Isabelle Mary Bane |
(1917-1993) b. Dovercourt, Essex
d. Colchester, Essex
d. Colchester, Essex
Daughter of D'Auvergne Bane and Mary Ann Seagrove
1941 Wartime wedding in Dovercourt to Lyall Compton Inkster
Isabelle Mary Bane |
Isabelle Mary Bane was born during the 1st World War on December 3rd 1917 at Dovercourt on the Essex seaside as the fourth and last child of D'Auvergne and Mary Ann Bane, although two years before one of the boys, Thomas, had died at the age of three from the flu, so in effect there were now but three children. Dick was the eldest at age 8 and sister Connie was 5 years older than Isabelle. Dovercourt was a great location for children with its beaches and the fun of the sea. Isabelle was known for being a good swimmer. There were no lessons and no adults to guide or watch over the local children in this. They simply got in the water and learnt by themselves while still quite small. Being the youngest, Isabelle who was known as Belle was as if the princess of the family, for which Connie was jealous and had some resentment about having to keep an eye on her little sister. |
Isabelle got measles at the age of 9, for which her mother treated her with drinks of saffron and it appeared to do the trick. Like most people doctors were rarely turned to, for their great expense, and so passed down family remedies would be relied upon. Isabelle very much liked her school days. She attended the Hill Girls School and then the Mayflower School. Although alert and intelligent Isabelle was not picked to do the 11 Plus, for which her education would, by consequence, be stunted. |
As a conscientious girl, with a good moral code, Isabelle wanted to help people and so studied while a teenager with the Red Cross and the St John's Ambulance. She left school at the age of 14 in December 1931 and her mother preferred to keep her at home for a year, before she went into service. Going 'into service' was what most girls did before they married, learning by living in, in another household how to take care of one's own future house.
Now she earned a little money Isabelle could buy for herself the bike she had always wanted, but which her parents had not been able to afford. She bought a Hercules for £6 on hire purchase and it took her a year to pay for it. Isabelle went to 'socials' where all young people went, and learnt to dance. It was by a blind date, arranged by her friend Marie, who fancied Stan, best friend of a young Scottish man, Lyall, that she and the said Scottish man came to fall in love with one another. |
On the very day that war was declared, September 3rd 1939, Isabelle and Lyall had arranged with friends to go for a days picnic at Flatford Mill. They were at Marie's house getting ready when on the radio, at 11 o'clock they heard an announcement from the prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, that 'could or could not mean that war was imminent'. They were stunned and didn't know what to do, but decided they'd jolly well go for the picnic as it could be the last one they would ever have. They had a great time out with a bit of canoodling and when they got back were all summoned for their part in the war effort.
Neville Chamberlains declaration of war as heard by Isabelle at her friend Marie's house on the morning of September 3rd 1939
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Though Isabelle and Lyall had one more child, a son Robert in 1857, their relationship was too damaged to properly recover from difficult times. When young Robert was just 6 months old Isabelle relapsed into her delusional state and this time had to go for some time into a specialised hospital. |
D'Auvergne was known for his romantic tale of 'eloping with a maid'
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Every year Mary & her family would take part in the hop picking season in the Kent countryside
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