JANUARY 6TH - AUNTIE MADGE

As it is the 6th January today I will focus on my paternal Aunt, Auntie Madge. Born in 1901, Margaret Lillian MANSELL was the eldest child of Ivor & Margaret MANSELL and was my Dad's oldest sister.

From the 1911 Census we see that as a 10 year old, Madge was living in a 5 room house in Cameron Street, Norton-on-Tees with her parents and 5 siblings as well as Emma SMALL a 20 year old domestic general servant (I have yet to connect this Emma with Madge's mother Margaret who was a SMALL before marriage).

Some time after her marriage to Horace Matthew JOHNSON in Stockton in 1928, Madge & Horrie went to live in London at 7 Braywood Road, Falcolnwood where they remained (according to the electoral rolls) until about 1965.

This is the address referred to frequently in the letters from Dad to Mum during their courtship in 1940. It was the place they would regularly meet while Dad was on leave and Mum was working in service in London. I believe it is also the place from which they first planned to marry in 1940 before an unexploded bomb in Braywood Road put an end to their plans.

Some time after 1965 Madge & Horace returned north as they died in North Yorkshire in 1976 and 1984 respectively.

Happy birthday Auntie Madge!

(Photo taken on one of the many occasions Mum & Dad met with Madge, in the fur coat, and Horace, far left. Also in the photo is Uncle Ivor, at back right and Allan, the son of Madge and Horace born 1929, in front)