Family Of Four: 7 - Florrie's Serenity
Mrs Vivian Hirst continues her lively account of family life in Huddersfield in the early days of last century.
Mrs Hirst was one of four children who grew up in a large house called The Hollies, at No 13, Imperial Road.
Her nephew, Raymond Prior, eventually arranged for the publication of his aunt's memories of her childhood.
Before Eliza Jane became so grievously ill Florrie had been meeting some of the Hirst family at mutual friends, and other entertainments, rather more frequently than in the past. Will Hirst was often in the party, a widower, about thirty eight years old, and now, after a long, sad loneliness, his heart was stirred and he began to pay attention to Florrie.
He would invite her to go for walks with him, and to play tennis, but more frequently to go for bicycle rides. He was a great sportsman and a keen cyclist, and his courting was chiefly done on these occasions. Florrie would be all femininity, unable to ride up the hills, and so Will pushed her up even the slightest incline. This suited them both admirably as Florrie loved attention, and Will delighted in fussing, and helping her.
And so a warm friendship grew between them which was noticed by Eliza Jane. Seeing Will in the Park one morning she turned to Florrie. "You are never going to marry that little man, are you?" she enquired, her tone very disparaging. With two broken engagements behind her Florrie
was evasive, but she already knew in her heart that if Will proposed her answer would be "Yes".
As this came about and the third engagement was duly announced, no doubt many wondered what would happen this time!
Will had been married to a very talented girl, greatly loved by his family, and it must have been a bitter grief to him when she died, just after a year of marriage. They were both to go to his wife's former home for Christmas.Will saw Floss off at the station, solicitously wrapping a rug well round her. In those day the trains had no heating but a foot-warmer could be obtained at the stations. For some reason there were none available on this occasion, and when Floss arrived at her destination she was so chilled through and through that she could scarcely move. They chafed her limbs and put her to bed with hot water bottles and hot drinks, but she had a stroke and died within two days. I cannot imagine how such a man as Will, quite unusually tender-hearted and sensitive, could recover from so great a personal tragedy. He remained a widower for seven long years.
After the funeral he returned to his own home, "Arncliffe", in Mountjoy Road, and for some years his brother Edgar and his wife, Lizzie, shared his home.
Will and Florrie were married, very quietly, at Highfield Chapel on August 8th 1901, at Eliza Jane's earnest request. She longed to know that Florrie was settled before she died. The newly-married pair spent their honeymoon in London, and although it must have been a relief to the bride to leave her sad home atmosphere, it must also have shadowed their present happiness.
The couple returned to "Arncliffe" and Florrie grew very fond of her little home in spite of its being largely furnished before her advent. She and Will changed things to their taste and she settled down surprisingly well, to the delight and relief of her family.
In reality, Florrie now found a serenity unknown to her before her marriage. Although her girlhood had been pleasant in many ways it had been left to her to make her own pleasures, and I have thought that there was a lack of understanding and companionship between the parents and children. I think, too, that the family became more than a little tired of Florrie's love affairs and had not a great deal of patience, which one can well understand!
Florrie had been responsible for the housekeeping from the early age of sixteen; she attended on her mother for several years, and her natural skill for dressing hair pleased Eliza Jane, particularly when her illness incapacitated her. Then, of course, there was Irene, a naughty, unpredictable child who would roam away for a day at a time, causing great anxiety and distress, and who was always resentful of authority.
Florrie was often lonely, and she said constantly that she never knew real happiness until she enjoyed her married state, and that the happiest period of her life was when she had her babies round her.
By this time, neither she nor Will was very young and Will was passionately fond of children so they hastened to have a family and accomplished this very cleverly as they had the four of us in five years. As the three eldest, Doreen Thomson, William Rex Thomson, and Vivien Thomson followed one another in such quick succession, the house became too small. So they removed to "The Hollies", Imperial Road, Edgerton (again numbered 13 as was "Mount Royd") and Florrie's youngest, Robert Sydney Thomson, was thus the only child to be born at their new home.
