Estelle June Odette is not her official name: instead my mother was christened Emilie Antoinette. (The story goes that the priest who baptised her, Rev. Thomas Barrett, SJ did not approve of her parent’s choice as they were not saint’s names. Being Roman Catholic it was very important to have a saint’s name.)
Estelle was born on 13 June 1918 in Charbah, Persian Gulf and baptised 6 weeks later in Karachi. Her godfather’s name is Charles de Verteiul of Karachi and her godmother was Madaleine Lang of Charbar, her eldest sister. At her birth, there was no doctor nor midwife. Her mother had the help of an ayah who was a 16 year old local girl. After her birth the ayah was sent to the local bazaar to buy a present for the new born baby and returned with a brass elephant! This elephant stayed with my mum all her life; my brother Paul now has custody of it.
Estelle had contracted malaria during her childhood and it stayed with her for many years with trips to the Hospital of Tropical Medicine in London. She lived with her family in India and Baluchistan until she was 7, moving from Charbar to Karachi and then Henjam, Jask and Bushire. In 1925, the family went to England and she started her education at Carshalton House, as she called it, also known as St Philomena’s school.
In 1930, her world was thrown upside down by the death of her father; she never saw him again after she was 7. His death to her, was a great loss. Luckily for Estelle, Uncle Tom who was one of Percy’s brother’s, paid for her education and continued to support her with a small legacy, until she married or even later I believe. My father recalled accompanying her to a bank, in London where she would draw out some money and which he said, she would often spend on a nice dress!
However, her life after her education was uncertain and as she put it ‘They really didn’t know what to do with us all!’ It didn’t particularly seem to bother her. First of all she trained as a milliner. Then she went to Cointe with her other sisters for a French course. Then war broke out and she decided with Noelle, I believe, to join up ‘as a bit of a lark’ as she put it. She joined the WAAF’s. She trained as a Teleprinter and was stationed at Cranwell, Chicksands and Stanmore throughout the war. She was in London during the Blitz: ’I saw Leicester Square burning,’ she once remarked. She loved all the big bands and would frequent the Trocadero.
She met my father Anthony Hoy in Blackpool at the Winter Gardens. Blackpool was one of the demob centres of the UK and a very lively fun place to be. She was staying with her sister Evelyn, at her elder sister’s flat, who worked for the Ministry of ‘Ag and Fish’ in Blackpool. They married on 8 April 1947 at the Lady Chapel at Westminster Cathedral and afterwards at the Cumberland Hotel.
My mother had 7 children, 5 boys and 2 girls. She found her calling as a mother. She had a routine: every evening at 6pm there was dinner on the table for us, she washed on Mondays and ironed on Wednesdays. and shopped on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She cleaned the house on Fridays. She knitted all our jumpers, and everything was home made from a recipe book except for Angel Delight! (Her favourite was Caramel)
Her family Christmas present list in 1990 consisted of 39 presents to the ever expanding family, all costed out. I think that says it all.
Mum who carried on relentlessly never moaning but instead always one for being cheerful with a glint in her eye.
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