Interview with Granny Isabelle Bane
Isabelle Bane born Dovercourt 1917
My maternal grandmother
These are two interviews I had with my grandmother, taken in note form. As Isabelle has had schizophrenic episodes there has to be some care, when she talks, of where reality ends and fancifulness begins.
First Interview
Of her parents and grandparents:
D'Auvergne Bane (Isabelle's father) never used a swear word. He didn't like Law, saying he 'didn't want to lock up a man who would steal a cabby' (a cabbage). He worked as a checker on the quayside checking cargo. Harwich was a naval port in war and he got a good job in the navy as a storekeeper. D'Auvergne had left home and got a job in the bar where Mary was working as a hotel cook. They married at the Old St Pancras church in Camden Town. Mary was 5ft tall. She left home, running off at the age of 13 and got a job in service. Her mother had 12 children. D'Auvergne was the youngest child in a family which had their own business. They moved around a lot. They were tailors in Grays, but that failed. Of brothers and sisters there was Alma Reynolds, the oldest, who was in Gloucestershire and is dead now, Cicely, Ernest, Richard and Roland. There were ancestors at Castle Hedingham or Sybil Hedingham.
Of her parents and grandparents:
D'Auvergne Bane (Isabelle's father) never used a swear word. He didn't like Law, saying he 'didn't want to lock up a man who would steal a cabby' (a cabbage). He worked as a checker on the quayside checking cargo. Harwich was a naval port in war and he got a good job in the navy as a storekeeper. D'Auvergne had left home and got a job in the bar where Mary was working as a hotel cook. They married at the Old St Pancras church in Camden Town. Mary was 5ft tall. She left home, running off at the age of 13 and got a job in service. Her mother had 12 children. D'Auvergne was the youngest child in a family which had their own business. They moved around a lot. They were tailors in Grays, but that failed. Of brothers and sisters there was Alma Reynolds, the oldest, who was in Gloucestershire and is dead now, Cicely, Ernest, Richard and Roland. There were ancestors at Castle Hedingham or Sybil Hedingham.
D'Auvergne's mother Hannah made her husband Richard change his name from Bane to Bean. He was a regimental mayor in the Crimean War, though that may not have been the father, maybe further back. Their daughter Alma, born in 1854, was named after a battle in the Crimea. Mother said D'Auvergne was named after a cousin D'Auvergne Barnard. Paintings of D'Auvergne's parents show Richard in a navy blue uniform with pill box hat and Hannah looking like Queen Alexandra, very straightlaced with her hair up.
Mary (Isabelle's mother) knew a lot about astronomy. Probably her parents had some work involvement at Greenwich observatory. Her father Thomas worked as a waterman. He was a redheaded Irish man. He did ferrying on the Thames river.
Maybe there was a judge in ancestry.
D'Auvergne's father, Richard travelled a lot and sometimes took his wife. 'You ought to have a little black boy wait on you' said Hannah sometimes, which suggested far away travel.
Mary (Isabelle's mother) was blue eyed, 5ft tall, with a cast in her right eye, and she wore glasses. When she was nice she was nice, and when she was bad tempered she was horrid. She made me cry. People liked her as she was so nice when nice. She was highly emotional though. She was 37 when I was born, so I never knew her as a young woman. Connie (Isabelle's sister) and I had to do all her mending because of her near blindness in her right eye.
Of her own life:
I went to elementary school where you take the 11 plus, but I wasn't picked. I left school aged 14 in December 1931. Mum kept me at home for a year, then I got a job in daily service. Clothing work was the only alternative. My work was in Fronks Road, opposite the Roman Catholic church and school, for the Redfern family, Mr Redfern being a Trinity House ships pilot. They trained me to look after the house in perfect condition. It was a wonderful home, with no children, and I was three years there. Connie was in service in Hill Road and when she got married they asked me to take her place. It was an old house, not modern like the other one. I was there for a year and a half, then was at St George's Avenue for the Smiths, also a pilot, who had children. I was 20 then. I was there a year and a half, then war was declared and I was called up on the same day.
