A Wonderful Lady - Chapter 13 Bananas, Pretty Hats,and Music Making

I remember Uncle Jack coming and cousin Flo brought Muriel when she was a baby. Muriel was very good baby and Frances was about 4 years old at the time. One morning, when Muriel was asleep in the pram, Frances went to the pram and said, "If you aren't a good girl we will send you to the bananas home." She meant Barnado's of course!
I think Frances was about 4 years old when she had a lemon coloured. organdie dress and I was able to buy a hat to match it. She looked very sweet, but the trouble was that everybody we met said "What a pretty hat!" We finally ended up at Grandma Fuller's bungalow (Romansleigh) and, of course, the first thing that Mother said was "Oh Frances , what a pretty hat!". Frances snatched it off, screwed it up and threw it on the ground. Mother said, "Oh Frances!" the collapsed in laughter.
I remember Frank walking round the garden in Laindon one Sunday afternoon, when he came in and said,"What's happened to the onions?". "Well what has happened to the onions?", I replied. Then a small proud voice piped up, "I been weeding Daddy".Frances used to ask difficult questions, one being "Who puts the light in the moon?". Frances gained her scholarship in Wales and was top of her Junior school before going to Port Talbot Grammar School in 1942.

Music making

Soon after taking up residence I was asked to take over the organ at Manor Mission, which I did until Frances was on the way. Frank joined the choir that practiced on Friday nights. The hall was heated by slow combustion stoves which were lit on Saturday mornings ready for the Sunday services. By Friday evenings the hall was pretty cold. One winter was very severe and a glass of water in the bedroom at night would have have ice on it by the morning. On one particular Friday evening the choir leader decided we should practice an anthem called "Calm me my God and keep me calm whilst these hot breezes blow." Somebody giggled as the icicles were almost forming on our noses. When I gave up the organ I was given a portfolio containing twelve solos by Chaminade and I still have the music. I did a bit of piano teaching and had about four pupils. When we married Frank said that when he got his first increment I should have a new piano. True to his word as always, his birthday was on the 14th September and at the beginning of October 1929, when he became due for an increase in salary, we went to Boyds in Holborn and I chose a piano which I have owned ever since. The inside has been refurbished twice and due to regular tuning and daily use it has given me excellent service and untold pleasure.

A Wonderful Lady - Chapter 12 Married

Eve and Frank's Wedding on 15th September 1928. Starting in the back row, left to right:

George Fuller, Mr Rainbird, Uncle Ted, Uncle Lando, Mr Boore, Arthur, Uncle Frank Lane

Next row, Uncle Joe Deeks, Jim, George Twyman, Alf Webb, Uncle Frank Deeks,

Next Row Olive, Flo Weller, Dolly's hat, Auntie Edie Pilling, Tilly, Alan, Fred, Ada's hat, Mr & Mrs Humphreys

Next Row, Doris Webb, Auntie Rhoda, Mrs Collins Snr, Uncle Charlie, Mrs Atkins, Auntie Allie, Uncle Arthur, Father Fuller, Walter, Mrs Shepherd, Auntie Em, Maud, Cis, Florrie, Doris, Dad, Queenie Heffer, Doris Deeks, Auntie Flo Leverett, Mother Fuller, Madge, Ethel, Frank, Eva,Floss Mum

Front Row, Ida Wootten, Happy, Rosie , Peggy,Vera, Audrey,Auntie Kate, Auntie Edie Deeks

We became engaged in the December of 1927 and fixed our wedding day for the first Saturday in the following September. Frank's brother, George and Rosie, his bride to be, had decided they would marry on the last Saturday in August. We thought the family could not stand two weddings on consecutive Saturdays and so we moved our date on two weeks to the 15th September.

