The legacy blogs I have written about members of our family have been sporadic and not in any order. The time has come to honour Great Great Grandads.
John William Barnes was born in the Yorkshire mining town of Dinnington in Yorkshire. His dad was a colliery engine driver and I believe Bill went into the mine as well. We have a copy of his leaving school certificate dated June 1918. So, he was just 13 he missed WW1 and I know little of his life until wham in his late 30’s he was called up for WW2. Bill went over to Normandy on day 6 of D-day and started the long drive up through France Belgium and the Netherlands….The only anecdotal memory told to me was that he was a shy young man who would run off, book in hand to the church tower, whenever visitors came.
Bill’s future wife, a widow of 4 years, had escaped back to Gainsborough during WW2 as the bombing in Hayes got very heavy. In Gainsborough she lived with her mother and a friend of hers turned out to be Bill’s sister…..she asked Olive to write to Bill as he was very lonely driving his truck up through Europe………they married on July 9th 1945 having courted mainly by post.
Soon Olive’s daughter was proud to call him dad and he over the years he became beloved grandad to Jim John and Angela and special great grandad to Tristan and Carina.
Bill moved into Olive’s the family home in Gainsborough and both Olive and Bill worked for the Coop and every Sunday would take great great great granny ‘baccy’ out for a drive in one of Bill’s treasured Fords.
Jim John and I all spent holidays with them though Olive found the boys hard going. I went separately and was treated to a day out on the bakers round with grandad. Battery driven vehicle that travelled miles; grandad in his brown coat and basket on his arm. He would knock and say ‘Ought?’ the reply might be ‘Nought’ and he would reply ‘Reat’ and on his way. The Coop baked amazing bread and cakes. I treasure those memories.
In the 50’s and 60’s they would holiday one week with Gwen and Walter and one week in a caravan in Scarborough. Sadly, Olives’ mum became too frail to travel and then became so needy that the couple could barely get away. Caring for her mum was affecting Olives’ health and they had a few really hard years. At one point in the 50’s we only kept in touch by letter in a gap of three and a half years.
Bill loved to go for walks adored the countryside, he kept an allotment and grew tomatoes in a lean to in the garden. For many years he kept his beloved car in a garage a couple of streets away and would go on his bike to fetch the car. In later years the car lived in the street outside the house. He washed and polished so much he nearly washed the car away and drove all of them like a lorry; foot on the clutch so heavy you thought he would wear it out.
I wonder if Tristan and Carina remember being taken over to the park by their great grandad. Bill named Carina ‘little miss mischief’
There was only just room for Granny Baccy and me a tiny child in the back
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