She was born in London, on the same day as the Queen Mother. 4th August 1900. Their lives could not have been more different. Her father worked with horses and her girlhood was spent in various places in the rural South of England as he went from job to job. When she was 13 her family was living in Eastbourne where her father died and her mother remarried. The first world war started on her 14th birthday and by the end of the war she had worked as a bus conductress and a nurse. She met Alfred Clive in Brighton where he was working as a chauffeur after being invalided out of the regular army when he was injured and suffered the effects of shell shock after the battle of Arras in 1917. They married in Brighton and moved to London where she gave birth to five children. Her first, a boy, died during his birth and she subsequently had four girls. By 1940 her husband was working in the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chislehurst. He died suddenly of a heart attack one morning on his way to work.
She had to go back to work for the war effort and because she had young children to support. She had previously worked as a midwife for a family doctor and she used that experience at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. She looked after the women munition workers who were pregnant, monitoring their condition during their ante and post natal period. She was also an intrepid ARP warden and went round putting out fires from incendiary bombs during air raids with a stirrup pump.
After the war the women were discouraged from continuing their jobs and she also had to stop work. By then she had met and married George Harker who also worked at the Arsenal and she went back to being a stay at home wife.
Her daughters grew up and married and three of them emigrated to Canada. She did get to visit Canada in the 60's to see her grandchildren there before she died of kidney failure following an accident at home in 1968 at the age of 68.
A nice lady who had a very big heart and went through some tough times. She was my Nana, she died when I was 12 and I wish I had known her better, she had endless patience with us when we were children I do remember that.
She had to go back to work for the war effort and because she had young children to support. She had previously worked as a midwife for a family doctor and she used that experience at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. She looked after the women munition workers who were pregnant, monitoring their condition during their ante and post natal period. She was also an intrepid ARP warden and went round putting out fires from incendiary bombs during air raids with a stirrup pump.
After the war the women were discouraged from continuing their jobs and she also had to stop work. By then she had met and married George Harker who also worked at the Arsenal and she went back to being a stay at home wife.
Her daughters grew up and married and three of them emigrated to Canada. She did get to visit Canada in the 60's to see her grandchildren there before she died of kidney failure following an accident at home in 1968 at the age of 68.
A nice lady who had a very big heart and went through some tough times. She was my Nana, she died when I was 12 and I wish I had known her better, she had endless patience with us when we were children I do remember that.
She was born in London, on the same day as the Queen Mother. 4th August 1900. Their lives could not have been more different. Her father worked with horses and her girlhood was spent in various places in the rural South of England as he went from job to job. When she was 13 her family was living in Eastbourne where her father died and her mother remarried. The first world war started on her 14th birthday and by the end of the war she had worked as a bus conductress and a nurse. She met Alfred Clive in Brighton where he was working as a chauffeur after being invalided out of the regular army when he was injured and suffered the effects of shell shock after the battle of Arras in 1917. They married in Brighton and moved to London where she gave birth to five children. Her first, a boy, died during his birth and she subsequently had four girls. By 1940 her husband was working in the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chislehurst. He died suddenly of a heart attack one morning on his way to work.
She had to go back to work for the war effort and because she had young children to support. She had previously worked as a midwife for a family doctor and she used that experience at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. She looked after the women munition workers who were pregnant, monitoring their condition during their ante and post natal period. She was also an intrepid ARP warden and went round putting out fires from incendiary bombs during air raids with a stirrup pump.
After the war the women were discouraged from continuing their jobs and she also had to stop work. By then she had met and married George Harker who also worked at the Arsenal and she went back to being a stay at home wife.
Her daughters grew up and married and three of them emigrated to Canada. She did get to visit Canada in the 60's to see her grandchildren there before she died of kidney failure following an accident at home in 1968 at the age of 68.
A nice lady who had a very big heart and went through some tough times. She was my Nana, she died when I was 12 and I wish I had known her better, she had endless patience with us when we were children I do remember that.
She had to go back to work for the war effort and because she had young children to support. She had previously worked as a midwife for a family doctor and she used that experience at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. She looked after the women munition workers who were pregnant, monitoring their condition during their ante and post natal period. She was also an intrepid ARP warden and went round putting out fires from incendiary bombs during air raids with a stirrup pump.
After the war the women were discouraged from continuing their jobs and she also had to stop work. By then she had met and married George Harker who also worked at the Arsenal and she went back to being a stay at home wife.
Her daughters grew up and married and three of them emigrated to Canada. She did get to visit Canada in the 60's to see her grandchildren there before she died of kidney failure following an accident at home in 1968 at the age of 68.
A nice lady who had a very big heart and went through some tough times. She was my Nana, she died when I was 12 and I wish I had known her better, she had endless patience with us when we were children I do remember that.
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