We had a wonderful day in every way including the weather. The Laindon folk hired a bus to get them to and fro and kindly offered us a lift back, but as we did not have a honeymoon we chose to travel 1st Class by train to our new home.When we reached St Teara, Ethel had been in and laid the table ready for a meal and there were lots of flowers. I shed a few tears of happiness as it really felt like home. We acquired a tabby kitten and a fox terrier puppy called Ginger as he was a real live wire, The kitten was called Tiger as she did a lot of stalking and jumped about all over the place. The two animals had a great time together, but were a bit rough in their games sometimes. I bough Frank a Minty chair as a wedding present; Tiger was allowed to sleep in it, but not Ginger who would be on the rug in front of the chair, whilst Tiger would be curled up asleep in the back of it. When Tiger had had a sleep she would come to the front of the chair, lean over and tickle Ginger's ear. He would put up with it for a while then he would get up and try to reach onto the chair towards Tiger who, of course, moved right to the back! As she receded to the back of the chair, up would go one of the paws on to the chair, then a second paw, but when the back legs moved up a stern voice would roar "GINGER!" and he would sit down with a flop and sigh. The floors of the bungalow were of some composition material and had to be polished with red Mansion Polish, which it soaked up like a sponge. I think it had not been polished for some time and during the first year of our marriage I suffered from severe rheumatic pain probably due to the damp. When I think back, I wonder how I coped, but in those days my outlook was different and I was much younger!

I think it was about two years after we married that Mother and Father Fuller decided to leave West Ham and come to live in Laindon. Father was to build a bungalow on a piece of land adjoining that belonging to Auntie Edie and Uncle Joe Pilling (Frank's Auntie and Uncle). They came to stay with us, using our spare bedroom from October 1930 until April 1931. As the lorry with the timber for their bungalow could not be driven along the unmade Tavistock Rd., it was dumped in our garden and had to be carried up plank by plank. Father carried most of it and the family men folk helped when they could. The foundations were laid by some local builders named Williams. It was a colossal task but Father Fuller was not easily daunted. The bungalow had to be ready by April 1931 as they were expecting Frank's sister Lena and her husband Ben, and their children, home from Malta, where they had been living since 1928. Frank's brother Fred, fixed us up with electricity eventually, but not until 1931 after Frances was born. My brother-in-law Arthur, was an expert carpenter and he and Frank built a splendid sun lounge on the back of the bungalow. This was a great help as I was then able to have the cooker out there. Some years after we were married gas mains were laid in Tavistock Rd. and we were connected so that I could have my first New World cooker. The Valor had served a very good turn but the burners were situated low down on it and when Frances was toddling about she would turn them up! We were glad to get the stove out of the bedroom as we had a double bed in there and were then able to have folks to stay.

We had a Cox's Orange Pippin tree in the garden and I believe another cooking apple tree. We planted a pear tree and were so pleased when it produced eight pears but one day the baker said to me "What's happened to your pears?" All eight were on the ground; we'd had a gale and that was that.

A Wonderful Lady - Chapter 11 Bikes, Motorbikes and St Teara

St Teara in about 1933 with cousin Audrey and a young Frances

In 1922 I started going out with Frank Fuller who I had met through the church and through playing in his father's orchestra. Frank bought me a bike. It was a beauty that he had built to specification; it must have cost a fair bit. We cycled miles from East Ham, and from Laindon, and quite often to Epping Forest. Then we thought we might save time and money in train fares to work in London - Frank worked in the Board of Education in Whitehall and I was in Charing Cross Road - if we had a motor bike and side car and so we bought a Matchless costing £60 in 1925. Frank hired a garage about two minutes walk from where I lived. As he lived in West Ham he used to cycle there and pick me up after collecting the motor bike. The venture was a complete dead loss. We only kept it for a year. The first time we took my mother out in it she put her foot through the floor of the side car! We used it for some time and the one weekend we went to visit Frank's Uncle Frank and Auntie Em in Laindon - our first long journey - and starting back home the back axle broke so we had to leave it and come back by train. It was a dead loss, especially as it always seemed to start raining about 9am when Frank picked me up and stop about 10am when he dropped me off, started again about 5pm and so on. I bough Frank a mackintosh outfit; it was well used. Several times the bike went wrong in the City between Aldgate and St Paul's and trying to find a garage around there was like looking for a needle in a haystack! We did manage to get to Yarmouth and back with it once. After about 9 months it wasn't a money saver after all and Frank sold it for about £30. Although we were not engaged, we reckoned if we saved up for about 2 years we would be able to get married. I think it was then that Frank bought the tandem, which we made good use of and cost nothing to run. From time to time we used to cycle down to Laindon, visiting Frank's relations - Auntie Edie and Uncle Joe (Pilling) , Uncle Frank and Auntie Em (Lane). I don't remember going to work on it, but I do remember we visited Shanklin and rode home from Southampton - I was saddle sore!

