1. Ivy Willard was born on Wednesday 8 June 1921 at 3 Seaford Road, Aldrington, Hove, Sussex.  Her father was then a gas works labourer.  She was baptised on 26 August 1921 in Southwick.  She died aged 70 years on Friday 13 March 1992 at Southlands Hospital, Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex.  She was buried with her husband in the Downsway cemetery in Southwick.  (I still miss her, she was a wonderful auntie.)

   Ivy married Stephen Patrick Nicolson on Saturday 22 September 1951 at the Register Office in Hove, Sussex.  At the time Steve was aged 43 years and a motor engineer of 375b Kingsway, Hove.  Ivy was a spinster aged 30 and of 67 Ridgeway, Southwick.  The witnesses to the marriage were Harold Willard and Fred Willard.  (Ivy's younger sister thinks they met whilst Ivy was working as barmaid in a pub near to where Steve lived.)

   Steve had previously married Eileen Caroline Harriett Barnard on Wednesday 31 August 1932, but this marriage ended in divorce.  She was born in the third quarter of 1907 in the Farnham district.

   There were no children from either marriage.

   Steve was born on Monday 31 August 1908 in Greenwich, London.  He was the son of Malcolm Sydney Nicolson (1865-1941) and Emma Jane Elphick (1871-1938).  His father was a butcher.  Steve died suddenly from a heart attack on Wednesday 12 October 1977 at their home, 89 Southwick Street, Southwick.  He was 69 years old.

2. Jesse Willard, my father, was born on Saturday 24 February 1923 at 15 The Gardens, Southwick, which was later renumbered 30 The Gardens when new houses were built around about 1927.  He was baptised on 29 April 1923 in Southwick.  (Click here to see a photo of Jesse in 1934/5.)

   He married my mother Eileen Isabel Tullett on 1 July 1950 at St. Michael and All Angels in Southwick.

   Eileen is the daughter of Thomas William Tullett (1891-1956) and Annie Elsie Stillaway (1898-1985).

   My parents had 2 daughters, however, my elder sister Maureen Willard, born 2 November 1956 at the Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, died 10 minutes after her birth.  Every year they buy a bunch of flowers in memory of Maureen and she has never been forgotten.  Her birth and death were not registered and my parents have no idea what happened to her, as the hospital just took her body away.

   I have no children, so they have no grandchildren.

   During WW2 my father joined the Army and went off with his father's advice "never volunteer".  This was the first time he had been away from home and also the first time he had had a bed to himself.  As a boy he shared a double bed with his 3 brothers and was put in charge of keeping them in order and if they misbehaved their dad would come in and belt them, and my dad reckons, being the eldest, he always came off worst.  After basic training in Wales he was assigned to the 52^nd Lowland Division.  His army number was 14242260 and he was a driver.  Dad tells many a story about how he was put on a charge for being late back to camp, because the officers would get him to drive them into town and wait to take them back.  The penalty was spud peeling, and he reckoned he peeled more potatoes whilst in the army than he's done since, and he has always done the cooking in our household - my Mum was a hopeless cook and Dad a basic cook, but I survived.  After basic training he went to Scotland where he was stationed above a distillery in Duftown, although strangely he never developed the taste for Whisky, his tipple being the odd Manns brown ale or ginger wine.

   Dad started his working life at the age of 14 as a butcher's boy, for Stevenson's the Butcher, earning ten shillings and sixpence and a joint of meat a week, which my grandmother was very pleased to receive.  But after about a year he heard from a friend that he could earn more (£3 per week) by working at the coal yard and so gave up what was said to be a very promising job.  He learnt to drive coal lorries, but didn't stick at it for long.  His dad got him a job at the Gas Works but he lasted there for less than a week, much to his dad's disappointment.  And then the war came along.

   Dad remembers that the local policeman in Southwick knew everyone and to which family the children belonged.  If he caught my dad or his brothers misbehaving he called them all young Bill and said he'd tell their dad on his way home from work.  Dad went to Southwick school on The Green, which has since been demolished and is now a housing estate.

   In the early 1950's my parents lived on a farm in Lechlade, Oxfordshire.  Dad was then a cattle stockman and often went off to shows looking after the cattle.  In early 1978 we went back to see where they had lived.  I was then learning to drive and dad let me drive all the way there and back from Shoreham-by-Sea, about a 250 mile round trip.

   My parents and I emigrated to Australia on the £10 ticket in 1966, but returned to Sussex in 1969, as dad missed his mum.  For awhile we lived with my uncle Harry in Granville in the suburbs of Sydney.  Dad then worked as a labourer on the Parramatta shopping centre, where he broke his leg.  We then moved to 71 Merthyr Road, New Farm, a suburb of Brisbane.  There dad worked in a nut factory and then a laundry.  Mum then worked in a pineapple factory.  My mum's younger sister and her husband and daughter also emigrated to Australia and lived a short walk away from us.  They also returned to Sussex and again they lived a short walk away - we all lived off Slonk Hill in Shoreham-by-Sea, us in Tottington Way and they in Truleigh Way.

   Mum and dad moved to Bexhill from Shoreham-by-Sea in 1999 and now live 5 minutes walk away from me. 

3. Clement Willard married Gladys Mabel Thompson.  They have 1 daughter, 3 grandsons and 1 great grandson.  Glad is the daughter of George Edward Thompson (c1900-1943) and Mabel Annie Mengham (1901-?).

4. Harold Willard was born on 30 November 1925 and baptised on 26 February 1928 in Southwick.  He died aged 78 years on 4 August 2004 in Berry, NSW, Australia.  He was a carpenter.  During WW2 he was in the Navy.  Harold and his eldest son came over to England in September and October 2002.

   Harry married Joyce Mary Nunn on 13 March 1948 at St. Michael's in Southwick.  The witnesses to the marriage were Hilda Blanche Nunn and William Charles Willard.

   Joy was born on 24 October 1927 in Brighton, Sussex and was the daughter of Nelson Edgar Nunn (1896-?) and Hilda Blanche Ayling (1892-?).  She died on 15 October 2001 in Australia.

   They had 3 sons (1 of whom was knocked off his bike and killed aged 16), 4 granddaughters and 1 grandson.

    

   Four Generations   Harold Willard (1925-2004) Flora Warman, nee Boorman (1868-1952) Bryan Willard (1950-1966) Bessie Willard, nee Warman (1900-1987)

    

5. Anne Willard married Ken Scott.  The have 2 sons and 1 granddaughter.  Anne also married Ken Williams (1918-1991).

6. Frederick Willard married Margaret R. Harris.  They have 1 son and 2 daughters, 4 granddaughters and 3 grandsons.  Margaret is the daughter of William Harris (?-2007) and Rose Bourner (1914-2002).

This page was last updated on 4 October 2009