in February 1976. The family connection with Barn Piece, Box was lost at this time.
Family History Background
Family History Background
Front Row: Albert and Alice Gane (my maternal great grandparents) with my grandmother Alice who lived at Prospect in the 1910s. Back Row: Their eldest daughter Rosina and her husband Joseph W Cale
A little back story on my grandmother Alice. Her father was the brother of Anne Gane, the wife of James Woodward, who went on to have six children. The youngest of these was Thomas John Woodward who married Freda Jones and had a son, Thomas J Woodward, better known as Sir Tom Jones.
Unfortunately, I have not met him but my aunt Audrey tells of Sir Tom visiting them with his mother and playing with local children, confirmed by my uncle Jim.[1]
Unfortunately, I have not met him but my aunt Audrey tells of Sir Tom visiting them with his mother and playing with local children, confirmed by my uncle Jim.[1]
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Above Left: John holding Chris at Barn Piece and Above Right: Gwen with Val and Chris
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Growing up at Barn Piece My dad Donald spent all his childhood in Box with his twin brothers, Jim and John. They didn’t have much money and Christmas was a sparse affair with a matchbox toy if he was very lucky. Otherwise, it might be a toy made from a cotton reel or maybe a new pair of socks. Dad always had the hand-me-downs from his older brothers - shorts and shirts that had been patched up, darned socks, shoes that didn’t quite fit! The children would make their own amusement and he once spoke of playing frisbee (so to speak) with dry cowpats! In 1950 he was fined 5 shillings in the company of his friend David Wickings when both were caught riding on the same bicycle at the same time.[2] Dad often spoke about the big Shire horses in the fields working the farm land in the 1930s and 40s. He also mentioned watching the trains as they rocketed out of Box Tunnel and when he played in the caves in the Box Hill. Left: Alice at Barn Piece in about 1934 with children left to right John, Gwen, Donald (on Alice's knee) and Jim |
When dad left school, he worked in a Price’s tennis ball factory at the foot of Barn Piece. Now I’m not sure how much he may have embellished the story but, apparently, they had a tumbler machine to fluff up the tennis balls. Being the new boy, one day the lads chucked him in as well and turned it on to give him a bit of a tumble around!
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Above: Mill Lane Railway Halt as my father knew it in the 1930s and 40s, and Below: His friend David J Wickings (b 1930) who lived at number 10 The Ley.
Below: Colourised photo of my father in Abu Sultan wearing his friend’s kilt with his uniform (this was one of my favourite photos when I was growing up).
Like his own father, my dad went into the RAF in the 1950s for his National Service until 1953. He served at the RAF Princess Mary Hospital, Halton, Buckinghamshire and was then stationed at Devesoir Airbase, otherwise known as Abu Sultan, part of the defences of the Suez Canal until it was handed back to Egypt in 1956. After leaving the RAF in the mid-1950s he moved to Burnt Oak, Middlesex where he met my mum Ivy Green from Islington, London. Her family moved to Burnt Oak in the 1940s and mum and dad met in the Railway Hotel, Edgware, when mum was working as a barmaid there.
Above: Jim and Alice with Gwen at her christening. Below Left: Johnny and Edna Andrews Below Right: Jim and Peter standing and Donald seated in the Box Cubs troop in the late 1930s. Jim later married Audrey Woodhouse and had two children, a son Steven and a daughter Gaye.
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Below: Me (Elaine) with my step-grandmother Marion in the garden of 8 Barn Piece about 1970
Mum and dad married in 1968 and settled in Edgware, where he worked as a postman for many years. He made many friends on his rounds and in the workplace he would often sing to himself while sorting the post ready to go out on his delivery. After he retired, mum and dad moved to Calne in 2001. They stayed there for several years until they then emigrated to La Marina, Spain. Dad passed away in Spain in 2017 within a couple of months of his sister Gwendoline. Mum passed away there two years later in 2019.
Jim, Gwen and Don in later life
There are several photos of the family on the website but until now we haven’t been able to record their full story.[3] Like other families, people of this period came from great poverty in the inter-war years, endured the Second World War with food scarcity, rationing and active fighting, and we have now emerged with a better standard of life and freedoms. The story of these people is one of great triumph over adversity, not always properly recorded. So, the final word rests with Elaine, who wrote: “I love the idea that my father’s family can be immortalised as part of Box on your website. I know dad was very proud of where he came from!”
Andrews Family Tree
James John Andrews (22 June 1860-1942) married Harriet Edwards (1862-) (my great grandparents). Children:
James Arthur Andrews (1 September 1900–7 February 1976) married twice: 1. Alice Gane (3 September 1903–1941) on 30 October 1924 (my grandparents) and 2. Marion Macdonald in 1945. Children by Alice Gane:
Donald S Andrews (31 May 1932–2017) married Ivy Green (-2019) at Hendon in 1968.
James John Andrews (22 June 1860-1942) married Harriet Edwards (1862-) (my great grandparents). Children:
- Alfred Charles (1882-7 June 1926), plumber who married Helen Lenty Furneaux in 1901 and lived at 8 Railway Street, Bath;
- Alice (13 December 1889-1963);
- Walter (1891-) died young;
- Elise Adeline (1893-1923);
- Edith M (1897-);
- Hilda Bessie (1899-4 November 1986) married George TC Cloutman. Apparently the Cloutmans went to Box during the Bath Blitz to stay safe;
- They later lived in my great grandparents’ home at East Tiverton;
- James Arthur (1 September 1900-7 February 1976), my grandfather;
- Robert (18 June 1903-).
James Arthur Andrews (1 September 1900–7 February 1976) married twice: 1. Alice Gane (3 September 1903–1941) on 30 October 1924 (my grandparents) and 2. Marion Macdonald in 1945. Children by Alice Gane:
- Gwendoline (Gwen) E A Andrews (3 June 1925–2017) married Francis Kay in 1945;
- James (Jim) A Andrews (1 March 1929–2014) twin married Audrey MB Woodhouse in 1954. Children: Stephen and Gaye;
- Peter John (John) Andrews (1 March 1929–1986) twin;
- Donald (Don) S Andrews (31 May 1932–2017) my father.
Donald S Andrews (31 May 1932–2017) married Ivy Green (-2019) at Hendon in 1968.
References
[1] Courtesy Stephen Andrews, who said: We have photographs of the family at Prospect, Kingsdown.
[2] The Wiltshire Times, 9 September 1950
[3] More photos of the family are on the website at: Sports Clubs - Box People and Places, Box Rovers Later Years - Box People and Places and Ernest Hancock - Box People and Places
[1] Courtesy Stephen Andrews, who said: We have photographs of the family at Prospect, Kingsdown.
[2] The Wiltshire Times, 9 September 1950
[3] More photos of the family are on the website at: Sports Clubs - Box People and Places, Box Rovers Later Years - Box People and Places and Ernest Hancock - Box People and Places