A Newspaper Article

 I didn't know this existed, but came up in a search of my fathers friend , Frank Tisdale.

Scanning Old Photos Part 2

Preston My Mothers family. 

Norman [Father], John, Jane, Margaret Ann and [Mother] Sarah

Preston My Mothers family. 

Back row L to R: Margaret Ann, John, Sarah [Mother]

Front: Norman [Father], Jane

Annie Cresswell pre WW1

Annie Anslow (nee Cresswell) my Grandmother

Beatrice and Dennis Anslow

 Dennis and Beatrice Anslow

Dennis and Beatrice Anslow
Wedding Party in 1944

Young Denis Anslow

Denis, Beatrice and my mother Ann Anslow

Edward John Taylor
History Link

Unknown

A little History - A lady Holding a Rose

My Mum remembered when my maternal grandfather came home with his find from a second hand shop. He appreciated the painting but never knew of its significance or value. Today it is on loan to the Birmingham Museums Trust  https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-lady-holding-a-rose-33768

Memories and Observations

I look at today's problems and wonder if humanity is prepared or strong enough to handle what their parents, grandparents and great grandparents did in the past. Today we are used to a lot of creature comforts and haven't experienced real hardship. We are used to having what we want and not making do. Wars happen in far flung places and don't make regular headlines......

My parents clearly remembered WWII, Then they lived in the West Midlands in the UK, away from the German bombing of London and other key cities. Even so there were many incidents when lost German planes would drop their bombs in the countryside so they would have enough fuel to get home. 

My dad spoke of the bombs, shattered glass and the one occasion of a crashed German plane near home in Walsall Wood.

My Mother, in her later years, wrote about her childhood experiences in nearby Brownhills. here is an extract.

"Growing up during the war years I guess I didn’t realize the seriousness of it all for some families, living in a small coal mining village I didn’t have to go and live somewhere else as a lot of children of my age and be taken in as an evacuee and we used to joke and play around with our gasmasks not realizing what it would be like if we ever need to use it.

The nearest we got to being bombed was one night when we were under the stairs in the pantry with a chamber pot in case of emergencies when we heard an aircraft flying very low and then there was a big bang and all the glass in the windows in our row of houses in the street were shattered. A bomb had been dropped in the field at the back of the houses the only fatality was a horse that used to pull the ice-cream cart. All the children were very upset. After that the owner invested in a motorised van but it didn’t seem the same as the children all patted the horse and gave him a name.

We used to go into a cellar in some unused cottages near us until my mother fell and hurt her ankle carrying my baby sister. I remember one night I was knitting away when two American soldiers came down into the cellar and gave me some chewing gum it was the first chewing gum I had ever had and I thought that it was strange that you had to not swallow it after it started to taste awful. 

The nearest City to us to be bombed was Birmingham (edit: and also Coventry) you could hear the planes fly and making a path and see the sky light up from the fires. My dad was in the Home Guard as he was exempt from being called up so our family didn’t realize what it was like to have a father or husband that had gone to war. " 

Ann Anslow (Nee Preston).

Ann Preston's Identity Card

During the war and until 1954 there was rationing of food in the UK

An example of the ration books

This is a typical weekly food ration for an adult in 1942:

Bacon & Ham 4 oz (113.4 Grams)

Other meat  value of 1 shilling and 2 pence (equivalent to 2 chops)

Butter 2 oz (56.7 Grams)

Cheese 2 oz (56.7 Grams)

Margarine 4 oz (113.4 Grams)

Cooking fat 4 oz (113.4 Grams)

Milk 3 pints (1.42 Liters)

Sugar 8 oz (226.8 Grams)

Preserves 1 lb every 2 months (453.6 Grams)

Tea 2 oz (56.7 Grams)

Eggs 1 fresh egg (plus allowance of dried egg)

Sweets 12 oz every 4 weeks (340.2 Grams)

Families also would grow their own vegetables.

