A formidable woman

[RJ_Paton]

Just thought I would share this story ...

My wifes G-Grandmother Gertrude Kite was at home when the head Bailiff and the local Constable came calling. They announced that some game had been stolen from his lordships personal collection and that they intended to trace the culprits. Good old gertrude declared  as a "God fearing Christian woman" that no stolen property would ever cross her threshold.
Nevertheless the Baillif and the Constable declared their intention to search the house as it did belong to his lordship.
Some 30 seconds later both the Bailliff and the Constable were outside the house having met the business end of a broom and the Constable declaring very loudly that nothing on this earth would ever make him try to cross "that woman " again.

I think I would have liked to meet her 

[moscan]

Indeed she sounds like a strong minded woman... I was told the story of my great grandmother known as the "mimmie"  who liked to sit in the snug of the local pub... having a small glass of Guinness ( for the iron you know!) chatting to her friends when some men ran into the pub slipped bullets into her glass and handing her a gun to slip beneath her long black skirt.  They then stood innocently at the bar when they were followed into the pub by soldiers called the black and tans... no self respecting soldier would have dared searching her... she was only 5' tall  but she would not be crossed by anyone or so I was told.... maybe they bred women to be amazing in those days I always wondered what her reaction would have been to her granddaughter marrying an English chap and a member of the services to boot.. 

best wishes

Mo

[JillJ]

I think I would have liked to meet both of them!

Moscan, are you sure your great grandmother was drinking Guiness, not a black and tan?

Jill

[moscan]

lol... Yes I am positive... I mean isn't that what they say.... Guinness is good for you ! ( personally cannot stand the stuff)

Best Wishes

Mo

[Boongie Pam]

Lol - I do reckon they made them tougher in them days!

It was the mystery round my ggrandma Violet Beatrice Palmer nee Hughes(below) that was a driving force in us doing our family history.

When I say mystery it wasn't anything bad she just never spoke about her family - nowt, nada, not a sausage.  What we knew about her amounted to the following; she hated stairs at least the cleaning of them & she was the youngest of 11 (9 gals, 2 boys).

The story that I loved which shows her as "a formidable woman" ...

She used to go the Gaumont cinema on Park Road in the Dingle Liverpool for the matinees.  One week day in the mid seventies, she would have been in her mid 80s, she was sitting in the half empty cinema enjoying a film when a young "lad" sat next to her and started to stroke her leg!

Rather than create a fuss she removed the 6 inch jet beaded hat pin from her hat and pushed it an inch into his leg.  He could hardly make a fuss could he or he'd be seen touching up an old lady.  He extricated the pin and limped away.

She also used to carry 5 or 6 D-size batteries (the big ones!) in her hand bag.  She could teach anyone a thing about self defence that's for sure.

Pam
 

[Fitty]

What a great photo.  Much better than the posed ones.

[Su]

She's probably get done for carrying a lethal weapon these days!

[Boongie Pam]

The photo was one of the walking photos.  A guy would take your photo then flog it to you.  I have a lovely one of my Nan as well (she's the little 'un in the middle) and she's 16 in the other.

I think it is the only time you could snap these 2 women - jump out on them unexpectedly but becareful of the hatpins!

P

[MarieC]

You certainly couldn't get on an aeroplane with those hairpins, these days!! 

My gggrandmother Margaret Anne Cameron was another formidable woman!  She was a mixture of Dutch, Irish, French, and possibly Scottish, and it seemed to be a pretty amazing mixture!  At her rather palatial home where she lived as an old lady and ruled quite regally, she was known (not to her face!) as "Caledonia Stern and Wild" because she could so readily quell a miscreant with a glare or an icy word.

She fell out with the local Anglican rector - goodness knows what the poor man did - and thereafter attended the Presbyterian church, where she had a pew which no-one else would dare to enter.  A story from my uncle, who was staying with her as a small child, tells that she did not deign to notice the sidesman taking up the collection until he coughed deferentially.  When she was suitably the centre of attention, she produced a sovereign from her purse, and slowly and deliberately deposited it in the plate!

She died at the age of 99, after a most adventurous life. 

MarieC