Frank's Parents and St Teara

Frank's parents live in West Ham. Mother Fuller (Elizabeth) was a teacher and Father Fuller (Henry) was a signwriter. He was a very clever man, but very modest. In his spare time he produced beautiful oil and water colour paintings, made lovely pieces of furniture and was also an acclaimed violin maker - he was in the violin maker's directory that included Stradivarius! He could repair bows, which was something Frank also did in later life.
When visiting Laindon we always like the look of a bungalow called "St Teara! which I believe is the name of a Devon village. It was in Tavistock Road and had been bought by Uncle Frank (Lane) to accommodate his parents, John and Ann. After they died he let it to weekly tenants. It consisted of four rooms and a scullery, and an outside earth closet. Water was laid on, but no heating system. There was no gas or electricity. In the scullery there was a brick copper. We thought we would like to have the bungalow as our first home and asked Uncle Frank if he would sell it to us. The price was £500. It needed a lot of alteration and decoration to suit us and every available weekend we went to Laindon and did as much work as we could, and leaving our homes on Saturday afternoon - no free Saturday mornings in those days - and returning in time to play in the orchestra on the Sunday afternoon. That is when the tandem really came in handy with no fares to pay. I used to wear a sweater and divided skirt made for comfortable cycling. One Sunday we were delayed in starting back and I had to take my place at the piano in my cycling gear. Doing up the house was really hard labour, but well worth it in order to get the home we wanted. It took along time with so few hours available. Their was a kitchener stove in the living room and that had to come out and a new stove put in place. We wanted picture rails too, which are now old fashioned. Cooking was done on an oil burning Valour Perfection stove, which used to be in the second bedroom as there was no room for it in the scullery. Frank's Uncle Lando used to bring the oil round in large drums every so often. Lighting was by oil burning Aladdin's lamps, which were very good as long as there was enough oxygen in the room.

A Wonderful Lady - Chapter 10 More Music and Meeting Frank

Frank and Evelyn 1923 I continued my musical studies and gained four certificates at the London College of Music; Primary First Class, Elementary Honours, Intermediate Honours and Senior First Class. For the intermediate exam I gained the highest number of marks and was awarded the local prize "Two Hundred Opera Plots" by Gladys Davidson. Miss Brown was very pleased and also bought me a book called "Little Boy Georgie!. After the Intermediate I gave up lessons as I was about to start work. I was talking to Miss Brown one day and she begged me to go back and take the Senior. I felt I could not afford to do so, but my dear dad came in and said, " You pay for the music and I'll pay for the lessons and exam fees". So I took the Senior and gained a First Class Certificate; that was in 1922 when I was 17 years old.

