Gordon Harrison - Around the World in 80 Years

www.grosvenorhousepublishing.co.uk

O ver the years we have realised how little we know about our grandparents, or even much about our parents early life. Unless information is handed down and recorded, it is mostly lost for ever as people pass away. Mindful of this we decided to record the main events and activities of our lives, or at least those we could remember, so that our children and grandchildren, and perhaps later generations could see what is after all, history in a personal light, and be made aware of the happiness, and sometimes the sadness, that are a part of every life. It will also hopefully provide an awareness for others, of the need to record for posterity, the details of their lives, and thus provide the basis for our family, on which to build their own histories. That is the philosophy of the following narrative and photos, and we hope everyone who reads it, will find at least some of it, informative and interesting.

I know very little about either pair of my grandparents and not much about my parents families, mainly because in my childhood and younger days people were reluctant to talk of family matters to children, and children were not encouraged to ask questions. My paternal grandparents were Samuel Harrison and Jane Wilcock. He had a confectioners business in Barnsley. I never met him as he died before Mum and Dad married, and she visited us only once when I was a schoolboy living in Portsmouth. I have no knowledge of their dates and places of birth, death, or marriage They lived all their lives in Yorkshire..

My father Reginald Gordon Harrison was born on 23rd March 1885 in Barnsley. He was not a tall man and this was attributed to the fact that he contracted polio as a child, something I was unaware of until Pat told me while I was writing these notes. I cannot remember him having any real hobbies or interest, and he never to my knowledge took part in any sport other than a social game of tennis. This also was probably a legacy of his childhood illness. He disliked gardening and left any house decorating to mum, but he was an excellent cook and I remember he always made the Christmas cakes and puddings.

Dad was a member of quite a large family. An old family photograph circa 1910 (Fig.1) which I hold shows Dad at the back right side with his mother and 4 brothers (William, Charles, Stanley, and Douglas) and 3 sisters (Edith, Florence and Jane), and this information only came my way with the photo I inherited, on the occasion of mums death a few years ago. The photo does not include my Grandfather, who had died earlier. Apart from his sister Edie whom I met just once, I also met my Grandmother only once when they visited us at Portsmouth in the 1930s. I understand it was my Grandmother who had money and owned the bakery/confectionery shops in Barnsley and Doncaster.

Pat my sister, believes there was another brother, the black sheep of the family, who was dispatched to America, and who made a lot of money there in connection with Fox Films. When he died intestate, Grandma in true Victorian fashion, refused to have anything to do with his large estate, and didnt tell any of the family about it until it was too late to make a claim.

My maternal Grandparents were William Henry Bellingham and Laura Ellen Crutchfield, who was apparently one of twins. She died in June 1934 aged 70, and my grandfather died in November 1951 aged 86. Although they lived in Brighton a short distance from Portsmouth, I never met them. I know from records and photographs that he was a Captain in the RAMC. and there is a picture of him at (Fig2)

My mother Kathleen Bellingham was born on 19th.November 1890 at a place called Barham East Hothy, Framfield in Sussex. She was of medium height and was the most kind and caring person I ever knew. I know even less of her background and early years than I do of Dads. Mum had two sisters, one named Ada who lived in London, and another named Ruby who lived with her father in Brighton, and also two brothers Laurie, and Bill. Bill nicknamed Ching, and Laurie nicknamed Flop, were both pilots in the RFC during the first world war. After the war both were required to drop rank if they wanted to stay in the service, which Laurie did. Bill didnt want to and emigrated to Canada . (Bills sons both joined the RAF at the outbreak of the second world war, and one of them was shot down over Belgium) During this war, Bill sent Mum some Red Cross parcels, to help out with the rations. I seem to remember meeting both of Mums sisters on one occasion, but never the brothers

I believe Mum and Dad met in South Africa, when he was in the army, and she was an army officers daughter. They married at the Register Office in Winchester on 26th April 1910, when he was 25 and she was 19. Dad was in the RAMC, and working in the military hospital there. Dad spent 4 years during the first world war in the BEF in France, where he was gassed, and from which he later suffered from coughing fits, when he could not get his breath. Most of the rest of Dads army service was at home, although Mum and Dad did spend a year in Bermuda, just after the first war, where Mum did some teaching I have a photograph of Mum and Dad together dated 5th August 1915 (Fig 3), and have Dads 3 Great war medals, and his long service and good conduct medal. Dad retired from the army on 29th. December 1925, when he was working at the Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth, and we went to live at 24 Hartley Rd. North End Portsmouth. I was 3 years old at the time, and I have no real memories before this date.

After Dad retired he got a job as a dispenser, at the practice of Doctor Thomas at London Road Portsmouth, and he worked there until Doctor Thomas retired about 1936/7. After a period of unemployment with the war approaching, he got a job at the Airspeed works at Portsmouth Airport. I am not sure what exactly he did there, but he worked there during the 1939-1945 war. Living and working in the waterlogged trenches in the first world war had a far reaching effect on him, and was the direct cause of the neuritis he suffered later in life, when his hands and legs stopped working properly. He was unable to hold things and to walk without help, and moved around the house in a wheel chair. For many years Mum had to manhandle him everywhere, until he died in 1960, of disseminated sclerosis, at the Queen Alexandra hospital, where he had held his last appointment, before he retired from the army. The hospital had by now transferred to the NHS.

After years of moving Dad around, Mum was now relieved of this task, and had many years of peace, until she joined Dad, when she died of heart failure, also at the Queen Alexandra hospital in 1986, aged 95. Fortunately my sister Pat and Mum lived in adjacent old peoples bungalows during Mums latter years, and Pat was able to help Mum. Both Mum and Dad were cremated at the Portchester Crematorium, and have a joint entry in the Book of Remembrance there.

I know very little about my paternal grandparents, only that they were married in 1891, and celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1941. (Fig 5) I called them Gran. and Gramps, and remember them as being very pleasant, and fairly quiet people. They had 3 children, 2 daughters and a son, my father They lived in a small terrace house in Cardigan Rd. Portsmouth, and I remember all the family playing games, like passing a ring around in the front room of the house, and having to guess who had it when the music stopped. In those days people only used their front room for visitors and family gatherings, and it wasnt used at other times. I remember their bedroom had several stuffed animals, and birds in domed glass cases, popular in Victorian times, and I hated them. I still do not like stuffed animals as ornaments, I would rather see them alive.(so Damien Hurst has done nothing new) .