Ian Yates
Ian Yates was born in Barnsley General hospital on 28th November 1960, to Rhoda and Ken Yates, younger brother to Joan, Geoff and Denise. Ian was interested in music from an early age, singing and playing drums to his school friend Kev’s guitar at 11 and then, with Kev, joining...
Ida Mary Steele
Ida Mary Steele was born in Wraysbury, Buckinghamshire, on 26th October 1923, the youngest of three children. The river Thames provided opportunities for swimming and rowing. After leaving school, she trained as a shorthand typist. In 1949, Ida married Ken Steele, a skilled cabinet maker. They set up home in...
Ida Rado
Ida Rado (1910 – 2015) was born on 1 July. She survived the Holocaust and was then forced to move to England from Hungary in 1957 after the Hungarian Revolution. In order to earn money, she sewed evening dresses. Ida enjoyed painting and cooking Hungarian food. She got married in...
Irene Louisa Staines
Irene Louisa Staines (1939 – 2021) was born in Ladywood, Birmingham on 12th April 1939. She had an older brother, Arthur. They were evacuated during World War Two. After her first job as a Bluecoat at a holiday camp and a spell in an advertising agency, she established her first...
Iris Blake
Iris Blake (1920-2018) was born Iris Holgate in Wakefield. She had an elder brother, Harold. She attended Wakefield Girls’ High School and then went on to do teacher-training. Iris volunteered as a fire-watcher during WWII. After the war she married Ian, her childhood sweetheart. They spent their first five years...
Iris Robinson
Iris was born in Cork in 1932. She came to England at an early age and grew up in Bournemouth with her younger siblings Esther and Ken. Their parents were Plymouth Brethren. On leaving school Iris went to Paris as an au pair to widen her horizons before returning to...
Ivy Blofield
Ivy Blofield (1919 – 2021) was born in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire on 1st December 1919 to Bert and Alice Gale, the fifth of seven children. At the age of fourteen Ivy started work in the Post Office near Slough. She relocated to London working through World War 2 and the...
James Alington
James Patrick Alington (1947-2018) was born in the Medway Towns, brother to Bill and Eve. After working for his father, Jim joined the RAF, becoming a pilot. He settled in Cornwall having been stationed there with the RAF. After leaving the RAF he worked for a building society and became...
James Drewery
James Drewery (1927-2019). Jim was born in Aberdeen where he grew up with his sisters Dorothy and Lydia. On leaving Robert Gordon College, he did his National Service with the Gordon Highlanders based in Somaliland. He achieved a first class degree in psychology at Aberdeen University and then started his...
James Leverton
James Leverton (1988 – 2019) was born in Oxford, the youngest child of Sue and Colin. James went to the Edith Moorhouse primary school, Carterton Community College and Burford School. Dyslexia made education difficult for James and he dropped out of school at 14. He attended the Allandale youth centre...
James Ronald Briggs
James was born 9th October 1930 in Croydon to James Lenard Briggs and Blanch Emily Briggs née Kuhn. In 1937 his sister Audrey was born and in 1941 after living in various places around London the family moved to Burton Farm, Aldington, Kent where James passed a scholarship examination to...
Janet Dundas Williams
Janet Dundas Williams (1938 – 2021) was born in Northampton on 1st November 1938, the only child of James and Flora Dundas. Janet spent her childhood attending boarding schools in the UK and living in Nigeria. Gaining a Sociology Degree from Durham University, Janet worked with Family Service Units (FSU)...
Janet Evelyn Rogers
Janet was born on 6th December 1947 to John and Enid Rogers in Cardiff and had a younger sister, Pam. Always proud of her Welsh heritage, Janet was six, when the family moved to England. Through her father’s job at Copse Farm, Harrow Weald, Janet grew up in a world...
Janet Johnson (née Tobilcock)
Janet Mary Johnson (née Tobilcock) (1936-2018) was born in London, to Edna and Dick, but was brought up in Rhodesia. She had a younger sister, Eleanor. Janet was deaf from birth and went to a special school for deaf children in Johannesburg. From the age of seven her mother took...
Janice MacTaggart
Janice MacTaggart was born on 1st January 1954. She attended Maidstone Girls Tech., followed by teacher training college where her subjects were piano and voice. Janice went on to teach mainly in secondary schools in London. In 1981 Janice moved from Hampstead to Leytonstone and at Hackney Free School she...
Jasper James Knight
Jasper James Knight (1937 – 2020) was born in London on 5th May 1937 to Betty and Jasper. He had two younger siblings, Robert and Diana. Jasper boarded at Wellington House Prep School in Thanet, followed by Radley in Oxfordshire. Jasper was a keen rower and beagler at Radley. He...
Jean Mellanby
Jean Mellanby (1931 – 2020) was born on 26th August 1931 to Mark Milburn Wilson and his wife Edith, in Stockton on Tees. Her father worked for the railway and she spent some of her childhood living in a railway station. When she was eight, Jean’s mother died and she...
Jean Quatrine
Jean Quatrine (1921 – 2017) was born Jean Forman in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire on the 17 March. She was one of six children including two sets of twins. During World War II, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and became a Radio Communications Operator. In her later life, she worked...
Jean Sykes
Jean Sykes (1930-2018) was born in Shipley, the middle child of Eva and Charles Sutcliffe. She grew up with her older sister Peggy and younger brother Peter. Jean left school at fourteen and went to work as a seamstress at the Meldina factory in Shipley. Jean did what she could...
Jeanette (Jan) Key
Jeanette Key (1933 – 1921) known as Jan, was born on 15th June 1933 a younger sister to Phyllis and Olive. Jan grew up and went to school in Ladywood, Birmingham. Jan met her future husband Jeff whilst working as a trainee secretary at Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds (GKN). They...
Jeanette Bishop
Jeanette Helena Bishop (1947–2019) was born in Byfleet, Surrey, one of four children. Jeanette (known as Nett) attended St Mary’s Infant & Primary School in Byfleet and then West Byfleet County Secondary School. After leaving school in 1962, she worked for a newsagents shop and then car seat belt manufacturer...
Jeff Fox
Jeff Fox (1963 – 2021) was born on 18th June in Redhill, the youngest child of Kathleen and Bill Fox, joining his siblings Joyce, Jane, John and Jimmy. After a brief time in Cornwall, the family moved to Bradford. Jeff trained as a nurse before working for the Vehicle Licensing...
Jennifer Hughes
Jennifer Ruth Hughes (1984 – 2020) was born to Tony and Lorraine on 22nd May 1984, in Bramley, Hampshire. She had a twin sister, Cathy. Jenny studied History of Art at St John University, York. She stayed in Yorkshire, got married and had two babies. Theo was born in 2007...
Jennifer Knox
Jennifer Ann Bradford Knox (1933-2018) was born in Richmond, London, to Edwin and Eulalie Latham. She had three older siblings, Stephanie, David and Jacqueline. She also had a younger step-sister, Betty. Jennifer attended The Sacred Heart Convent in Hastings but was later sent to a French speaking boarding school in...