In 1918 when I was 14 I used to play for the dancing class in East Ham. It was a voluntary arrangement, but all good practice for me. After I began playing for the Men's Meeting, a Mr Fuller asked me to join his orchestra. I was only 14, but one of his daughters Ethel took me under her wing and looked after me. Ethel played the viola and sat next to her brother, Frank, who played the cello. I didn't know it at the time, but Frank was later to become my husband for for over 50 years. Henry Fuller was the conductor of the orchestra and his sons George and Fred, played the double bass and cornet respectively. The first violin was played by his eldest son Walter, and Walter's wife Madge, also played the violin. There were a number of other orchestra members not related to the family, about 25/30 of us eventually. We always played before the Sunday evening service at West Ham Central Mission and gave concerts at various other places, usually churches,starting with an overture accompanied by the congregation singing. I had to accompany the soloists; I was really loved doing that. The soloists were very good, including some professionals and well known names, such as Madame Jessie Strathern, Ben Davis (the Welsh tenor), Ruby Helder (lady tenor(, Katie Daniells, Ruby Cox, Annie Douglas, Hugh Phelps and many others. I was a sight reader and accompanying had always been a pleasure to me. I found it just as important to have a preview of the words as well as the music. You have to know what the soloist is singing about and remember the soloist comes first, however fancy the accompaniment. I enjoyed playing with the orchestra and , when I was seventeen, Frank Fuller asked if he could walk me home and that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, marriage, and partnership.

A Wonderful Lady - Chapter 9 Music, Music, Music

Orchestra of The West Ham Central Mission
When I was a child there was always music going on in our house. My mother had a sweet soprano voice and occasionally I was allowed to take an afternoon off school to play for her at Millwall Methodist Women's Meeting. She sang Alexander's hymns. Dad was a good tenor and often used to sing while washing himself; regular items were "Bonnie Mary of Argyle", "True till death", "Into Thy Hands" and "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep", which was sometimes rendered as "Locked in the stable with the sheep"! The congregation always knew when Mr Leverett was there. Ada was soprano, Doris Mezzo, Floss contralto and all were trained by a very good teacher. Everybody apart from Dad, sang in the church choir. The choir mistress, Madame Lawrence, was very popular and had a lovely rich contralto voice. She was a coloured lady and we all thought the world of her. Ada was the first of us to have piano lessons, I think she had about two years' tuition. When she learned to play "The Maiden's Prayer", I longed to be able to play it myself one day. In the meantime, I had to be content with playing "Shall we gather at the river". I used C and G in the left hand throughout and one finger melody with the right. It must have been popular, as I was often asked to perform! Privately, of course, the listeners had a job to keep their faces straight! I was very serious at the time and never conscious of causing any amusement. After two years tuition it was Doris's turn. She went for a few lessons, but didn't take to it and so Ada finished her quarter and then it was my turn. Cash was rather short then, so I went to a weekly lesson with a Miss Elson, who always seemed very old to me; dressed in black with gold rimmed glasses, she always looked very severe and thought nothing of giving you a rap on the knuckles with a pencil if you made a mistake.

One of my mother's brothers, Uncle Joe, was policeman who often visited us on his leave days after his fiancee died. He had an excellent baritone voice and, from time to time, sang at our Sunday afternoon Men's Meeting at church. We all really loved him. he didn't have much hair, but put up with my sisters and me tying bits of ribbon to what he had! He arrived arrived unexpectedly one day when I was playing one of his songs "Asleep in the Deep". When he found it was me playing he said, "She shall go to a good teacher", and that is how I became a pupil of Miss Brown our church organist and choir mistress. Uncle Joe paid for all my lessons.

This decision by Uncle Joe affected my whole life and meant more to me than I could possibly describe or put a value on. Miss Brown was an excellent teacher, but a perfectionist and very strict. If you didn't practice, she didn't want to know you. I was expected to practise for at least one hour each day, except Sundays, and it had to be recorded in a book and signed by my mother. If you were going for an exam, she expected four hours a day! In the winter months I practised by candle light and with fingerless gloves; however, I enjoyed practising and used to start at 6am some days. I was about twelve when I first accompanied Uncle Joe singing at the Men's Meeting. I used to play the hymns at Sunday School evening service, which was at 6pm. When I was taking my Intermediate exam Miss Brown spoke to me after the service one Sunday morning and asked how much practice I had done the day before, I said one and a half hours. "What!" and I was in tears. My dad came up and asked "What's going on?".

