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Brentford Families - Ker

Peter Timms wrote in July 2024:

The following comes from notes I made over the years from my mother Winifred's reminiscences, with the odd snippets from her brother and sister. She also made notes of her own which focus mainly on her life with her first husband. These though, are not included as they are of a more personal nature: Alf Stafford was taken ill during the war and the notes describe the day-to-day trials of looking after him while still having to look after a baby and go to work.

I would say that my mother was typical of her generation in that she liked to talk about her younger days. When you grew up during the economic depression and have lived through a world war you, no doubt, thought your memories were worth passing on. That is not to say she lived in the past by any means but I was fascinated and often 'steered' the conversation around to it.

Details of Win's family are incidental to her story and do not amount to all I have recorded about them. Thanks to Margaret Ker and Dianne Timms for finding earlier family details on-line.

THE EARLY LIFE OF WINIFRED KER

Compiled by her second son Peter Timms.

Winifred Ker was born on the 9th September 1917 at 25 Mafeking Avenue, Brentford. She was the third of the four children of William Edwin Ker and Margaret Daisy (nee Poole). Win had two older sisters: Dorothy, and May who died aged six. William (junior), her brother, was born in 1919. She also had several aunts, uncles and cousins living nearby. Up until 1957 Win (or Winnie) had always lived in Brentford.

A ROXBURGHE CONNECTION

WIN'S PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS

Father William or Bill (senior), like his father and grandfather, was Brentford born. He lived with his parents: James John and Harriet nee Weatherly, in Lateward Road. Not having had any schooling, Bill was probably sent out to work by the age of 10 or 11 years old. He was born in 1890 so just avoided compulsory state education and was therefore illiterate. Bill had been a blacksmith's striker at a local barge builder's yard. In 1913 he obtained a labourer's job at Brentford Dock.

Mother Daisy was born in Wandsworth in 1891. It was not until late in her life that Win's mother found out that her real first name was Margaret. She had always thought it was Daisy, a name she disliked, and that Margaret was a nickname. She was delighted to find out the truth (I will refer to her as Daisy only because that was the name she went by at the time).

Her parents: William Poole and Frances nee Allertt or Allott, were originally from Birmingham. Frances died when Daisy was only nine and her father remarried. The circumstances that brought Daisy to Brentford are not known for certain. However, on the death certificate of her grandmother: Elizabeth Allert nee Hayes, it states she was residing there. With that in mind it seems likely that Daisy came to live with her when her own mother died. Unfortunately her grandmother too, died about a year later. A young Daisy Poole went into service then became a housekeeper for a childless couple by the name of Byramjee (a retired army surgeon originally from Bombay, and his English wife).

On the 1911 census Daisy's surname is listed as 'Kerr' for some unknown reason. What this does prove though, is that she knew the Ker family at least three years before marrying into it. One explanation for the assumed surname is that the Kers took her in rather than her going into the workhouse. Daisy's son (Bill junior) remembered being told that his grandmother Frances was 'well bred' and I wonder whether that had something to do with Daisy getting the position of housekeeper. Win said that her mum was treated well by her employers and that Mrs Byramjee (her husband died in 1913) gave her a picture or a piece of furniture upon leaving to be married.

Win's parents: Bill and Daisy, married in 1914. Bill's older brother and Daisy's older sister had become man and wife the year before, so they must have met through them. Bill went into the army at some time during the First World War but did not go overseas. Of her father, Win said he spent some of his leisure time watching Brentford FC home games and he enjoyed his cigarettes too, like many men of his generation. He was, she said, a strong swimmer, probably from swimming in the nearby Grand Union Canal and the River Brent, as a young man.

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FIRST HOME

The newlyweds got a flat in Mafeking Avenue, Brentford. This was a late Victorian side street made up of terraced houses some of which had been turned into up and downstairs' flats. They had no bathrooms and outside lavatories: presumably an inside 'lavvy' was added upstairs when they divided up the large back room used as a kitchen. I am relying on my memories of my aunt's flat in Mafeking Avenue, she lived in a downstairs flat in the early 1960s. The two flats shared a front door and there was no internal door separating them. Because the original house numbers were kept and no 'A' or 'B' was added, I have not been able to find out whether my grandparents, Bill and Daisy, were living upstairs or down. Either way their flat consisted of just three rooms.

