Joan Edith Turner 1915 – 2006
Born 10/02/1915 in Wheatsheaf Inn, G.D.[ this is present day 38, North Street]. Her parents were William George Turner, a Carpenter[Journeyman] and Edith Constance (Mead). Birth registered by the mother, 13/03/1915. Have b.c.BT1. This implies that the Wheatsheaf was still operating as an Inn in 1915. She was baptised in G.D. church on 4/4/1915, alongside her brother, Lionel Dudley, by then aged 20 months, their father given as carpenter, address theWheatsheaf, North Street.
38 North Street, Dunmow- never actually called Dunmow House!: term we used, just meaning the Dunmow house where she was born!!. It was still functioning as the Wheatsheaf Inn until 1919.
She was the second and last child. Elder brother was Lionel Dudley Turner , born 27/08/ 1913 in Ipswich, ref. 4a.1902.
Joan and Lionel Turner
The family lived at 9 Buchanan Gardens, Kensal Rise from at least 1917 until 1930 [From a 1917 postcard from Harold Turner and 1926-1930 Electoral Roll Books, LMA]. . Later on they may have lived at Cavendish Road, Kensal Rise [but no confirmation from Electoral Roll Books 1932-1938]. .The unknown latter address- after Buchanan Gardens- was a nice house [ or part thereof] that her mother moved them out of at one stage (without her father’s knowledge) and moved them to Goodmayes by 1938.. She first attended Chamberlayne Road School, then , from 1927- 1932?, the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Willesden and I do have a school magazine of this. Also a school leaving certificate???: her father had wanted her to leave school before this, obviously not believing in education. Her inseparable friend was Olive Newman.The Congregation of Jesus and Mary opened a convent, c. 1908 in Park Ave., Willesden Green.
The photos below are probably taken in Chamberlayne Road School - no uniform, aged 6/7? , maybe St.Georges Day?.
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Aged 11-12, in the school netball team. . . . . . . . . Chamberlayne Road School Netball Team 1926-7
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Chamberlayne Wood Road School, 2010, name shown up high.
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Old photo of the Convent, taken from its grounds.
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The Convent in 2010.
At the convent the nuns used to call her & Olive the terrible twins.
Her childhood was not happy. She felt embarrassed by the clothes her mother made for her to wear to school and her parents were constantly at war! Her father did drink too much, but we do not know whether this was cause or effect. Her brother Lionel, aged 12, joined the Temperance Society at their local church, St. Martins.
St.Martins Kensal Rise, nearby to Buchanan Gardens. Lionel, & thus no doubt Joan, attended there.
She used to walk long distances to school to save her bus fare; this must have been after the family moved from Buchanan Gardens, as not more than 15 minutes walk from there to the convent?
Up until 1928, holidays were very happy. These were spent with her Grannie, Ellen Annie Mead [Robinson], in Dunmow. 38, North Street had been the Wheat Sheaf Inn, run by her grandfather, Walter Mead, and his father, Thomas, before him. It still functioned as an Inn until 1919. Grannie used to send the trap to the station to collect her and Lionel. Grannie also used to provide her with a decent haircut: ‘Oh, Edie, what have you done to this girl’s hair’ was a regular refrain. her cousin, Margery Davis, 2 years younger than she, lived there all the time with her father & mother, Billy & Pett. Grannie died in June 1928.
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Joan Turner in the 1930s[at Bude?], portrait taken 1938.
She left school around 1932, well above the then minimum leaving age of 14. Apparently this was at her mother’s insistence and her father used to call her a sponger for still being at school. She then went to work in the office at Arthur Saunders, 3,Southampton Row, Holborn, WC1., a firm that made and sold very high quality clocks and watches and jewelry. ( also heard of Havendon’s? – was this another firm she worked for.]. Here she met Eva Lyons, and through her met her future husband, Frank Lyons. Kath Saunders was also a workmate. Also Doris Dore, who became my godmother. She made some trips abroad for holidays in the 1933 - 1938 period.
In 1938 the family were at 42 Westwood Road, Goodmayes, Essex[ have postcard from Olive to her parents - Joan was on holiday with Olive in Lucerne this year] : this not much more than a mile from Courtland Avenue where she was by 1943/4..
1939. Joan Edith Turner, born 10/2/191., book keeper, is living 42 Westwood Road, Ilford with her mother, Edith Constance Turner, born 11/2/1890. Turner has been crossed out and Lyons written over it. Also, on the rhs it says'see line below'. But that is the first of 3 lines that are officially closed!! Her father, William George Turner, born 26/10/1889, foreman carpenter, is living in the house of Albert Brown, 1903, foreman leadlight glazing dept, at 162 Park Road, Kingston upon Thames.
