8th Feb 1913 -2nd June 1985
Norman, baptised Hugh Norman but always known as Norman, was born at 155 Beach Street, Deal to George William Mockett and Alice Florence nee Pysden, known as Florence.
Norman was the ninth and last son. The sons were Horace, Harold, Bertie William, (who died at the age of 2), Walter Richard (who died two months after joining the navy in WW1 at the age of 16), Leslie, Frank, Alfred, Wilfred and lastly Norman.
The Mockett family taken in 1919
His elder brothers had already left home, and were in the navy by the time my father was born, so he did not know them well growing up. He was always close to Alfred and Wilfred – they being closest in age to him. Being the last child, he was rather fussed over by his mother, so I was told, and she even turned his socks in the right way for him to wear!
His father was a builder in Deal. I think that Norman had a pretty happy childhood and went to school at Dover Grammar (which is now the girls school building). His brother, Alfred, also went to Dover Grammar & was there at the same time as Athol Voizey – Jeremy’s father. I understand from my cousin Kathie, that her father won a scholarship to the school, but do not know if my father did so. I imagine he might well have done so, as his parents were not well off in those years, and so would have had trouble finding the school fees.
I don’t know a great deal of his childhood, but his brother, Alfred, told Hugh that he was pretty ill at one stage having cut his leg badly on barbed wire. Apparently Norman was about 8 years old and went into a farmers field with Alfred and Wilfred. (I imagine that they were scrumping apples!). The farmer caught and chased them and as Norman was much younger than his brothers, he was left behind by them. He caught his leg on the barbed wire fence in trying to get out. This was in the days before penicillin, and so he was off school for a year. He was lucky to have survived!
Dad always used to tell us that when he was young he did not have toys, only a wooden train engine. How times have changed for the children of today.
When he started working he was offered a job in Broadstairs, working for Daniels, an estate agents which I always thought was along from Pierremont Hall but having just found it on the internet, appears to have been in Station Approach Road, I believe that Norman lived in digs in Broadstairs during the week. He appears to have returned home to Deal on a Saturday evening, and gone back to Broadstairs in time for work on Monday morning. He seemed to enjoy this work. His brother, Alfred, had emigrated to America at this stage and from a letter that Norman wrote to him, Norman was at one stage thinking of going to join him there.
However, before Norman could go to America, he met Teddy when she first came to work in Broadstairs, which must have been about 1935.
From letters written to Alfred, I have found out much more about my father’s life as a young man. The one thing that shocked me was to read that in the summer of 1933, when Norman was aged just 20, the Doctor gave him just 48 hours to live. He was thought to have a brain haemorrhage and Florence was advised to get people in to say goodbye to him. From Kathie, I have also learned that the Doctor – Alfred Mason – was born in 1877 so would have been aged 56 when Norman was so ill, and was a surgeon who lived at The Limes, 6 Broad Street, Deal. According to Kathie, this was pretty close to where they were living. but I am unable to find a Park Lane now in Deal. There is a Park Avenue and a Park Road. I was unable to find a Park Lane in Deal until a second cousin, Judith Davies, who lives in Deal was able to find it for me in old maps. It is now called Beechwood Avenue. I believe that the house that our Grandparents lived in and also built another beside it, has been demolished.
When I told Cheryl that Norman had been given just 48 hours to live, she said to me “Thank goodness he pulled through or none of us would be here, and what would she (Cheryl) have done?” How true!
Norman was obviously enjoying his work at Daniels and he often wrote to Alfred and some of the letters which begin in 1929 when he was still only 16 and at school, give some idea of his life then. I have put them all in a separate post.
https://www.judithbennett.co.uk/letters-from-norman/
It appears he was taken ill just after Whitsunday that year, which I have looked up and found was on June 3rd. Dad wrote to Alf on 23rd June, and then Florence wrote about him on 25th August telling more about it. Norman’s letter tells us about his sailing exploits with two friends, Bert Fielder, who was best man at Dad’s wedding, and a Ted Goodburn and they seem to have had an extremely energetic weekend. I wonder if that was the cause of his illness, as the Doctor said he had a brain haemorrhage, and in October he was still having headaches.
Norman’s parents moved to Broadstairs to be near him & Wilfred on 29th December 1934 (and also because there was so little work in Deal due to the Depression). Both Norman and Wilfred moved into Inglewood with them. According to Kelly’s directory his father continued to work as a builder here. Norman’s brother, Leslie, who was married and was living in Deal at the time of his son, Peter’s, birth in Deal in 1929, also eventually moved to Broadstairs and lived in Howard Road, just behind Chaucer Road where I was born. Leslie was a painter and decorator.
George William bought Inglewood, in Vale Road, across the road from the Police Station and Haddon Dene school. It would seem from the letters, that Norman was instrumental in finding the house for them, as he was working at an estate agents. The asking price had been £800 and they purchased it for £650. Today in January 2022, Hugh has just told me that it is up for sale for £700.000.
INGLEWOOD, VALE ROAD, BROADSTAIRS
He and Florence lived there until their deaths from flu in March 1949 – two weeks apart. I do remember my parents going to the funerals as at the time Hugh, Richard and I were ill in bed with mumps. My parents had a put-u-up in the dining room, and we were all in that bed together.
From the letters that Florence wrote to Alfred, it appears that Norman had a busy social life and went to clubs – not the night clubs of today – but to Toc H which was opposite St Peters Church for many years.
Norman met Teddy on her first evening working in Broadstairs, and five years later they married on April 1st 1939 – just 5 months before WW2 was declared.