I had done the Air Raid Precaution, learning first aid and had signed documents. I went on a picnic after hearing war was declared, in Lyall's Morris 8 to Flatford. I'd had a blind date with Lyall, because his and my friends, Stan and Marie, fancied each other, but they broke up and we carried on. We did letter writing then, for contact in war. It was a letter romance. I worked at a 1st aid post in Harwich, then at Parkeston. We married in March 1941. Then I was in a mobile 1st aid post for a year. After 18 months of marriage I had Jo so left the post. I'd met lots of people, a nice assortment. Connie was also pregnant and had her baby Chris at the same time. She'd been married 6 years. I had no home, so we both lived in her flat for the duration of the war.
I loved swimming, which I learnt in the sea, and playing on the beach, and also loved dancing, ballroom dancing, not jiving. My parents couldn't afford a bike, so I bought one on hire purchase, when 16 or 17. It was a Hercules, just under £6, and it took me a year to pay for it. There were socials to go to. Lyall did dancing lessons, ballroom dancing, and he'd just finished when he met me.
Second Interview
Of the Seagrove grandparents:
Thomas Seagrove originally had the name Shugrue, but Maria didn't like it and made him change it. Maria would smile with twinkling eyes and her daughters would wait on her. Thomas was very clean and fastidious, liking the house to be clean and spotless. Maria died in about 1923 at only 60 years old. Thomas died in about 1934.
Of the Seagrove grandparents:
Thomas Seagrove originally had the name Shugrue, but Maria didn't like it and made him change it. Maria would smile with twinkling eyes and her daughters would wait on her. Thomas was very clean and fastidious, liking the house to be clean and spotless. Maria died in about 1923 at only 60 years old. Thomas died in about 1934.
Of Isabelle's war time romance:
1941 was a summer leave and I went to Windsor, then on a bus ride to Runnymede, where Lyall was working as a signalman.
1941 was a summer leave and I went to Windsor, then on a bus ride to Runnymede, where Lyall was working as a signalman.
Of her birth:
Winnie Hays mum, Mrs Fox, was a lady who helped babies to be born and she looked after my mother. She lived at the corner of Lee Road over the butchers shop. Mrs Fox asked what would be my name and my mother hadn't worked it out, so Mrs Fox said it would be nice to call me Isabelle. Dad said that was OK as long as I didn't get called Bella all over the place. I came to be called Belle or Izzy.
Winnie Hays mum, Mrs Fox, was a lady who helped babies to be born and she looked after my mother. She lived at the corner of Lee Road over the butchers shop. Mrs Fox asked what would be my name and my mother hadn't worked it out, so Mrs Fox said it would be nice to call me Isabelle. Dad said that was OK as long as I didn't get called Bella all over the place. I came to be called Belle or Izzy.
Of schooldays:
We had morning prayer before learning, and evening prayer before going home. A whistle would be blown in the playground, for which we had to stand still wherever we were, on another whistle we filed into line, and on the last whistle we filed into school. There was no bell. We played netball instead of hockey. I enjoyed netball. I was defending centre.
Eileen Spencer (my other granny) was in a class younger than me at school. She was a tall skinny long-legged girl who could run like the wind. Up the lane, the teachers too, would go to school. They were lovely school days and its hard to believe it was so long ago. I had to run up the lane many a time so I wouldn't be late for school.
We had morning prayer before learning, and evening prayer before going home. A whistle would be blown in the playground, for which we had to stand still wherever we were, on another whistle we filed into line, and on the last whistle we filed into school. There was no bell. We played netball instead of hockey. I enjoyed netball. I was defending centre.
Eileen Spencer (my other granny) was in a class younger than me at school. She was a tall skinny long-legged girl who could run like the wind. Up the lane, the teachers too, would go to school. They were lovely school days and its hard to believe it was so long ago. I had to run up the lane many a time so I wouldn't be late for school.
Of health and illness:
There was no health service then and things were expensive, so people didn't like to go to doctors. My mother never forgave herself for losing a child, Tommy. She'd thought he had a cold. For a cough or cold they would go to the chemist. The doctor would charge 3 and 6 for being called out. Doctor Phelan started a club which people would pay into, for if they needed treatment, and I joined it in 1933. Jo was born under his scheme. When I had measles, at 9 years old, mother made me drink saffron. Her own mother (Maria) used to swear by it for measles. They had boiled onions for colds, which father D'Auvergne) liked to be given with milk. His feet would be in hot mustard in a basin and he would eat the onions steaming hot. Other cold remedies were rubbing the chest with camphorated oil and shaking eucalyptus on a handkerchief. Andrews Liver Salts, they would buy, to clean the guts out, with lots of water, when they had diarrhea or an upset stomach. Connie and I both had upset tummies when pregnant. The doctor said this was food poisoning due to sausages, for which we had to take a dose of castor oil. He said to get a glass, to rub whisky around the inside of the glass, partly fill it with water, to put castor oil on top of the water, smell the whisky and quickly drink. D'Auvergne was scared to go to the dentist, but Mary was brave, and at about 70 she had her teeth out and got a new set.
