Sons- and daughters-in-law of Reuben and Louisa Beck 

Do you remember Aunt Angela's husband?

No, I think he died during the war. It was quite a short marriage, they didn't have much married life together, which was very sad for everybody. I think he died before I was in a position to remember them—I'm sure he was killed in the war. There was a great shortage of men then, and many of the war widows had no hope of marrying again.

description on transfer to Army Reserve: 5'9", 32" waist, helmet size 22, boots size and magnitude 8.4, fresh complexion, brown eyes, brown hair, irregular scar [location illeg.], intending to reside Weald Brears (?), Harcourt Avenue, Southend on Sea

L.W. Scutchings

137½ Bee St

Todmorden

Ont

March 16, 1920

To the

      Paymaster General

                             Ottawa

Sir/

I am writing concerning the extra gratuity which ex imperials have been granted.

I forwarded to your office my claim some time ago and received an acknowledgement from you which asked me not to write concerning this matter. I should not have done so, only several ex-imperial friends of mine, who were no[t] so long over seas as I have received their extra gratuity. Hoping my case [h]as not been overlooked

                       I remain

               Yours Respectfully

L.W. Scutchings

42158 Corporal 9^th Battn.

Royal Irish Fusiliers

B.E.F.

SCUTCHINGS, Leonard William — After a lengthy illness, in York County Hospital on June 28, 1976, in his 87th year, Leonard Scutchings, beloved husband of Evelyn May of Keswick, dear father of George of Windsor, dear uncle of Evelyn and Syil [sic] of Newmarket and dear friend of Alice of Woodstock. Resting at the Taylor Funeral Home, Queensville. Service in the chapel Wednesday at 3 p.m.. Interment Queensville Cemetery.

. . . a draughtsman in the drawing office, of the Naval Dockyard at Chatham; who had been sent to Rosyth, during the war—I think they thought it was a safer place, to have the drawing office there—Chatham Dockyard was so near, likely to be bombed, damaged—so a lot of the work was transferred from Chatham Dockyard up to Rosyth Dockyard, near Edinburgh. I think Hilda and Dave must have married before, she joined him up there, in Rosyth. They stayed there, till their two sons, my cousin David and cousin Arthur, and my other cousin Edna—they were at school in Scotland—then some time in the 1930s, when I was at the grammar school, they all moved down to Gillingham. Whether he'd got promoted, or whether they decided to restore the old drawing office in Chatham, and reunite it again, after the war, I don't know quite. They moved back to Gillingham, and when they first arrived, they hadn't got any accommodation, and they all came and lived with my father and mother, in Gillingham. So we—quite a crowd! Course I don't know how many of us we were at the time—anyway, we did squeeze in for about three months.

. . . And I seem to remember my Uncle Dave was, for a time, a football referee—I don't for how long. He had a very strong Scottish accent.

Harry's hot cross bun dated 1916

TODAY will bring back special memories for Fife man Mr Harry Harding, memories of a time when the world was at war and he was aboard a ship stuck in ice in the Arctic Circle.

For Mr Harding has a well-preserved memento of the occasion, a hot cross bun baked on board the ship on Good Friday, 1916.

The 70-year-old bun has an interesting tale behind it.

In 1916 Mr Harding, now aged 89, was the supply officer on board HMS Intrepid on convoy and escort duty. The last supply of bread taken aboard at Lerwick, Shetland, had been exhausted and replaced by ship's biscuits. It was decided that the ship's cook should have a go at baking bread and hot cross buns.

The ship's carpenter made a wooden bin for mixing dough and the cook was given the necessary ingredients. The buns and loaves looked lovely when they were taken out of the oven on Good Friday morning, Mr Harding said, but left something to be desired in the consistency.

"They were as hard as iron and when the cook showed himself in the galley he was pelted with the buns which bounced off the ship's ironwork like bullets," recalled Mr Harding.

However, not all the baking went to waste. The ship's painter was handy with a paintbrush, and hit upon the idea of painting some of the buns and loaves with a picture of the ship lying in ice, together with the ship's name, the date and the words 'Good Friday, Lapland'.

Since then Mr Harding, who lives in an old folks home at Anderson Court, Leven, has kept his hot cross bun wrapped in cotton wool in a small box and the details are still very clear, 70 years later.

"The bun is still as hard today as it was when it was baked," said Mr Harding.

What did Harry do for a living?

Well Harry was a Civil Servant in the Labour Exchange. I think he was an Executive Officer, in the Labour Exchange at Newcastle; and he was very interested—the fact that I was in the Civil Service—I think I may have been a Higher Executive Officer, or a Senior Executive Officer, the time I went there and the fact that I was a couple of grades above him, in rank and pay, at the time—yes, I think I was an Accountant, and Senior Executive Officer, then. He enjoyed the Civil Service, and enjoyed having someone in the Civil Service to talk to, and—we got on very well. He was quite a, very friendly outgoing type—real north-country personality; and so was Aunt Elsie, you know—had an outgoing frankness that you get in the North of England. I think Barbara was the apple of their eye—they only had the one daughter. When Barbara married, and her husband got a job up in Scotland, they went to live near Barbara, they couldn't bear being separated from her.

. . . "my eyesight is getting worse but I must say my appetite is good."

HARDING.—Suddenly, at home, 20 Anderson Court, Leven, on October 8, 1881. Henry Harding, aged 94 years, beloved husband of the late Elsie Beck, a loving father, father-in-law, grandfather and great-grandfather. Service at Kirkcaldy Crematorium on Friday, October 11 at 10.30 a.m. to which all friends are respectfully invited.