My mother was expected to look after her two siblings Jane and John as her mother was often unwell. (possibly clinically depressed) She cooked and cleaned along with attending school. With Mums dad, Norman being a butcher, meant a reasonable standard of living, but life still wasn't easy.

My Dad's father passed away when he was 6 years old and as a result life was even tougher for him and his older brother Dennis, living in Walsall Wood near the pit. His mother Annie, supplemented a meagre miners pension by taking in washing, ironing and was the midwife, common in a time where it was standard for childbirth to occur at home. Dennis worked to support the family.

My parents knew hardship was and I do wonder what they would think of today's world where people struggle to comply with some lockdown rules. 

We were supermarket shopping when I saw a man in his 20s having a meltdown because his favourite shampoo was unavailable! 

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2012

Christmas Day 2011

This Christmas was special as this was the first time in ten years that Heather, I, and my parents enjoyed the company of Samantha.




Two days prior, Mum dropped off Samantha at my work where she met up with a few of my co-workers and saw a well decorated Desk. :-)

Christmas Eve afternoon was spent with my In-Laws, where we exchanged gifts and enjoyed a relaxed time. 

Around the corner from our house is this amazing display which took several weeks to assemble.

 Samantha and Mum (Ann) looking through some photographs.

 Relaxing after Christmas Lunch

 Dad (Tom), Samantha and Mum (Ann)

The following day, Boxing Day we drove across Sydney to drop of Samantha at her Grandparents place, for lunch with her Mum, Step-Brother and Family, Granny and Bapu ad a few Aunts and Uncle thrown in for good measure..

Copyright © 2012 Paul Anslow

Visiting Mum and Dads

The visit included a belated celebration of three birthdays that fall in February.

Samantha turned 14

Mum and Cody

Dad and Samantha having time.




All text and photographs are Copyright ©2010-11 Paul Anslow. All rights reserved. www.anslow.net

1964 - Castel Felice on route to Australia.

Arriving on board at Southampton.

  

A photo of me with some other bewildered kids struggling with the lady's Italian accent.

I'm the one second on the left of the lady reading.







I remember that not long out of Southampton  we experienced a severe storm in the Bay of Biscay. our cabin was located on deck C, forrad and to port, the small porthole spent  most of the time underwater. We were seasick along with most of the passengers and crew. The best thing to for seasickness is to be on deck, so we did, I remember being in a saloon at night watching the storm.

My Mum and Dad sitting closest on the right. there was two sittings, one separate for the children

A lapel badge

Our voyage took us though the Suez Canal, the Ship stopping at Port Said, Aden, Fremantle, Melbourne, finally arriving in Sydney. We disembarked at Station Pier in Melbourne and traveled the last leg to Launceston, Tasmania, by  plane, an Ansett ANA Fokker Friendship

The Castel Felice has quite a history. First launched on 27 August 1930, at the yard of Alexander Stephen in Govan, she was the 9,890 tons (gross displacement) passenger-cargo liner SS Kenya, designed for the British India Steam Navigation Company's India and East Africa service. She then became HMS Hydra, a troop carrier for Royal Navy in World War II, then converted to an armed infantry landing ship, HMS Keren, she saw service in various roles, including the invasion of Sicily and Italy. In 1949, Kenya underwent a complete conversion for the liner services and entered Sitmar service as the Castel Felice in 1952.

POSTCARD : S / S CASTEL FELICE, SITMAR LINE GENOA

At 12,400 tons she carried 596 cabin passengers and 944 emigrants. Castel Felice made her first voyage to Australia in 1952 but made only a few cruises from Sydney. She made a number of liner voyages from Europe to the Americas before being sold for breaking up in Taiwan in 1970.

Samantha and Mum

Samantha and her Grandmother at Sunday lunch at Woy Woy.

Paul's Mum and Dad

   

All text and photographs are Copyright ©2010 Paul Anslow. All rights reserved. www.anslow.net