Our Territories

Channel Islands
England
Ireland
Isle of Man
Scotland
Wales

Our Categories

Home
Locations
Surnames
Articles
Library
Lookups

the servant. She would not let me talk to them like that. She knew how to treat servants properly. If you were not properly brought up yourself you wouldn’t treat servants correctly. That was the first lesson I learnt, you have to treat servants properly. After that it was always, “Please” and “Thank you”, if they did anything for her. She tried to do the same when she had staff of her own.

She never knew my Welsh grandfather but her sister and elder cousin told her that he was a lovely man. He must have been older than her grandmother must for he was a widower when she married him. Her grandfather was a sailor and had his own boat. He had sailed the China Seas for a long time. The boat was at Porthmadoc and grandfather had to walk there when he used it. This was before the railway came and there was no other work for him. Sometimes he decorated houses in the winter and made them nice for when the visitors came.

We have a visitor’s book that records many clergymen stayed with my grandparents. She recalls the Vicar of Aylesbury and many they who stayed. An author who worked in Fleet Street was full of praise saying she had been unwell and had recovered her health through the help of grandmother looking after her.

Later Dorothy’s Welsh grandmother gave up the big house, at 2 Marine, and moved to a little cottage. She liked staying there with her because she seemed to have more time for her and she could play with her Welsh cousins. Sometimes we would go out to see the Magnets and she would get into trouble for coming home late, We used to get carried away by these magnets. Magnets were a sort of Tent entertainment set up on the beach. Passing round with a hat paid the owners. They must have made a living from it. They were travelling people. Oh how she loved these Magnets, especially one woman whom in particular. She wondered whether to return for the evening performance or would that mean getting home late which would result in a row! Her family would carry on at her? She always did go and return late her grandmother did worry about her. There was Dorothy still out late loating around long after all her cousins had gone to bed!

Most of the old cousins died long ago but she still used to go and see their children and other cousins, they all made her so very welcome. They used to call her, ‘Mongrel’ when she was a kid because she was only half Welsh! These cousins all spoke Welsh I probably taught them English! They would learn their own language and then this 3 years old Dorothy would turn up. She did not know a word they were saying and they did not know what she was talking about, so I taught them English, they didn’t actually teach me any Welsh but they did teach her how to swear, The devils! Other visitors taught them the rest so by the time they were 4 or 5 they were by-lingual?? This will happen to her twin grandsons from Thailand for her son Philip Neal married a girl from that country. They are just starting to talk.

Dorothy started her first job in 1932 when she was sixteen. It was in a florist shop and they used to go to Buckingham Palace for they had orders to decorate the throne room with flowers. The shop was also commissioned to decorate churches for society weddings, and prepare bouquets for debutantes who were being presented at court. Shops were also decorated with flowers, including Elizabeth Arden and Yardley’s in Bond Street. It was their responsibility to go along and fill the flower vases with water each morning. When Dorothy had completed these outside jobs she would serve in the shop,

Previous | Index | Next