The girls: Win, May and Dorothy, must have shared a bedroom because Bill (junior), the youngest child, told me he shared a bedroom with his parents. He said that only a curtain separated them and it is likely that this arrangement continued until they moved in 1936. This left the largest room, at the back, for use as a kitchen and living room. When May died, Win was just four and it must have hit her and the other two very hard. Perhaps though, they were too young to bear lasting psychological scars. At the back of the terraced homes an alley ran along beyond the outside yards and there was access to the upstairs flat via a wooden stairway. Father would have had a small piece of ground on one side of the central path to grow a few vegetables: the other side was for the family in other flat.

SCHOOLGIRL: THE 1920s

Win attended the local council run schools in Ealing Road, Brentford. She did not say much about her schooldays but I seem to remember she said they used slates and pencils, like most children at that time. The other thing that made an impression on the young Winifred Ker was that unless you progressed satisfactorily you would remain in the same class for another year while the other children moved on. I get the impression that Win was no more than an average pupil but the thought of being left in the same class with younger children motivated her to do her best. She said she was quite athletic and put this down to being tall and slim. I believe Win represented her school at high jump and was a good swimmer too. Perhaps the latter was due to her father's encouragement.

I do know that one of Win's school friends was Ivy Graham, or at least Ivy was in her class. On a Radio 2 programme in the 1980s there was a section called 'Where are they now.' Listeners would write in and appeal for old friends and relatives to get in touch with them. I remember hearing two ladies enquiring if anyone remembered them at school in Brentford. One was Ivy and I forget the other person now. Win remembered them straight away when I asked her.

LEISURE TIME: 1920s

Because motorised road traffic was almost non-existent in those days the local children had a tendency to want to play ball games in the street where they lived. Mothers were constantly telling their kids to go to 'the rec' rather than hang around outside people's houses making a noise and accidentally hitting someone's window with the ball. Win often mentioned 'the rec' which was next to Lateward Road just around the corner from where they lived. In the better weather when there was 'no school' their mother sometimes took them to Gunnersbury Park. Here there was no admission charge unlike Kew Gardens. They would have a picnic and the children would go off and play on the swings. Win said they also liked to watch the model boats being floated on the lake. Their mother liked to go into the greenhouses and see the exotic plants.

On winter evenings the Ker children were allowed to get out jigsaw puzzles and, as a family, play games of cards and board games such as Nine Men's Morris, snakes and ladders and draughts. Bill (junior) had a clockwork train set and they all played with that. I know about these things in particular because Win kept some of them and I played with them when I was young, in the early 1960s. The train set, which wasn't new when Bill received it, was passed on to her first son and then kept until I was old enough to treat it with some respect. Some favourite games of Win's childhood that hadn't survived in her possession, she replaced in more recent times, and they were brought out at Christmas. This is another reason why I have a good idea about the games they had as children.

The playing cards advertising (I think) Woodbine cigarettes were so worn by the 1960s, that when they were replaced nobody could deal or shuffle the new set properly and we reverted to the 1920s pack. (In later life Win told me that she had a particular dislike of seeing people play cards for money. She couldn't even bear to watch gambling with cards in fictional television programmes. An incident she had experienced must have upset her but I don't know what or when). The wooden jigsaw puzzles had pieces missing by the time I got to play with them. Like all family assets however, while they were still considered serviceable, they were kept. Win said that they had a double-sided jigsaw (issued the Great Western Railway in 1926) but “father spoiled it by numbering all the pieces on one side." Talking of leisure activity I remember Win saying she had never ridden a bicycle, as a child or since.

The Ker children all attended Sunday school at times but were not compelled to continue if they chose not to. Their parents were Church of England God-fearing people but I'm told they were not regular church goers themselves. Win gave me Daisy's bible which shows signs of much careful use. I grew up with the distinct impression that she was highly respected by her children. She would pass on words of advice and give her young family the benefit of her wisdom, like all good mothers do. Some of this was in the form of sayings that used to be passed down through families. Two I know Daisy used were: 'Never put anything in your ear smaller that your elbow' and 'There's no such word as can't.' Of course there were others.

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TEENAGER: THE 1930s

Win must have gone to the swimming baths regularly as she became a very good swimmer as already mentioned. She was very proud of a certificate she received for swimming a mile doing the front crawl. This, Win achieved at a local lido, which was pointed out from the top of a bus once when we went past. I cannot now remember the particular outdoor baths they knew as The Lido: recent research seems to indicate that the most likely is either the one at Ruislip or Chiswick. I don't know when this feat was achieved either so it could have been after 'the thirties.'

Out of necessity, most women learned to cook, do the washing by hand and be proficient in handicrafts. Mothers taught their daughters from an early age and Win's mother was no exception. Keeping home and making and repairing fabrics for the family were not seen as a chore. That's not to say it couldn't get tedious and tiring on the eyes by late evening in the poor artificial light of those days. Win was typical in that she took pride in helping her mother and looking after her father. They understood that the breadwinner worked hard all day and should not be expected to do anything when he came home.