"She has an exam on Tuesday and has only done 1 1/2 hours practice", said Miss Brown.
"Don't worry she'll pass", replied my dad, but Miss Brown followed with "I know she'll pass, but I want her to get honours!". I did pass with honours and Miss Brown bought me a book for getting the highest number of marks, 93%.

A wonderful Lady - Chapter 8 East Ham and Mr Humphreys

Hippodrome Charing Cross Road 1907

East Ham

At the end of 1916 we moved to 66 Central Park Road a few minutes walk from West Ham Football Ground, Saturday afternoon during the football season was bedlam. Mum used to try and get all the shopping she needed before the crowds came out. Next door one way we had some lovely people called Williams and their daughter Mary was a wonderful pianist and embroideress. She had lessons at the Royal School of Art. Mrs Williams was a shop-walker in a big store in Stratford. A shop-walker wore a frock coat and as you entered the store, met you, asked you which department you required, escorted you there and place a chair for you! How different things are today!

Doris and Floss belonged to Upney Baptist Church and were members of the Women's Meeting. Doreen, being under school age, was taken with them. On their way home they often used to call in at a baby linen and wool shop shop owned by a Jewish lady who was nearly always ready with a story of some kind. On this particular occasion she said that she had heard a good story and one of my sisters said "We've just come from our Women's Meeting and we don't want to listen to anything rude!" By this time Doreen had gone behind the counter, pulled at the lady's skirt and said "I'd like to hear the story please." Doreen was a cute and pretty little kid. I think Doris felt she was always one step ahead, light as a fairy on her feet and her ears were very sharp.



Working for Mr Humphreys



I left school when I was 14 and went o college to learn shorthand and typing. The course I did lasted 6 months and then I got a job in Charing Cross Road, opposite the Hippodrome. After I had been there 3 weeks the boss died but I was offered another job and worked for Mr Humphreys who had taken over the business. I went to work each day on the Underground from Upton Park to Charing Cross and walked up Villiers Street, past Nelson's Column, the a short way along Charing Cross Road where there were second hand book stalls; I often looked there and bought a book or two. Sometimes our clients were theatrical agents who would give the boss tickets to various performances. If he didn't want the tickets, he often offered them to me. Once we had a box at the Hippodrome, which was very grand; I wore a posh pink frock, which had been made from a bridesmaid's dress. I don't remember the name of the show but Jack Buchanen was in the lead role. When I was in my teens "Fox Furs" were very fashionable and my sisters and I all had one. Just inside our front door was a row of coat hooks on the wall and it was my habit on my way in to fix my fur to the collar of the first coat I came to. As it was quite dark in our passage way, it wasn't always the right one! One day my father was sitting on the upper deck of a tram and when the conductor came for the fare he said,"You've got a fox fur hanging down your back!" He wasn't very pleased!
Mr Humphreys was a very caring man. When I first worked there he liked me to go for a break at lunchtime, but didn't like me walking around the Charing Cross are so sometimes he would give me 3d and tell me to take a 3d return on the bus, get off and cross the road to get the bus back. My hours of work were 9.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings. Sometimes our clients needed signed quickly and I had to stay late. When this happened Mr Humphreys used to say to the, "Miss Leverett has stayed on specially to do this for you, you must make it right with her", and they would give me ten bob or a pound. About a year after I started a Mr Duke came and practised from one of the rooms by my office. His daughter was Ivy Duke, the actress, and her husband was Guy Newall, an actor. One time they asked me if I would go to their flat in Kensington and do some typing. I dud; it was a nice place, quite grand.
I could see the front entrance of the Hippodrome from my office window and if there were afternoon performances I would be able to see the people going in. The day the armistice was signed in 1918 suddenly everything stopped and there was complete silence for about ten minutes and then the traffic started moving again. I continued to work for Mr Humphreys until I got married in 1928. When I said I was getting married he said that he and Mrs Humphreys would be coming to the wedding - whether invited or not apparently! Of course we did invite them. Frank didn't want me to work after we were married, so I didn't. My sister Floss took over my job.

