Since starting this family tree project in 2009 more background to my mother’s side of the family has been discovered with the revelation that what my sister and I thought was going to be an Irish root turned out to be just one generation – our great grandfather who was born in Dublin to his father who was born in London. Lots here about my mother and her life in the Argentine, Aberdeen, Gillingham and Inverness.
A person who had a great influence on my mother’s and my sister’s upbringing was my step grandfather – Harold Vincent Redman who was known as Grampsie. After we moved to Kent in 1983 I discovered that Mum had, just after the First World War, gone to school in Gillingham after my grandmother married her second husband. Another line of research opened up and I was able to trace most of his naval service. That Royal Navy service and more is at Harold Redman / Grampsie.
I was named Norman after my mother’s uncle – Norman Hadley Muirden. He saved my mother when they were torpedoed off Milford Haven during the First Word War and died in Germany. What a surprise finding this card among some of my mother’s paperwork during 2023 – 105 years after Norman was shot down over Germany; and what a trauma having to fill in such a card as a PoW and for the recipient (in this case his mother in Aberdeen). Sylvia Jobson acquired copies of Norman’s record cards from the RAF Museum – the one for next of kin listed Mrs M Muirden, Heathfield, Cunningham Place, Inverurie, Aberdeen. Under her name was written ‘Letter d 11/3/20 Pers file C87771’ – address and letter date are different from the card below. However, I do remember my mother talking about holidays in Inverurie.
Norman J Penny - Family 