At some stage her father was promoted from a labourer to a crane driver at the docks. His job then was to transfer goods by operating a swivelling jib from the cabin of one of the fixed dockside cranes. He controlled the lifting and lowering of loads between barges, lighters, smaller ships and railway wagons. Brentford Dock handled mainly coal, steel and timber. The cargoes were brought up and downriver from larger ships anchored at Tilbury and The Port of London. It must have been the coal dust that caused Win to say “he used to come home as black as Newgate's knocker sometimes." Other, what seem like rather quaint expressions now, that Win must have picked up from her parents include: 'bitter' very cold; 'shocker' someone or something very bad; 'coppers' change made up of pennies and ha'pennies; 'middle day' never midday.

Locked into a lifestyle of 'make do and mend' or go without, Win learned to knit, crochet, embroider and sew. She continued to practise these crafts throughout her life despite, in later years, being in a position to buy readymade woollens and replace worn out fabrics. Of course, before the '39-'45 war ready-made jumpers, cardigans, scarves and hats were too expensive and were only available 'up west' (in exclusive departmental shops in London's West End). When woollen garments were no longer worn, for whatever reason, they were 'unpicked' and the wool reused. Old material made very good patchwork quilts too.

In the 1960s my mother would sometimes ask me to sort out some buttons of the same type from an old tin. It contained hundreds of old buttons and she told me that the tin and much of the contents had been in her possession for as long as she could remember. A collection of old knitting patterns was also kept 'just in case' and again many of them looked very old fashioned to me. I remember mum's old Singer hand-cranked sewing machine too, with its wooden lid. Recent research revealed that it was a model first sold in 1923. Theirs would have come into the family second- or even third-hand.

Win did not go 'into service' like her older sister Dorothy. She left school and got a job at Cherry Blossom shoe polish factory in Chiswick. Win had dearly wanted to be a dressmaker and applied to several of the big West End departmental stores. I think she would have made a career of it but her parents couldn't afford to finance her training. They did pay for a printing apprenticeship for her brother Bill and Win always felt bitter about that. It was nothing to do with favouritism: it was because males would be expected to support a family. Whereas females were likely leave work when they married to keep home and bring up children.

In the 1930s a new housing estate was completed on the other side of the Great West Road. Then and for many years after, people referred to this area as 'New Brentford.' The new development was a mixture of houses and flats owned by the council. Win's family applied for, and got, one of the houses (in Brentwick Gardens). As well as having extra rooms, it was much lighter inside compared to what they were used to. Win, Doll and Bill (junior) all remembered the feeling of space around the neighbourhood and said it made living in Mafeking Ave seem very drab. Everyone knew everyone else and petty crime was unusual. The communal front and back doors which were designed to be kept shut and locked, never were: day or night. As a source of food some people kept rabbits, chickens and roosters which would crow every morning as soon as it got light.

After people like the Kers moved to the new homes, the old ones were updated by the housing department. Tiled fireplaces with back boilers were installed and electric lighting replaced the gas. I know this because Win's sister Dorothy told me so. She got married a year after they moved (to Brentwick) and got one of the modernised flats back in Mafeking Avenue: five doors along from where she and the family had been before.

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THE FAMILY HOLIDAYS BEFORE THE WAR

Win's parents always managed to take the family away on holiday each year. This was not the norm among the working classes in those days. Her father was given a week off work in the summer but, until 1938, this was unpaid. However his employer, The Great Western Railway Company, gave all their employees and their immediate families a free return ticket to any resorts served by that railway. For families living 'hand to mouth' like the Kers, the concession still required careful management because money had to be put aside throughout the year. This would pay for somewhere to stay and for treats like ice creams: things that they would not have to budget for if they had stayed at home. Consequently not all families who were entitled to the free travel, went away. It says something about Daisy Ker, who had to budget for it, that they always managed to get away for the week.

The first thing that my mother would recall about her childhood holidays was the wait at the station: “At Ealing Broadway the expresses would tear through, right next to the platform where we were standing. The noise and vibration were terrifying and I dreaded it every year" (They would have had to catch a stopping train to Reading and then change to a long-distance train there). Weymouth and Exmouth were favourite destinations chosen by Bill and Daisy in the 1920s and '30s. Penzance was another because, as Win remembered “father liked to get his money's worth out of the company and the far end of Cornwall was the end of the line on the GWR."

