Anthony Willis family tree » Lily Jackson (1894-± 1984)

Données personnelles Lily Jackson 

• Elle est née le 23 août 1894 dans Eaton Bray, Central Bedfordshire Unitary Authority, Bedfordshire, England.Les sources 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9
• Résidant:
• le 31 mars 1901: Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire, England.Source 2
• le 2 avril 1911: Luton, Bedfordshire, England.Source 8
• en l'an 1939: Bedfordshire, England.Source 7
• Elle est décédée environ décembre 1984 dans Wayland, Norfolk, England.Les sources 3, 6
• Elle est enterrée dans Cranfield, Central Bedfordshire Unitary Authority, Bedfordshire, England.Source 3
• Un enfant de William Goss Jackson et Eliza Ann Rollings

Famille de Lily Jackson

Elle est mariée avec Leonard Frank Wheeler.

Ils se sont mariés le 4 août 1917 à Bootle, St Mary, Lancashire, England, elle avait 22 ans.Les sources 5, 9

Enfant(s):

1. Leslie Marion Lilley  1918-1996

Notes par Lily Jackson

Extract taken from a story for the BBC of life during WW2 by Mabel Vaughan O'Donnell, née Wheeler, daughter of Leonard Frank and Lily Wheeler (née Jackson):

Quote "I am Mabel Vaughan O'Donnell nee Wheeler.This account has been handwritten by me and transcribed by my son Conal O'Donnell.I didn't like my first name and adopted "Teddy" instead!

In 1939 we had our last summer holiday in Portsmouth.We saw a German navy boat anchored there and German sailors strolling about in pairs.Then Poland was invaded-the boat left in a hurry.The harbour boom was put in place and as tension mounted we set off for our home in Cranfield ,Bedfordshire.

Listening to the wireless we heard Mr Chamberlain announce " we are now at war with Germany"I looked at my father and tears were rolling down his face.I was astonished .I had never seen him cry before.Men didn't cry.

He said:- "Those poor boys , they will have to go through it all over again".

Later he left for the orchard where he dug up a tin box which he had buried under an apple tree.In it was a well wrapped up Webley revolver he had last used in the 1914-18 war as a Captain in the 24th Btn the London Regiment (The Queens)He was wounded in the leg at at the Battle of Loos in 1915 and badly gassed during the final German offensive in 1918.

Saying grimly to himself "I always knew I would use this again"he then told me -a girl of 15-that if the Germans came he would shoot me , my sister Peggy and my mother Lilley (sic).He said he had seen such horrible things in France that he would despatch us .I was stunned to hear this.He hated Germans.The only good one is a dead one , he remarked.

My father was appointed the Home Guard area commander ,and he soon got all the village men organised.He was the local schoolmaster and the school and playground became the Home Guard headquarters.We lived in the schoolhouse .It was quite large and explosives and weapons were stored in our front hall under the stairs .We had Molotov Cocktails,hand grenades,guns,pikes ,sandbags everything you could think of.

My mother became a nervous wreck."If we get a direct hit we shall all go up " she said.

"Yes we will"replied my father laconically.

Drills started .Men came in every night and marched in the school playground.A black telephone was installed in our house.Cranfield 247!It was manned night nad day.Rotas were arranged .Blackout curtains were put up .

A huge blast wall was built outside our middle room window.It was dubbed the safest room in the house and so it proved.The cellar was turned into an air raid shelter.We had a Mohammedan prayer rug on the stone floor,a small table, four chairs ,a primus stove and kettle and cups and saucers for tea and tins of biscuits.It was quite cosy.

We all huddled down there when German bombers flew directly overhead on their way to bomb Coventry and then back down again when the bombers returned home.We rushed out and saw the horizon alight with flames from the burning city.We realised that we were all in for a bad time. ...

... Our house was quite often briefly lit up by the Cranfield flare path as aircraft made their final approach. My mother was always ringing up the CO claiming it was making our house an easy target for hostile aircraft.

"There's a war on Madam!"he'd patiently reply after each complaint.

We had very little food.Ours was an open house to all servicemen.People came in with their own contributions.One RAF type came with a string of onions his father had grown.Later in the war the Americans were very generous arriving with cartons of Phillip Morris cigarettes(Mother smoked like a chimney!),tins of salted peanuts,sweets,chewing gum and all sorts of goodies.". ... Unquote

For full text, refer to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/28/a7257828.shtml

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Barre chronologique Lily Jackson

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