ME AND MY BROTHERS. Chapter 1: Formative years

by Donald McDonald Simpson

The author as a young boy

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SIMPSONS

Joseph Simpson	Dorothy Anderson

We are a family of the North East of England and the Simpsons have had a long association with South Shields. My great grandfather, Robert, owned a printing business in the town. During their married life, my grandparents lived in Salmon Street. Grandfather Joseph died in a fall down stairs in his forties when my father was only about 12 years old. Although he had wanted to be an architect he was sent to sea. He was very neat and meticulous in his handwriting and would have been a very good draftsman. Grandmother Simpson (Dorothy Anderson)'s father had been a Skipper but there hadn't been much of the sea in the family before that. They had a house in Allendale in Northumberland.

Donald McDonald	Jennie Anderson	Alexander Cuthbert	Inscription on rear of photo

Tragedy of one sort or another seemed to dog the Anderson family. I was named after Donald McDonald, the husband of Grandmother Simpson's sister, Jennie. She was tragically blinded soon after they were married when she leaned out of a railway carriage window on her way to her honeymoon and hot cinders blew back into her eyes. Then her sister Florence married sea captain Alexander Cuthbert in the early 1900s. He served in the merchant marine during the first world war. He met a heroic end after he had been attacked by a U-boat in 1914. Instead of trying to run away, he turned and rammed the U-boat leading to the sinking of both vessels. He was awarded the Lloyds Medal posthumously. I didn't know much about the rest of the family but my father seemed to have an inordinate number of aunts: auntie Tizzy, auntie Florrie, auntie Maggie amongst others.

Henry Leuliette Simpson	Shields Diary June 1920	Entries for June 8th and 9th 1920	Ellen Welch

Ellen's ring	1920 Grant's advertisement

My father, Henry Simpson, met my mother in 1920 at a "Young 20s" church group. He was a quite shy man; the opposite of my mother who was a boistrous character. She wasn't interested in him to begin with. He left a little diary in which he wrote: "7am Arrived home, Breakfast No. Shields, Afternoon sleep, Queens; Met Nellie. Called Mile End Road to ask N to go to Marsden - nothing doing today. Afternoon A. Flo. Evening Daniels, Tynemouth with Elsie and Dolly". She had a boyfriend who was a skilled worker in the shipyard. Unfortunately he suffered a head injury when he fell from a ladder on board ship and after that he would have severe headaches and odd behaviour. As a result he broke off the engagement and after that Henry and Ellen got together. They got married in 1924 on a shoestring and had quite a lot of difficulties in the early days.

A young Harry

They rented a house in St Vincent Street which was quite pleasant by the standards of the day, I think. In those days rent was so easy - a few shillings a week would get you a house and St Vincent Street was newly built. It did not have hot water or indoor sanitation. There was only one living room and we were all in there at the same time. The other two rooms were bedrooms. Over the next twelve years, they had four sons: Harry (1926), me (1928), Peter (1930) and Brian (1936).

Father worked his way up and became a Captain himself but spent his early life helping to support the family. He travelled extensively overseas although my mother often joked (at least I think it was a joke!) that he never learned to swim. His career came to an end when his ship from Hamburg, heavily laden with timber, foundered and sank. Fortunately the cargo floated and no-one was lost. After that he was based ashore.

A Maritime Gallery

Captain Henry Simpson (far right); lunch break with the crew	Celebrating crossing the equator

SS Sheaf Crest It was probably one of these vessels that sank	SS Sheaf Water

EARLY FAMILY LIFE

Kodak A1 Autographic Jr camera

We were very hard up when my father lost his job as a skipper. However while he had money he was always buying gadgets and things for the house which were quite extravagant at the time. He was interested in photography and owned a Kodak folding camera which he had taken with him on many of his trips. We had a grammophone which stood on four legs and had a large speaker sticking out of it and Mother had an expensive K.B. radio. There was also a vacuum cleaner (not many people had them in those days) which stood in a big polished wooden box. When he was out of money he must have found it very difficult. I'm sure he did.

In the house there were always books. Father had a bookcase full of interesting volumes, encyclopaedias and reference books which stretched from floor to ceiling in one corner of the living room. Our parents were very tolerant because they didn't expect us to be quiet through the day. I remember that Peter and I used to play under the dining room table sometimes and we would use it as a camp. Mother knew we were short of space and that was the only place we could play if we couldn't go outside. The one very strict rule was that seven o'clock was bedtime. We could read in bed but by then the house had to be quiet, so that she could sit and she could read her library book.

Lilliput cover about 1939	"Air Raid Precautions Can Wait!" (1)

Every Saturday morning, for as long as I can remember, she took all of us to South Shields library and we all got books out. It was very old fashioned. When we went in we all had to show our hands to prove they were clean before they would let us take the books. So we all had plenty to read. One little bit of father's middle class aspect showed itself when we boys all went to the barber to get a hair cut. We didn't have any money ourselves but the man would take our names because he knew us and he would tell my father who would then pay for the three of us. I also recall a certain magazine called Lilliput which we found in the barber's place. This magazine had pictures of the opposite sex often wearing very few garments and whenever we went to have our hair cut we made straight for them. It was quite funny really but I think we must have had our hair cut more often than any of the other boys in South Shields.

Harry and Donald Abt 1933

Of the four brothers Harry was the most sociable and the most adventurous. He became friendly with another family of boys and used to go and play cards in their house. We all went to Sunday School. Harry and I were in St Michael's Church choir as we had reasonable singing voices. We especially enjoyed the big concerts that were given in Durham Cathedral. Harry got himself into the sea scouts and I was a cub. Many of Peter's activities were interrupted by the war.

Mother always insisted that we had a month's holiday in the summer. Although this sounds extravagant, a month could be taken very cheaply if you knew what you were doing. She would take a bus or a train two or three weeks beforehand to wherever she thought would be nice (Richmond, Hexham, Rothbury) and she would walk around until she found a house with a "Rooms Vacant" sign. She would then explain that she had these four sons and she was looking for two bedrooms and a living room. If the lady of the house would do the cooking she would go out every morning and buy the materials. She always managed to arrange something and we became friends with quite a lot of them exchanging Christmas cards with many of them for years. We always had that month's holiday and even during after the war she continued to do this with Peter and Brian. It became a family tradition.

Harry got through the eleven plus examination in 1937 and managed to get into South Shields High School. I'm not sure that he was very happy there but that was that! Anyway a couple of years later I took the eleven plus too and got in as well. That may have caused some dissent between us at the time because I was about eighteenth out of the thousand or so children in the area to have sat it. I would have gone into the top stream except that was when the war broke out ...

.........to be continued

REFERENCES

1) Lilliput Pocket Magazine: Inventory at eBay shops

FURTHER READING

Added June 10th 2007
Last modified: August 7th 2007

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