Julie Goucher ~ Anglers Rest

This is the year after the photograph taken yesterday, which makes this Spring 1976 or so.

The teacher was called Mrs Cressfield and boy could she be fierce.

Her speciality was maths and she would become so angry she would go red enough to burst. To a 6 year old that is terrifying and it undoubtedly put me off maths, despite the fact that to go into pharmacy I needed a good understanding of maths!

Despite having a bit of a rage, she was a very nice lady and like Miss Jerome, remembered her students long after they had moved on. The last time I was in Guildford I saw her in town, the first time since the early 1990s and she still remembered my name.

Again, see if you can spot me.

This is my very first school photograph taken in the summer term of 1975. This was at Sandfield School at Guildford. By the time of this photo I had been at the school almost a year and I remained here until 1978 when I moved to the next school.

At this point Surrey had a three school system 5-8 years, 8-12 years and then senior school 12-16 years and then the facility to stay onto until 18 before heading off to University.

My Mum was no stranger to the school as she herself went there from the age of 5 until she was 11, before moving along to senior school.

The teacher at the top right was called Miss Jerome and not only taught me, but also Mum. She was a lovely lady who recognised her students long after they left her classroom.

Now, I am not going to tell you which child is me, see if you can guess.

Today’s photograph is of my Great Aunt Glad, my Grandfather’s sister and sister to Rose who appeared here yesterday and her husband my Uncle Frank.

This photograph was taken around 1960. Aunt was born in 1901 and Frank in 1899. He had been born in Dodford Northamptonshire and some point moved to Surrey/Hampshire.

Uncle was in the Army so I suspect he was either posted to Aldershot which was just over the border into Hampshire from Wanborough or stationed at Guildford when there were army barracks there.

My Cousin has the military papers of his father and shared them with me.

They reveal that Frank enlisted at Maidstone in November 1922 in the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment. He then served at home within the confines of the UK for 2 years. He then trained into the Military Police and then was posted to Germany between 1924 – 1928. He then returned home, still in the Military Police between 1928 and 1936 and then transferred again to Singapore between 1936 and 1938. He then returned home and remained serving again in the Military Police in Essex until February 1939 when he was discharged. He served just under 17 years.

When Frank enlisted in 1922, he was no stranger to the army, as he had served in the British Army during the First World War, enlisting in 1916 and was discharged in October 1922. He married my Aunt in June 1924 at Guildford, although without the permission of his commanding officer and they had to repeat the ceremony at the registry office. I am guessing that my Aunt went with Frank to Germany, as she certainly went to Singapore with him during the 1930s.

Frank and Gladys raised 3 children. The eldest recalled spending time in Singapore and also spending time with his Grandmother in Surrey, whilst his parents were overseas.

However, his military connection did not end at discharge. During the Second World War he remained living in his military home and worked from what I can establish from the limited knowledge in the military barracks in a defence position.

Today’s photograph is of my Great Aunt Rose, who appeared earlier in the festival on day 13.

This is the last photograph I have of her, taken in 1993. Aunt at this point was still very very alert. Her body failed her with terrible arthritis and not brilliant eye sight. She had glasses, but that really wasn’t much of a help to her.

Here she is sitting in her room and I often used to describer to her the flowers outside in the garden at her request. She loved flowers and loved even more getting into a wheelchair and being pushed round the garden. Even though her sight was poor she could tell the flowers very often by the smell. I have so limited knowledge of gardening that Aunt would say oh that smells like a…… and expect me to confirm or deny. My view was, she was 93 and as sharp as a knife and if she said it was whatever flower who was I to disagree.

Aunt passed away in August 1994, just weeks after I returned from getting married. I had not even had chance to tell of her of the trip and she had been so looking forward to hearing about it.

After the ceremony we were taken into the formal grounds of the wedding venue for the official photographs. It does not look particularly sunny, but it was and it was around 5pm by now.

I had a lovely bouquet made of tradition flowers which were kept in our room until they had seen better days. Whilst we were at the ceremony, the staff had been busy and had decorated our bed with petals that spelt out “Happy Honeymoon”, sadly we only just realised what it said as hubby hit the air conditioning unit and the central fan sent the petals everywhere!

We were at Turtle Bay, which is one of three bays at Watamu on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya within the confines of the Watamu Marine National Park