A tribute

May Jones

AKA Grandma

29th March 1922 - 12th July 2011

Born 29th March 1922 in Hackney, London, May was number ten of eleven children in Charles and Lydia Sayers’ family.

May always spoke fondly of her childhood and family life, telling stories of her older siblings, large family gatherings, playing with their Old English sheep dog and her allocated chore of scrubbing the steps of the house.

May was always bright and academic. School life for her was enjoyable and by her own admission she smugly recalled being a bit of a teachers pet, being allowed to ring the school bell and getting to sit in the Headmistresses office.

She would of stayed longer in her studies but as was common at that time she left school at 16 and entered the world of work. She joined the insurance company Liverpool Victoria in Holborn as an insurance clerk.

After WWII broke out May decided that she wanted to contribute to war work but did not want to join the military as she already had 3 brothers abroad in active service and did not want to upset her mother by also putting herself at risk.

She instead moved to Furgusson radio in Enfield, who were involved in the manufacture of military radio equipment. This move also meant that she was away from central London and the worst of the Blitz.

In December 1941 conscription for women was announced. As hers was a reserved occupation May could have stayed at Fergusson’s, but she decided that she wanted to enlist in the W.A.A.F.

She was posted to Melksham where she took a technical training course learning, amongst other things, soldering and milling. After obtaining her “props” which was the equivalent of Leading Aircraft Woman, she completed a course on cameras used in aerial photography.

She was then transferred to Boscombe Down as an instrument repairer. One of her jobs was to prepare instrument panels which were taken up in aircraft for the purpose of testing and calibrating instruments.

May thoroughly enjoyed her time in the W.A.A.F. At Boscombe Down they were removed from the war and she felt that it opened out her life for her. She learned totally new skills and met people from all parts of the country and while on the camera course she even trained alongside Canadians. She also enjoyed an active social life on the base. This was very different to the sheltered life she had been leading in London before the war.

In 1944 May met a flight engineer called Alan, while playing bingo in the officer's mess. They were married in November of that year.

Alan and May's first daughter Patricia was born in August 1945. For the confinement May went to Brocket Hall, near Welwyn Garden City, which had been taken over by the City of London Hospital. May and Pat returned in recent years for a reunion event which for May brought back many happy memories.

Their second daughter Frances was born in May 1949

Immediately after the war, the family were living in Alan’s home city of Liverpool. In 1953 they moved back to Wembly in London.

She got a job in the Nat West bank, reaching the position of branch Sub manager before retiring in 1979 to rural Northamptonshire.

In retired life she enjoyed bowling and cross stitching and played an active role in the upbringing of her 4 grand children, Jonathan, Stacy, Katie and Sarah. She loved children and was delighted at the arrival of her great grand daughters, currently numbering 4.

As a person Grandma had many fine, admirable qualities. Initially quite unassuming, she loved her family and cared for us in a nurturing, firm but fair way.

Pat recalled this particular conversation from her child hood that demonstrated this fact:

Pat, do you want ice cream for lunch?

Yes please Mummy

Well go to the shop and buy some

Oh, I don't want to go

OK never mind. 

And that was that, no ice cream and lesson learnt.

Jonathan remembers being supervised by Grandma at the age of 18 spending the summer sitting his parents house. Observing from home at the end of the street she gave Jonathan the free range to have his friends over and enjoy the experience but he was well aware that she was about, and pushing the limits too far and serious misbehaviours would have not been an option.

Highly intelligent she was a firm believer in education. Her games were fun but often covertly contained a lesson, from humble beginnings of plastic counting eggs and making us recite times tables in the bath, progressing to the adding up of the bill and calculating the change in the mock up corner shop in the back bedroom.

Later on she helped with our university studies, but she could never resist an opportunity to remind us of her own mental agility, ruining Stacy’s psychology degree project by far out performing her age group in a test designed to show how memory declined with age.

In many ways she was ahead of her time, open minded and forgiving, strong willed and independent. She lived and worked in a male dominated world but did not let this get in her way, holding down an unusually powerful job for a woman at that time, even arguing (and eventually winning) with a sales assistant over the need for credit on a washing machine to be secured by her lower salaried husband.

Her nurturing side and emotional fortitude were tested to their limit when Pat was diagnosed with cancer. Despite being in her late 70’s Grandma moved in with Pat to care for her and ‘held the fort’ until she was better. It is felt by everyone in the family that Grandmas help at this time was invaluable and she exceeded anything that was ever expected of her.

I don’t think anyone who knew her could say that they were not changed in some way by Grandma, whether it be a strong work ethic, being good with money, self respect, or a insatiable taste for a G&T. I know for a fact my Lemon Drizzle cake wouldn’t be what it is today without her tutoring in the kitchen.

I will miss her but I am grateful for the enormous influence that she has had on my life.