There was no health service then and things were expensive, so people didn't like to go to doctors. My mother never forgave herself for losing a child, Tommy. She'd thought he had a cold. For a cough or cold they would go to the chemist. The doctor would charge 3 and 6 for being called out. Doctor Phelan started a club which people would pay into, for if they needed treatment, and I joined it in 1933. Jo was born under his scheme. When I had measles, at 9 years old, mother made me drink saffron. Her own mother (Maria) used to swear by it for measles. They had boiled onions for colds, which father D'Auvergne) liked to be given with milk. His feet would be in hot mustard in a basin and he would eat the onions steaming hot. Other cold remedies were rubbing the chest with camphorated oil and shaking eucalyptus on a handkerchief. Andrews Liver Salts, they would buy, to clean the guts out, with lots of water, when they had diarrhea or an upset stomach. Connie and I both had upset tummies when pregnant. The doctor said this was food poisoning due to sausages, for which we had to take a dose of castor oil. He said to get a glass, to rub whisky around the inside of the glass, partly fill it with water, to put castor oil on top of the water, smell the whisky and quickly drink. D'Auvergne was scared to go to the dentist, but Mary was brave, and at about 70 she had her teeth out and got a new set.
Of D'Auvergne:
When father went to London he went to Somerset House and found something he was 'not exactly proud of'. He had gone there seeking out his brothers and sisters.
When father went to London he went to Somerset House and found something he was 'not exactly proud of'. He had gone there seeking out his brothers and sisters.
Of the build up to war:
In the 1930's Hitler was having fun on the continent and we could see war was brewing. The ARP, Air Raid Precautions, was formed in the winter of 1938, and there was a series of lectures on war time gases which I attended. It was at the fire station near the customs lookout, and it was there I met Marie Hill. When I passed the gases test. I did a 1st Aid course, 6 lectures from Doctor Phelan. I'd already done and passed 1st aid with the Red Cross when aged 15. The practical side of this was with the St Johns Ambulance.
In the 1930's Hitler was having fun on the continent and we could see war was brewing. The ARP, Air Raid Precautions, was formed in the winter of 1938, and there was a series of lectures on war time gases which I attended. It was at the fire station near the customs lookout, and it was there I met Marie Hill. When I passed the gases test. I did a 1st Aid course, 6 lectures from Doctor Phelan. I'd already done and passed 1st aid with the Red Cross when aged 15. The practical side of this was with the St Johns Ambulance.
Another Short Interview
I had my first two children at home with the help of a midwife. With Bob's birth I travelled by ambulance, picking up a midwife on the way. Joanna was born by forceps delivery because I was given gas by the doctor which made me fall asleep.
Of Lyall Inkster's family:
The Inksters, when in Grangemouth, took part in demolishing buildings. One time they took some of the stuff and blamed the old man, George Inkster, the father, even though it was really either the son Charly who did it or another son George, who went to Bermuda where he met his wife Agnes.
The Inksters, when in Grangemouth, took part in demolishing buildings. One time they took some of the stuff and blamed the old man, George Inkster, the father, even though it was really either the son Charly who did it or another son George, who went to Bermuda where he met his wife Agnes.
Of D'Auvergne's sister Alma:
Alma had a little Alma, her daughter. Alma was my father's favourite sister. When her husband died she went to Gloucestershire with Little Alma, to Cinderford. Alma had married an art teacher who taught in London, named George Reynolds. She had blue eyes and married a blue eyed man.
Alma had a little Alma, her daughter. Alma was my father's favourite sister. When her husband died she went to Gloucestershire with Little Alma, to Cinderford. Alma had married an art teacher who taught in London, named George Reynolds. She had blue eyes and married a blue eyed man.