Barbar's diaries - I remember, I remember

Barbar (Barbara Gibbs) was Granny's mother. She was born November 15th 1900 and finished writing a diary in 1980. She died about 1982. I remember the funeral service. Carolyn and I took Ruth along in a push chair and Ruth bawled the church down. I haven't read all these diaries yet, they rested in a drawer of mine for years. But I have read some now. I cried at the death of Arthur (Barbar's husband). I gasped at her first first encounter with a 'wireless' in 1923. I laughed when I read that "Simon, called Henry, ... looks like a holy relic being carried across the lawn." And more, I won't spoil it.

Many thanks to Brenda, who works at Corbett Keeling for Simon and Jim. Brenda scanned all 240 pages in.  Click here to download.

Comments
Christine Wallace
I have just been looking at parts of Barbara's diary because names popped up.
I thought you might be interested to know that Buffy Williams-Ellis has an excellent website under her married name Baer - see "elizabethbaertextiles.com". Her family still know her as Buff. If you haven't already contacted her I'm sure she would be very interested. Her uncle was Clough Williams-Ellis (on page 27).
Posted by: Christine Wallace | August 01, 2011 at 05:27 PM

 George
1. Does anybody know who has the Orpen portrait (Chapter 7, p76.)? It's probably in the Hudson family somewhere. [I heard that it is at Bill and Cherry Palmer's house. GK 2017]
2) For that matter, does anybody know the Hudson's family contacts. Cousins should be told about the availability of the diary.
3) In Chapter 7 I read about the founding of HMV. Barbar says her father and Mr Eldridge R Johnson started it. (http://www.hmv.co.uk "HMV's very first store was officially opened in July 1921 by the celebrated British composer, Sir Edward Elgar on London's Oxford Street.") I boasted about this at school to a chap called Ponsonby. He was older than I was and immediately said that HIS great grandfather had started HMV. I felt crushed.
Posted by: George | March 17, 2008 at 01:31 PM