They usually caught the train on a Sunday because Bill worked until lunchtime on the Saturday. Sunday train services to the south-west were usually diverted to run via Swindon and Bristol because of engineering work to the track on the more direct route. In the 1950s, when my mother and father opted to leave Brentford with the London Overspill Scheme, they were given three choices of towns to settle in. She chose Swindon and more recently again, I asked why. All she said was: “I remember going through Swindon when we went on holiday as children." All Win would have seen is mile after mile of railway workshops and sidings. If there were other reasons for her choice (my father would have left it to her) I do not think she ever mentioned them.

If they were going to Exmouth there would be a two hour wait at Exeter St David's station. Win said that her mother longed to visit Exeter cathedral but dad was worried they would miss their connection so she never got to see it. She didn't think Penzance was a particularly nice beach but the railway ran along the front and provided a distraction especially when it was raining. With her brother and sister, Win would wave to the engine drivers and passengers of passing trains. When they went to Weymouth Win must have spent time at the harbour watching the three Channel Island steamers coming and going. The reason is because I remember us watching a paddle steamer at Torquay in the 1960s and this reminded my mother of the names of the Weymouth ships she had seen thirty years before.

The regular holidays meant that The Kers had more family photos than was usual at that time. Commercial photographers would take pictures of holidaymakers on the beach or walking along the promenade and from surviving photos, it seems that Win's family would often buy copies. This was another expense that had to be harvested from Bill's wage packets over the year.

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1940 & '41

I never heard Win and her family use the word 'blitz': always “the bombing." The concentration of factories along the six-lane Great West Road made Brentford a tempting target. Enemy aircraft had to stay above the barrage balloons and ack-ack making aerial bombing inaccurate. Therefore rows of terraced houses were just as likely as industrial buildings, to be hit. All the Ker family had their own stories of Brentford being bombed and strafed and of people they knew being killed, injured and/or 'bombed out.' But my mother was always quick to point out that “they had it far worse in the East End."

The Victorian terrace where Win was born was hit by a high explosive bomb in September 1940. What had once been the Ker family home was destroyed along with three adjoining flats. Luckily for them they had moved to the new estate in 1936. I don't remember my mum Win ever talking about going out in the garden to an Anderson shelter during an alert. The flats in New Brentford were substantially built with stone floors and stairways and they were probably safer staying indoors during an air-raid. I think the Kers' air-raid shelter got more use as a garden shed during the war: it certainly did in the years that followed. Win used to talk about “the night the docks were set ablaze and the sky in the east glowing a vivid orange." I think she was probably referring to the first major bombing raid on London on 7th September, 1940. Thousands of tons of inflammable materials burned when the dockside warehouses in the East End were set alight by incendiary bombs. I can well imagine the people in Brentford coming out into their gardens as it got dark to witness this strange new phenomenon on that Saturday evening.

"The siren going off was a bit worrying at first as you didn't know what to expect. Then they put anti-aircraft guns and searchlights in Gunnersbury Park and the tremendous noise of the guns made you feel better. It wasn't till later that we learned that they rarely ever hit anything." Win remembered buying horse meat from her butcher when there was no other affordable alternative and making clothes and sheets from parachute silk.

I asked my mum what was the worst thing about living through the war. She said “shrapnel was the only thing that really frightened me. I never felt unsafe being out after dark apart from the worry that I could, and did, bump into people in the blackout. Getting out of a train in the pitch black was the worst thing. I always liked to be home in time to listen to the 9pm news on the radio. If I was visiting Alf (her husband in hospital) this wasn't usually possible though." Her brother used to talk of seeing a girl cycling along the Great West Road when a bomb came down. He found it too upsetting to go into some details but said she was thrown across the road by the blast. At the same incident he could hear bits of jagged metal whirring past him as he lay on the ground, and embedding themselves in buildings. This story may have been what started Win's fear of shrapnel.

Whilst the bombing had subsided considerably by the middle of 1941, Win's war would continue to be an extraordinary struggle within the confines of wartime Britain. My notes continue but were mainly compiled using my mother's own memories of the years 1941 to 1947, which she wrote down in the 1970s. They include her feelings about looking after her seriously ill husband while trying to hold down a job and look after a young child. They are of a more personal nature and she would not thank me for making them public.

Links

Peter previously sent a photo of Winifred Ker taken around 1932, the page includes information about the Ker family provided by Margaret Ker, Peter Stuart and Peter Timms.

Includes a glimpse of Mafeking Avenue, as does this photo from the 1940s.

Try searching on the home page for references to 'Mafeking', there are several.

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Page published August 2024