My Mother - Dorothy Roberts

Mum was born at 1 Johnson Street, Rotherham on 16th April 1923. Her parents were Ralph William Askew (see posting 2/11/2009)and Edith Agnes Askew (see posting 4/2/2011) formerly Leather. Johnson Street was the home of Edith's parents, George Robert(Bob)Leather and Hannah Elizabeth Leather formerly Boler. Mum had two brothers, Donald and Geoffrey and a sister Iris.

Mum's father is recorded on her birth certificate as a General Labourer. After the first world war he worked as a coal miner (following in the footsteps of his father George Askew) until he broke his back down the pit. With the £200 in compensation, he invested in two shops. The photograph below shows Ralph and daughter Iris outside his shop in Cambridge Street, over which the family made their home.

However, the shop went bust. Apparently Ralph gave away leather when he saw children without any shoes. During this time, his wife Edith had a baker's shop in Barley Terrace. Apart from getting up at extremely early hours to bake barm cakes (they used to sell out before noon) she suffered from the flour getting on her chest and had to give it up.

Ralph then became a postman, then a bus conductor and finally, according to his death certificate,a brassworks valve tester. Could this have been for Effingham Brassworks where his father worked, having been brought from Northwich in Cheshire by the owner Mr George Gummer to play football for Rotherham Town.Ralph died in 1945 aged 49. His wife Edith remarried to Harry Frost.

Mum was very bright at school. She won a scholarship to the grammar school, without which her parents could never have afforded to send her. Even so, mum attending Rotherham High School for Girls would have still had an impact on the family finances with the uniform, gym kit etc.

But when she reached 15 or 16, Mum had to leave school and find a job. First at Boots and then at the local council offices where she worked for a senior officer. This turned out to be quite fortuitous for the family. After losing the two shops, they had been found a council house in a very poor neighbourhood. Other children would be seen eating bread and lard in the street. Ralph and his family may never have been well off, but the children were well brought up, had good manners and eat proper meals. So when another council house became available at 58 Wordsworth Drive (when an old lady died), their names were on the list and Mum's boss helped secure the move. It must have helped that mum did babysitting for him.

The house on Wordswoth Drive was reasonably new in the "Wembley" design, and in a great position just across the road from Herringthorpe Playing Fields. The year was 1939. While Mum worked at the council offices, she learnt to be a comptometer operator. My Aunt Iris (who supplied most of the information above) said that she was sent to Germany to learn how to use the new machine and became the first in Rotherham to operate it. But when she actually went to Germany is a mystery.

Mum was also a Sunday School teacher, possibly at the Methodist Church.

During the war, Mum met one David Davis, an army surgeon bassed at the barracks in Rotherham. Mum's sister Iris could remember meeting him a number of times. They became engaged, but when David returned to London, Mum followed. But she came back soon after. Mum and Iris shared a bedroom, and Iris told me that Mum's engagement ring lay on the dressing table for a week. Nothing was said until their mother asked about it, and Mum revealed it was all over. So, thank goodness, she was free to meet Dad.