Teddy

10th April 1918 – 14th August 1989

Teddy was born Edna Josephine Millar, on April 10th 1918, at 3 Cromac Street, Belfast, Ireland to Alice Maud Millar nee James and Alexander Smith Millar.
Teddy was the second of the four sisters – her elder sister being Jean, who had been born in Dublin on 6th February 1917.  Alice had earlier given birth to a daughter,  called Joan (who had red hair and died as a baby), and twin girls who also died. I have lately had a photo of Alexander’s father sent to me and that is obviously where the red hair came from and probably why her father was nicknamed Sandy.

I have also managed to find that Joan was born in Hendon, and named Joan M James, who died shortly after birth in 1915 in Chapel en le Frith, Derbyshire,  but I have not been able to find any proof of the twin girls, so I assume that they were still born.

Alice and Alexander, went on to have two more daughters after my mother, Nora Courtney, who was always known as Bunty, was born on August 1919 also at 3 Cromac Street, Belfast, and then Vera (known as Chick), who was born on 1st February 1923 at  20 Daniel Place, Hendon

Jean was the only daughter to not have a nickname, and when she married, she married someone with the same surname. She simply changed the a in Millar to an e. Teddy, Bunty and Chick all married someone whose surname ended in ett, with Mockett, Amphlett and Brett and I continued the tradition by changing my surname to Bennett!

We always thought my mother’s birthday was on the 10th April but there was some confusion over the actual date as Mum said that they had celebrated it on the 8th having got in a muddle with that of her sister, Bunty. However her birth certificate says it was  on 11th that she was born, and her baptism certificate says 10th.

We believe that Alexander and Alice went to Ireland having gone through some sort of marriage.  I have never been able to prove the marriage definitely. The only entry I have found is for an Alice M Janes to A Millar in the second quarter of 1915 in Bristol, which could possibly be them. The first daughter, Joan, was born out of wedlock and I have to wonder if that is perhaps the reason that they went to Ireland, as a baby out of wedlock was very definitely considered a disgrace and Alexander appears to have been a Catholic.  I have not been able to find any proof of the Irish stay, apart from the baptism certificates of Jean, Teddy and Bunty.

On Teddy’s baptism certificate, Alexander is described as a musical instrument maker and also a musician, but on Jean’s certificate he is a cinema worker in Dublin. I do remember that my mother said that he played the piano in the silent movies.
I am not exactly sure when the family returned to England, but it must have been about 1921, as Chick was born in Hendon in 1923, & Alexander is working as a musician in an orchestra, according to her birth certificate. I gather from notes from Bunty, that they came back to England due to the Troubles in northern Ireland.

 Below is a photo of the three older girls at the front gate of their home in Hendon,  with Chick in her pram.

I believe that they lived in Hendon until Teddy was aged about 15. She always recalled a happy childhood and told of how her father played musical instruments, including the zylophone and drums. We believe that his interest in music started through his father, who owned a pawnbrokers in Aberdeen and would have instruments in the shop. I gather that Alexander would repair the instruments and taught himself to play them. Teddy told me how the four sisters would all put on plays and musicals of their own in their garden.

The family often seemed to come to Broadstairs for a holiday, from the photos of Teddy etc here. I believe that her Aunty Flo had a home here for a while as well as her Aunty Nan, who ran a hotel in Chandos Square and then later in Pierremont Avenue (called the Rothsay).

Here are a couple of photos of them as a family, believed to be taken in Brighton.

Teddy lived in Hendon until about 1933, when she was aged 15. That was when her parents separated. I gather from Aunty Jean, via Marion, that Grandfather just arrived at the house with a handcart, to remove all his belongings leaving a distraught wife and four daughters.

Alice Maud always believed that they were married, so they had obviously gone through some ceremony together after Joan was born, as Joan’s  surname was James. However, Alexander was already married, & I have found his first marriage to Margaret Chapman Clark Davidson in 1904 in Aberdeen. She is also mentioned on his entry into the Army as being his wife. I gather from Jean that Alice Maud found out that she was not officially married to Alexander when she applied to receive his army pension to help support her and the girls after he left her, only to be told that it was already being paid to his first wife. This caused Alice to have a breakdown and also to hit the bottle rather hard.

Alexander left Alice to live with a Winifred King, who was a dancer in the chorus at the London Palladium, where Alexander was playing in the orchestra. They had a son Terence born in 1935 but they were not married until 1941. I have not been able to find out if  Maggie Millar ( his first wife) was still alive at that time or even if he had divorced her, although I think that the latter was unlikely as he was a Catholic. I would love to know if she had died by 1941 or if he was committing bigamy again!

Alice Maud had two sisters, Ann (known as Nan) and Florence (known as Flo) and two brothers, George and Charles. Nan Rayner lived in Chandos Square, and later in Pierremont Avenue in Broadstairs, running a hotel called Rothsay there and she used to give Alice Maud employment from what I can gather. She was instrumental in getting Teddy a place at the Victoria Home – now Stone Bay School – as a children’s nurse, when she was aged 16. The very first day that Teddy arrived in Broadstairs, the Matron told another nurse to take Teddy out and show her around the town, (not really necessary as she had been coming to Broadstairs since she was young for her holidays).

That was the evening that Teddy met Norman Mockett!

Teddy worked at the Victoria Home for some  years, and later was employed at a hospital in Maidstone. She told me once that she had a boyfriend when she was working at Maidstone, simply because he had a motorbike. Apparently, he would give her a lift to Broadstairs on it for her to see Norman! I love this photo of my mother, when she must have  been working at Maidstone.

In 2022 I went on a cruise around the British Isles and we stopped at Belfast. It was my first time there but as it was a Sunday, most places were shut. My friend and I decided to go to an indoor market and walking there we stopped at traffic lights and I noticed that it was Cromac Street where Teddy was born. It was now a large, commercial and busy road. No longer the little road of terraced houses that it was when Teddy was born in 1918. At the market, I was able to find that the church where she and Bunty were baptized was not far away so I walked there. It in fact is St Annes, which is Belfast cathedral and I was able to take photos of the church and font.

You can read about Norman and Teddy or you can now go to Teddy’s parents. https://www.judithbennett.co.uk/my-grandparents/

Photos of a young Teddy