A Wonderful Lady - Chapter 7 : Trinity Street and The Silvertown Explosion

Aftermath of the Silvertown Explosion

Another Move

When we left Beckton Road we went to a house at 55 Trinity Street. The house was quite large which we needed with four girls all growing up fast. There was a fair sized tree and Dad fixed a rope swing on it for us. I believe we had a few chickens at the end of the garden. Our kitchen window faced next door's kitchen window and each kitchen had a mirror on the wall over the fireplace, so we could look and pull faces at the children next door! The neighbours' name was Pocock. One day a white cockatoo came down in our garden and no one claimed it, so we gave it to the boys next door. I don't think their mother was very pleased as it kicked up an awful din. They called it "Deboshah".

I remember my sister Floss pushing a button up her nose, the remedy for which was to sprinkle her with pepper so that she sneezed and down came the button!. I also remember there was a girl called Susie Walker who was always well dressed and wore gold rimmed spectacles. Sadly, she got Scarlet Fever and died; she was only aged seven or eight.

Adams the bakers

My sister Doris worked in a baker's shop on the corner of Beckton Rd and Trinity Street for two and six a week plus her food. It was Adams the baker's, the daughter Edna , was my school friend and we were called Adam and Eve! We used to go home from school for midday dinner from 12 until 2pm. Each had a task to perform; mine was to go and get two loaves, one yesterday's and today's, which cost 5 1/2 pence in old money for the two. I was always fascinated by a gorgeous three tier wedding cake under a glass dome, which stood on the counter. I was very disappointed when one day I was told it was made of cardboard! It was a very nice baker's and confectioner's. There was row of shiny glass jars containing extra special sweetmeat, petit fours etc. Edna's favourites were Ceylon Drops, like little Ratafia biscuits; she would take a handful and we would sit on the stairs and eat them . The lady wo served in the shop was a Miss Edna White who always looked immaculate in her black dress and her white embroidered bib apron. She was Edna's cousin and many years afterwards became the second wife of my husband's uncle Ernie. Mr Adams said that when I married he would make my wedding cake, but I was only 11 at the time and I'm afraid he passed on before my wedding day; in fact when I was married in 1928 my wedding cake came from Pritchard's in Oxford Street. He said he would have to be careful over making promises as one young lady had written from Australia asking for the promise to be fulfilled! When Grandma Leverett died I stayed with Adams family for afew days and had a lovely time. Mrs Adams made the most delicious steak and kidney puddings, boiled in a cloth not in a basin and the gravy was "Yum yum!"

Silvertown Explosion *

We were still living in Trinity Street when the Silvertown Explosion occurred. I think it must have been early in 1916 and at about 6pm one evening. It was dark and we had just finished our tea; Mum was out sick visiting. The explosion was at the Brunner Mond high explosive factory in Silvertown. The company was owned by Sir John Brunner and Sir Alfred Mond. One later became Lord Melchett. My eldest sister, Ada, worked there in the office, but she had arrived home some time before, thankfully. As we sat in our living room there was a terrific explosion; we thought the Zepps had come. The linen blind bellied out and we all ran up the passage towards the bottom of the staircase by the front door as this was considered to be the safest place during an air raid. We waited for the next big bang but it didn't come. Quite a number of the scientists had accommodation at the premises and many of them were killed. Ada knew them all as she worked for them. The devastation was terrible and many families were rendered homeless. My sister was eventually given a piece of her blown up typewriter! The explosion was hushed up and not publicized. The hall under our church, Barking Road baptist Tabernacle as it was the called, was used for temporary sleeping quarters. I went there with my mother and the floor of the hall was covered with mattresses and soup was being heated in large boilers. We left Trinity Street soon after that and, when I asked at school for my transfer, the teacher filling out the form said, "Oh you are going up in the world!" We were moving to East Ham.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvertown_explosion

*The link above gives more information on the disaster, which was on the 19th January 1917