Ronald Basil Girdler

1925 - 2017


Helene Girdler

1927 - 2020



Alice (b. 1886)

Married Christopher Bettsworth (the brother of Ernest Bettsworth, Gert’s husband 2 sisters marrying 2 brothers) in 1908.


Christopher was postman and was always known to me as "Uncle Joe" He was a kindly with a large "Stalin" type moustache (hence the nick-name Joe) , and I remember him taking me to the museums at South Kensington when I was a child. Alice was known as "Auntie Allie" and was a very active person she could not sit still for long and was happy doing things to keep busy. She used to visit our family at Colindale at regular intervals, and always gave me some pocket money when she visited.


Auntie Allie and Uncle Joe moved to Fulham (ca. 1913) and lived on the ground and first floors of a 4-floor house at 489, Fulham Road, S. W. 6. (right opposite the Chelsea Football Ground) I remember the house and garden as I was later born in the same house and visited it frequently afterwards. They had 3 daughters Kath (b. 1912), Glad (b. 1916) and Vera. Auntie Allie was unfortunately very ill for some time with cancer of the pancreas before she died in 1945 (aged 59). Uncle Joe died in 1957 at the age of 87.


Of the 3 daughters, Kath married Frederick Evans (known as Mick), moved to Church Road, Byfleet, Surrey, and had 2 sons Ian and Paul  They later moved to Godalming and then on to Norton-in-the-Hales. near Market Drayton, Shropshire, where Mick tragically died of cancer. Kath went to live with her son Paul near Coventry, but later died of the results of a stroke she suffered while visiting her other son in Esher. She died in Kingston General Hospital in 1987 (aged 75), Her elder son. Ian, married Lindy O' Hair and lived first at Jacobswell, near Woking, then at Esher. They have 3 children Charles and Alexander (twins) and Zara. Kath's younger son, Paul, married Elaine Gittings and they have 2 children - Nicholas and Zoe.


The second daughter of Auntie Allie and Uncle Joe is Glad. Glad worked in an antiques/ furniture shop in Putney for many years. She remained single and lived after retiring in Seaford, but moved to Newton Longville in 1990.

 

The third daughter is Vera, who married James Lorton (known as Larry) They moved to Southall, Middx, and have 2 sons Christopher and Peter. They have now moved to Newton Longville, near Milton Keynes. Their elder son, Christopher, is still single, works in the Citybank at Hammersmith and lives at Greenford, Middx, Their younger son, Peter, married Margaret Matthews in 1974 they have 2 daughters (Sarah and Janice) and live in Stony Stratford.


Percy (b. 1889)

Born at Juniper Terrace, Shalford, on 18th. July 1889. On leaving school, he became first a telegraph boy and then a postman at Shalford. He met Ethel Muriel Blackmore of Forest Hill whilst she was visiting her married sister at Pound Place, Shalford, and they were married at the Guildford Registry Office on 9th May 1914. They also lived at Pound Place, Shalford. Uncle Percy served in France during the First World War in the Signals Company, Royal Engineers. On his return from war, he transferred to post office engineering and subsequently received their Imperial Service Medal on retirement in 1949 for 42 years of loyal service.


Percy and Ethel had 2 children - Marjorie and Gordon. Ethel sadly died in August 1926, aged only 35. Uncle Percy remarried in 1936, to Nellie Mitchell of Stoughton, Guildford. He died in 1970 (aged 80), followed Nellie in 1972.


Of the children, Marjorie was very ill as a child with T.B. She never married and lived at Stoughton, Guildford, until she died in Jan 1991.


Gordon was born on 29th August 1917, and on leaving school was learning the butchery trade. He was a Terri torial Soldier and was called up on the outbreak of the 2nd World War into the 1st/ 5th Queens Regiment. He survived the Dunkirk evacuation, and was then transferred to the E, Surreys. He took part In the invasion of North Africa in Nov 1942 with the rank of Colour Sergeant and was killed in action in the fighting around Zebourba, aged 25.


Cecil (b. 1893)

During the First World War he became a Uncle Cecil was born in 1893. sergeant in the 10th Rifle Brigade and was awarded the Military Medal for successfully leading his men to the attack on Eagle Trench under very heavy shell fire on 23rd Sept. 1917, near Langemarck" . After the war, he became a foreman of the Rhymney Valley Water Board. He married Irene White and they lived in Caerphålly and had 3 children Dorian (b1924), Audrey and Michael (b1933). He died of lung cancer in 1958 (aged 65). Dorian worked in the PSO. He married Myrna and had 2 children, Julie and Timothy. Dorian lives in Tenby. Audrey married Basil Amesbury. Michael married Jean Butler in 1956 and they had 2 sons Ian (b1957) and Simon (b1965). Michael Is now married to Phyllis Morgan and they live in Newport. He works as a regional sales manager. His son, Ian, works for Barclays Bank and lives in Horsell, near Wok ing.


Leonard (b. 1895)

Married Gertrude and had a daughter, Pat. Uncle Len was a farm labourer and then a plumber. He lived at 21, South Street, near the castle in Guildford, and died in 1964 (aged 69). His daughter, Pat, married Terry Bunce and they became publicans, first running a pub In Godalming and later the Woolpack Inn at Elstead, Surrey. They had a son (Paul?) who died in his first year, and are now separated. Aid from cancer in 1998


Frederick Richard (b. 1896) -- Died in infancy, aged only 2 months.


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