Lansdowne Crescent: Chapter 2
Jean Day continues her story concerning the families who lived in the same crescent in the city of Worcester in the early days of last century.
At number 6 we have the Days, great friends of the family.
Mr. John Curel Roberts Day is a school inspector for primary schools. His wife Caroline was born in Mauritius and their house is full of pictures and souvenirs of her time there. They also had Mrs. Day’s mother, Mrs. Frances Duncan, living with them for awhile but she died in 1906. Caroline’s sister, Eveline, whom most people call Dot continues to live with them.
Dot is very small and shy and wears the thickest glasses. But she is a good friend to me, and through her I came to know another of my good friends, Charlotte Walker whose father I have already mentioned. Charlotte doesn’t live on the road (although in the past they lived just up the road at 4 Rainbow Terrace). She and her sister Mary now live at Redhill on Henwick Road. Their sister Lucy came back to live with them after their father died, but she herself has now died as well.
She was only 43. Their other sister Lucy married a German last year, and they now have a son. They live in London and have not come to Worcester to visit. But I am supposed to be describing the Days and I got diverted. The Days have 6 children but only 2 still live at home.
The eldest son, John, who is now 28, is ordained in the Church of England, and works as a schoolmaster and chaplain at Warwick School. He is also chaplain at Wroxhall Abbey the country retreat of the architect Sir Christopher Wren, set on the site of a medieval abbey with 27 acres of grounds and gardens complete with Wren's Walled Garden. He is married to May, who is also 28, the daughter of Mrs. Eliza Stinton who lives at number 9. John and May have one son Tom who is now 3.
The second son, Harold, who is 26, also married a girl from the same road, Muriel King, now aged 30 whose widowed mother still lives on her own at number 7. Harold and Muriel moved to Malaya after they were married. Harold had been working there for years before. Just before their wedding, Muriel’s father, George Williams King, who had been the Mayor the year before, died suddenly. He had cancer of the throat. And then poor Muriel had to have a very subdued wedding and leave her family and go off to Malaya. I can tell you that she wasn’t very happy at that time. And then at Christmas time when she was remembering the anniversary of her father’s death, she bore her first son, whom they called Harold Michael, but he died within days of his birth.
They had gone to the next village where there were medical facilities for the birth, but even the professionals couldn’t save him. Muriel was devastated. She writes to us, long and detailed letters of her life, so that is why I know so much about her it. She became pregnant again within a few months of the baby’s death, and was so pleased when her next son, John King Day, was born in late October 1909. She finds the life there very hard, even though her husband Harold was promoted and is now the Manager of the Mine at Ipoh. They have a bigger house and more servants, but the weather is still very trying and she misses her family and friends so much. There is talk that Harold might try to get a job in South Africa, where the climate would be more appealing.