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Len Lyons, Frank Lyons, Joan Turner, Lionel Turner, Olive Newman
She married, aged 25, Francis William Lyons, aged 25, on 14/12/1940 at Goodmayes Church( All Saints). She was then living at 42, Westwood Road, Goodmayes. He was given as Gunner, R.A., residing at 426 S/L Camp R.A., Ullesthorpe, nr. Rugby.Her father, William George Turner was given as Carpenter & Joiner, his, William John Lyons as Furrier Agent. Witnesses were Lionel Dudley Turner, her brother. and John Leonard Lyons, his brother Len. Have m.c. M6. Her father was apparently not invited to the wedding in case he got drunk. Even so, there was a disturbance between William John Lyons, Frank’s father, and Bill Neil, sister-in-law's Hilda’s husband, due to the fact that the latter had failed to get bridesmaid Jessie Lyons to the church in time for the wedding. Another bridesmaid, Audrey Payne, Eva’s daughter, was also absent due to illness. But school friend, Olive, was there on time as a bridesmaid. I possess the bill for the reception at the Seven Kings Hotel, about £13 for about 30 people.
There are pictures of the reception on Francis William Lyons page, also the marriage certificate. .
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Westwood Road Goodmayes 2010 . . . . . . . . .60 Courtland Avenue Ilford 2008
1942 at Ullesthorpe?, with the other 8 men on Frank's searchlight?
Frank was in the army by this time and Joan accompanied him to Leicestershire where he was stationed at Ullesthorpe. . Their first child, Hazel Joan, was born on 29/07/1942 in a nursing home in Leicester. She lived at The Plough Inn, Earl Shilton at one stage & probably also at Holly House, Hunton - his 'address' on the b.c. She is also recorded as being at High View, Widford, nr.Chelmsford, the home of her Aunty Pett. Some time after this she returned to Ilford and had a flat at 60 Courtland Avenue . Life was spent running for cover in the shelters. One night apparently she went round with Hazel to her mother’s flat, 87 Endsleigh Gardens, very nearby, because she felt nervous. On her return home, there was debris in Hazel’s cot, a bomb had landed nearby. She would also have had to deal with the trauma of the deaths of William John, Jessie and young Jessie Maud Lyons on 28/06/1944 when a V1 rocket destroyed their home in Kenton Gardens.
Lionel Turner - wonder where this was taken?
Her brother Lionel and his wife Babe emigrated to Detroit, USA in 1948.
insert map with Herongate & Endsleigh
She and Frank bought 92, Herongate Road, Aldersbrook, Wanstead Park in late 1944.[probably with money inherited from his parents, killed in June 1944] Christine Rosemary, their second child, was born on 28/03/1945 in Ilford Maternity Home , though I was always told I was born in the King George 5 Hospital.
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92, Herongate Road, Aldersbrook, Wanstead Park 2008
They lived in Herongate Road until 1953. During this time there was still rationing.
She spent a lot of time taking her children to flat foot clinics, sunray treatment, speech classes (Chris spoke "double Dutch" and Hazel was the only person who could understand her!), etc. She made all their clothes. She and Frank participated in Old Mercer activities (his old school) and they had a car from about 1948. The registration of the second car they had, a green Austen 40 was LXA 789!
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Lyons
family 1950-Eva, Harry, Joan,Audrey, Chris, Hazel & David |
Worcester
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In 1953 they moved to 6, Worcester Crescent, Woodford Green. An upmarket, detached house with lots of open space around. This facilitated Hazel’s transference to Woodford County High School, but I do not know if this was the reason for the move.
Joan on Worcester Crescent porch.
Here she joined the local W.I. and got involved with their drama group. (Both she and Frank had previously enjoyed acting with the Old Mercers). So when Frank decided to leave Whichelows [at the end of 1957] and got a job in Northampton she was upset.
Hilltop, Ashton 1958
They bought Hilltop, Ashton, Northampton and I can remember her complaining that there was not a tree in sight: I promptly counted over 100 in the one acre garden, but admittedly they were all in their infancy! After a very difficult year she did eventually become reconciled to the place and founded a Drama Group in the village, which went on to win several Cups in Northamptonshire W.I. festivals. She had a very favorable review for her production of 'Isolation at Eyam': I have this.
When Frank started his own company, Euro Leathers, with Richard Jelleyman in 1967, she went to work for them, keeping the books, etc. They started to play Bridge about this time, and continued with this pastime until their deaths. They regularly went on Bridge holidays abroad.
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Frank and Joan at Boughton Lodge (with Arthur Law, her Australian cousin, who I did not know nor show any interest as to who he was at the time). . Joan & Frank, maybe ~1995
About 1988 they moved to Stable Lodge, Boughton. Here she got involved with the NSPCC and organized Bridge Drives for them amongst other activities.
She took great pleasure in her grandchildren and was particularly close to Joanna.
After Frank’s death in 2002, she found life increasingly difficult. She used to say that the war had destroyed her nerves, and she did not possess a positive personality. She considered moving close to daughter, Chris, in 2003, but was persuaded by friends to stay at Boughton. But before dying she said that she had had a good life.
She died on 5/02/2006, in Northampton General Hospital of Ischaemic Heart disease and Aortic Stenosis (old age), five days before her 91st birthday. D.c. D16.
She is buried, with Frank, in the beautiful, old Boughton Cemetery shown below alongside the entrance gates to Boughton Hall .
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Need to check what photos I have [ still in Cornwall Sep 2009] of her young days and look through Hazel's again.