Child of Frank Henry John and Grace Baggs

My Uncle John, of course, was living in London; and we didn't see a great deal of him, until I was ten to twelve, I suppose—I may have given the time in my notes, in my diary. I know he had a motorcycle and a sidecar combination, AJS. He came down to see us when we were living in Marlborough Road, Gillingham, with his goggles, and helmet, and warm clothing; and my Aunt Grace and my cousin Norah in the sidecar. I think that was the first occasion I met my cousin Norah. I remember she rang the bell or knocked on the door, and I went to the door and saw this young little girl there, very bright, chubby, round faced girl there, she says, "Hullo, I'm Norah," and I didn't know who Norah was. We weren't expecting them; they'd just come out for a day's run and thought they would call on us.

As a result of that visit, I got an invitation—I think it was pre-Matric year, at the grammar school, in the summer holidays. I went to stay with Uncle John and Aunt Grace, and Norah, in Wandsworth, near Putney—and I spent a week there, and got to know them very well. Norah showed me around London, the sights of London. I remember going to London Zoo with her; she nearly had an accident at Charing Cross, in the Strand there, because we got out of the train from Charing Cross station, catching a bus for somewhere, I don't quite know where it was, but the bus started to pull away from the bus stop, before she'd got on. I'd got on first—she was on the right of me, and just had a hold of the upright bar, and was just getting a foot on the step when the bus pulled off, and she started to be dragged along the road, still hanging on like grim death. The conductor stopped the bus fairly quickly, and she got on, but she was a bit shaken and bruised, and rather spoiled her day out.

They had a pleasant house, in Wandsworth. Norah showed me round Wimbledon Common, and I remember seeing the outside of Wimbledon tennis courts.

Norah, who'd become a supply teacher, and gone into teaching, was able to be taken onto his [her father's] staff, at Broadstone, because they were short of people who were willing to move down at that time. So she found it quite a happy arrangement, to get out the bombing in London—and joined her parents down there. They stayed at Broadstone the whole time, they never moved back to London after the war.

I expect I met Norah, but I don't remember it. Dad kept up with her, and occasionally went to stay with her in Broadstone. I corresponded with her a couple of times, and had the impression that she could be a little testy, but perhaps that's unfair. I remember Mum telling me, quite a few years ago now, that Norah planned on leaving me her grandfather clock, when she died—I don't know why, and certainly heard nothing further about this when she eventually did die. Some years later I checked her will at Somerset House, and found she had indeed had a grandfather clock, though I didn't appear as the intended beneficiary, and a codicil included it in her residuary estate.