Advent Calendar Day 18

Dad aged 4

My father was Robert Frank White.  Was he named Robert for his grandfather and Frank for his Father?  Those two names don't appear to come from his mother's side of the family.

He was born in Hastings just before Christmas in 1918, after the WW1 peace was declared.  He never had any brothers or sisters.  His birth certificate shows no fathers name recorded.  As a child I never thought about why his surname was the same as his mothers and that mine was the same as his and yet my mothers was different to her mothers.  Even as an adult I never queried it or queried why there wasn't a grandfather on his side.

His foster parents were Alfred Crouch and Blanche Elizabeth Victoria Braban (more here)

Dad remained friends with Chrissie and Cecil and their children, Peggy born 1925 and Kenneth born 1926. They were the family he didn’t have as he never met his grandparents and aunts and uncles on his mother’s side as she was disowned by them. I have met Peggy and Kenneth too.

Dad left school aged 14, as was the norm back in the early 1930’s and he went to work in offices, one of which was an Estate Agents.

Dad enlisted in the RAF on 1/3/1940. Whilst doing his initial training in Morecombe he caught Menigitis which was a worrying time for the family.  His records gave details of his roles. 

He was mustered as a: 
1940 - Clerk, General Duties, rank AC1  
1942 - Clerk, General Duties, rank Cpl
1944 - Clerk, General Duties, rank Sgt
1945 - Clerk, General Duties, rank T/Sgt (T=temporary and in war time referred to the military establishment was temporary for hostilities only, not that their rank was temporary)

He went out to South Africa during 1941 and was mainly in the Johannesburgh and Cape area of South Africa.    During his time in South Africa he was in the choir that sang at the funeral of funeral of General Smutts in 1943.  He served in the HQ(o) 18 Group a reconnaisance group at Pitreavie Castle in Scotland, a maintenance unit in Nottingham and Central signals Service after returning from South Africa and before being demobbed in Bedfordshire in 1946.

Mum and Dad married later in 1946 and lived in a rented cottage in Robertsbridge where he studied in the evenings to become a Chartered Auctioneer and Estate Agent and also as a Chartered Surveyor.

He was elected an associate of The Chartered Auctioneers and Estate Agents Institute on 18th July 1952 and a Fellow on 1st October 1954, both when living in Watford.    We lived in Eastfield Close until I was about 18 months old and then moved to Orchard Close in 1953. We moved again when I was 8, this time to Kent but the job didn't really work out for Dad and we moved to Essex when he got a new job as surveyor for the Woolwich Building Society.  Promotion came fairly rapidly and his workbase moved to North London and we moved to Hertfordshire in 1962. (full circle!)

Wrestling was very popular on Saturday afternoon sports tv and Dad had great pleasure in watching it, that and football.  He also loved watching Dave Allen (comedian), Harry Worth, Morecombe and Wise and The Forsyte Saga, in particular Nyree Dawn Porter.  Mum used to tease him about have a "pin up girl"!

Dad was now a regional surveyor at this point with his office in Southgate and he travelled around the whole of East Anglia doing property surveys.  Mum would sometimes go with him and when I was a bit older I sometimes went during the school holidays.  He became an Associate of the Buildings Societies Institute on 6th December 1968. In June 1970 the above institute merged and he became a Fellow of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.  Dad was allowed to have his office in Harpenden, Hetfordshire and we moved there in 1972.  His choice of career certainly helped his love of getting out and about and not being tied to an office life every day.

Family was important to him and he took much interest to ensure the family were well looked after both at home and his mother and in-laws.  He was a very gentle man and you didn't often hear him raise his voice.

Dad and Mum moved several times during retirement, first to Minchinhampton, Glos where they were closer to both daughters in Glos.  However, the call of Sussex and the sea was strong and they moved first to a bungalow in Little Common and then downsized to a flat in Bexhill.   They changed flats 3 times by the time Dad died in  2006; not long  before their golden wedding anniversary.

Music was a lifetime interest for Dad; he was either playing the piano, singing or listening to it.  He always listened to Radio 4 and Classic FM on the radio and when I went out on Dad's journeys into East Anglia I too got to love classical music.  Dad, Mum and her father and two of her uncles were all members of the Salehurst Parish Church choir and Mum’s sister was too for a while.  Mum and Dad joined the church choir when they moved down to Bexhill too.  Music has carried on down the generations right through to his great grandchildren.  He never lived to see his great grandchildren.

Dad and Mum were keen collectors of antiques including furniture, porcelain and cranberry glass.  They would visit dealers in East Anglia when Dad was out working; some items they kept to use, some for their own collection and some they sold on and make a profit.  Furniture was sold and replacement antique furniture bought when it didn’t fit the rooms in the next home they moved to.

Dad had never been a very practical man and although he could change lightbulbs and fuses I don't think I ever saw him doing the usual DIY around the house and probably a shelf wouldn't have been level or even strong enough to hold anything.  Dad’s love of the outdoors was shown in his beautifully tended gardens and the daily walks wherever they lived.  His gardens were his pride and joy and he was forever out in the garden weeding and watering. They also continued to enjoy going for days out in their car and holidays around the country.  They only went abroad together once.  He was never far from his newspaper crosswords, particularly the cryptic ones.