Family memorabilia

This little copper kettle, which I have on display in my lounge, was given to me by my mother a few years ago.  The story that she told me about it was that when my granddad, Herbert William Tirrell, was about 4 he went shopping with his mother one day and refused to leave the shop they were in until she bought him this little copper kettle.  Once they came out of the shop, with the kettle, my granddad hit a little girl on the head with it.  

When mum was young she used to play in the garden with it using it to make mud pies.  As you can see it has certainly been knocked about a lot.

There is an antique programme on the TV at the moment so I thought I would check out my kettle.  There were quite few on different sites so must have been mass produced.  Inside the handle the word Jubilee is stamped and this means it was made in Queen Victoria's jubilee year 1897 so that fits in with what mum told me as granddad was born in 1894.  Not very clear on mine,  the makers mark is just about discernible and, according to those I found online where this is a lot clearer, it was made by a company called Matthew J Hart and Sons.   Not worth very much as they were selling online at between about £10 and £35.  Not that I would ever want to part with it. 

War Memorabilia

A few years ago Mum had hers and my Grandfather's war medals framed.  After her death my brother sent these to me.  Mum had previously, many years ago, given me my father's medals for my eldest son to keep and I was going to pass these on to him too.  I decided I would like to hang them on my wall instead and he can have them after I have gone.  They were rather difficult to photograph because of the reflection in the glass but they are so nicely framed that I didn't want to take them out.  

My grandfather, William H Tirrell, Was a sapper in the  Royal Engineers and was stationed in France during World War 1.

Mum was in the ATS and a corporal in World War 11. 

Below is a close up of granddad's medals which is a bit clearer.

At Christmas in 1914 all serving soldiers were sent a Christmas gift bought with money from a fund set up Princess Mary, 17 year old daughter of  King George and Queen Mary.  This was a brass cigarette box and the one below belonged to my grandfather.

Telegrams

It is not often people receive telegrams now but at one time they were a quick way of passing on news, good or bad, to family and friends.  These days nearly everybody  has a phone and we can talk to people on the other side of the world via the internet so telegrams have become a thing of the past or are sent as a nostalgic novelty.

I found some telegrams among mum's papers after her death.  The four below were sent  to her and William from friends and parents to congratulate them on their marriage in 1945.  William and Kathleen were  in the army during the second world war and towards the end of the war they were both stationed in Liverpool which was where they met.  They both lived on Rodney Street, Kathleen at number 60 and William at number 75.

This is a copy of their marriage certificate.

This is the telegram received by William when I was born.   At that time he had not been demobbed from the army and was stationed in Surrey.  Kathleen was living with his parents in Cheshire and I was born in their house on 23rd January 1946.  William's sister Nora sent the telegram, not sure if it confused him or not but to me it reads  as though he had two daughters.  The omission of that clever little apostrophe!

Emigration to Australia

As I wrote in a previous entry my parents emigrated to Australia in 1967. After mum's death my brother and I were going through her papers and found the following documents. 

The first is the identification document they were issued with, instead of a passport, which allowed them to enter Australia.  They went on the assisted £10 emigration package.

In 1995 mum applied for Australian Citizenship.  Not sure why she waited 26 years before doing so. 

 This is her receiving the certificate after, I presume,  swearing an oath.