More Memorabilia

Another reminder of my father, William Cox, and the second World War.  I have posted before that he was in the army and most of his service was spent in India.  He was a Quartermaster Sergeant in the Military Police.  This is his cap badge which was given to my youngest son Sam by his grandmother.

William Cox - India

These are Christmas greetings sent by my father William Cox to his family when he was in India.  I was always under the impression that he drew them and he was good at drawing but I read somewhere that this sort of telegram could be bought  from local "artists".  I still like to think they were his work.  The first was sent at Christmas 1943 and was sent to my grandparents and Nora and Stanley.  Nora was his sister and Stanley was his elder brother's eldest son who lived with his grandparents.

The second was sent a year later.

Whether or not Bill was the artist here or not,  he was definitely the writer of these two poems which he wrote about his thoughts on India.

My father William Cox 1920 - 1969

My father William Cox was born on 13th May 1920 in Romiley, Cheshire. He was the son of Samuel Henry Cox and Sarah Ann Mycock.

The first picture I have of him was taken when he was 15 months old, my grandmother mother had written on the back of it "Willie Cox 15 months old".  Why didn't all our ancestors write the info on the back of photos. (I must admit though that I am guilty of omitting this too.)  I don't know what happened to the blond hair as he was quite dark as an adult.

The next picture I have of dad was a school photo which I have copied (with consent) from a book published in 1999 written and published by Frank Beard (a local man and ex-pupil) about Romiley Primary school, where dad and I were both pupils.  The photo was taken in 1933 when Bill was 13 years old.  Pupils stayed at school until they were 14 at that time.  There was no secondary school in the village.
William (known to all as Bill) is the second boy from the left on the back row.  Also in the photo are two of Bill's cousins, Harold Mycock is third from the left on the row in front of Bill and Emily Mycock is second from the left on the front row.  Which of my grandma's brothers they belonged to I don't know but they all lived in the village.  The photograph is labelled wrongly as it says William is first left next to Mr Slater but he is second from him.

The photo below is of Bill and his friend Les Howard and it was taken at Blackpool Pleasure Beach when they were about 17 years old.  Not a real motorbike just a photographer's prop.  Bill is on the back of the bike.

 

Bill and Les, together with two other school friends formed a band called the Savoy Melody Makers.  Bill played the piano, Les was the drummer, Frank Ernell was guitarist and Frank Higginbottom played the saxophone.  They regularly played for dances at Romiley public Hall and also played for afternoon tea dances at the Savoy cinema in the village.

Frank Higginbottom later found fame and appeared on television with a group called the Keynotes and on the Billy Cotton Band Show. He also had success on tv adverts (The Esso Blue Dealer and Milky Bar Kid). He went on to join the Adam singers backing starts like Perry Como and Max Bygraves.

No such fame for Bill but he was always very popular playing in the local pubs for sing-alongs and never had to buy his own beer.



Bill is first from the left at the back here standing next to his friend Les.  This photo was given to me by mum but all she wrote on it was Savoy Melody Makers.  I didn't know there were so many of them or who the others are.  I knew Les and always called him uncle Les.  He used to come to our house to practice for the band with dad.  I think the man top right might be Frank Higginbottom.

I will write more about dad later.  

Samuel Henry Cox

Samuel Henry Cox was my paternal grandfather. He was born at 5 Alliance Street, Accrington in Lancashire on 26th April 1983.  He was the eldest child of William and Hannah Cox.  William was originally from Spetisbury in Dorset and the son of a shepherd, Thomas Cox.  Together with his brother and some other young men from the village, William traveled to Lancashire looking for work in the cotton mills as the agricultural work in Dorset was becoming harder to find and paid very little.  There he met and married Hannah Ingham on 11th November 1882.  They had four children, three daughters followed Samuel. they were Beatrice, Florence and Rhoda.

The is a recent photograph of Alliance Street where Samuel was born.











By 1901 the family had moved to Blackpool where William was a house painter and Samuel was working as a cart driver.  In 1911 they were living in Cheadle Heath, Stockport and William was now a yarn dyer and Samuel a coal dealer.

Later Samuel moved to Romiley and was a lodger in my great grandmother Ann Selina Mycock's household and he was working in a cotton mill.  He married my grandmother Sarah Ann Cheetham, nee Mycock on 1st November 1919 in Stockport.  This was Samuel's first marriage at the age of 36.  My father William was born the following year and his sister Nora two years later.

Samuel was a quiet man and liked nothing more then going sitting in the pub at the end of the road, with a half pint and playing dominoes.  He always had his dog Squip with him.  I think he used to go to get out of the way of my grandmother.  I don't think they got on very well in later years and I believe that after Nora was born they slept in separate rooms, so maybe they never got on.  Grandma always slept in the front room downstairs.  Granddad played the piano and also taught my father to play.

Above is the Stock Dove public house where granddad used to spend his time. It is at the end of the road where my grandparents lived.

To the right is an old picture of it.  The walls were stripped of their paint in recent years but I remember them being a pale yellow or cream colour.  As with lots of pubs at that time there used to be a bowling green behind it but when I was a child it was just a patch of derelict land. There is now a small block of flats there.


Samuel died on 18th February 1959 at the age of 75. He had a bad chest for many years which may have been caused by working in the cotton mill.

 The photo above shows me sitting on the wall with my granddad, his dog Squip and my cousin Valerie. I think this was taken in the summer of 1947. It is opposite the house we moved into when we left my grandparents house.

To the right I am sitting on granddad's lap in the back garden of our house in Cherry Tree Close, Romiley. Also in this picture is my father William.

Kathleen Lilian Tirrell

My mother Kathleen Lilian Tirrell was born on 3rd March 1922 in Bramley, Yorkshire.  She was the daughter of Herbert William and Edith (Butler) Tirrell.   She married my father William Cox in 1945 and after his death in 1969 she remarried but that marriage did not last.
Today would have been her 90th  birthday but sadly we lost mum on 1st July 2011.  When mum died I wrote a brief life story of her on my other blog so will link to that here instead of writing it all again.

This is the last photograph of mum taken last June when she was in a nursing home.

Her ashes are buried at Pinarroo Cemetery in Perth. Western Australia.  We planted a small rosemary bush  (for remembrance) by her plaque and hopefully it will grow well. 

Happy birthday Mum, miss you.