"MORE ABOUT" 

My grandfather was born in Kent at Hinxhill. He trained as a Turner in Ashford Railway Works before working his passage to Canada. He became a ranch hand in Manitoba. On his return to England he was a gardener at Chilham Castle, part of his work was the topiary. He married my grandmother Winifred Vaughan and they moved to Willesborough where Albert managed a fruit farm called Foxglove. They had one daughter, my mother Marjorie. During the 1st World War Albert served in the Queens Regiment and Rifle Brigade in India.

My grandmother was born in Chilham, Kent. She was brought up by her grandparents Barbara and Lewis Vaughan. Her mother had moved away to work. When Winifred left school she worked at Chilham Castle, later she married Albert Thomas Ditcher, when they moved to Willesborough Winifred became housekeeper to a local solicitor. In 1925 Winifred became a widow. In 1928 she married Harry Ames White a train driver. Winifred was a Sunday School teacher and worked hard with charity work in both World wars.

My mother was born in Willesborough, Kent. On leaving school in 1925 she trained as a dressmaker. She worked in several large houses in Kent as a housemaid, then in Surrey as a nanny and ladies maid. Her final job was housemaid and ladies maid to the Dean of Windsor Castle and later Bristol Cathedral. She married my father Edward Henry Smith (Harry) in 1935. I am their only child.

My father was born in Crundale, Kent. One of 7 children. He worked in Haywards Garage in Ashford as a mechanic and was subcontracted as a chauffeur. He also drove the local ambulance. He married my mother Marjorie Ditcher. During  World War 2  he worked in London at Galleys  Aircraft factory and he was in the Home Guard. Returning to Ashford he became a Tin Smith at the R.E.M.E. where he trained apprentices. His pride and joy were his grandchildren and garden.

This is a picture of me with my mother and father taken on holiday at Hove, Sussex about 1948. My joy at school was playing hockey and tennis. After a secretarial course I worked for an Insurance company. I married Richard Marshall, a telephone engineer in 1970. We have two daughters and two grandsons.

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