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Joan Robinson was a Mother, a Grandmother, a Sister or a Friend to all of us present here today.
She was born on a beautiful summer's day on July 28th 1922 in Longford, Eire, and was the 4th child, born to her parents Margaret and George Schofield, in a family of 6. All through her life she was quite a shy, private person, never one to push herself into the limelight.
Her first school was St Joseph’s Convent in Ireland, where she was taught by some very strict Nuns, a lasting and not very happy memory of which she spoke quite often. Times were hard in the early days in Ireland but she said that they always had the basic essentials of food and clothes and with their maternal Grandmother living just up the road they always had somewhere to go if the going got tough. The family made the trip to England in two waves with Joan arriving in Hayes in 1932 with her brother Billy; then, following their father’s work, in 1934 they moved to Egham and finally to Laleham in 1938. She always liked to talk about the family days in Laleham of which she had some fond memories. Michael and Theresa convinced her to record her memoirs – which they now have to remember her by.
Back to 1938, Joan was 16 and working in the Wescott Overall Factory in Egham with her sister Madge. It was here that she learned the basic skills of a seamstress which she put to very good use throughout her life. Michael and Theresa had lots of clothes made for them, Michelle and David too and in more recent times they have had their clothes repaired by Joan’s skilful hand when necessary ! Many others have had Joan's curtains adorning their windows.
Joan was just 15 years old when she met Mick, he lived just across the road from them in Laleham. They used to ride to work together, and then started courting. The course of true love prevailed; they survived Mick moving to Wraysbury and then joining the Royal Navy to go to War in 1939. They got engaged in March 1942 and were married in November 1943. After a brief Honeymoon, which included their first night stranded in a not very warm railway waiting room in Manchester, they returned home to Laleham and Mick was off to War again. Their son Michael was born in October 1944 and the old family home in Laleham was now getting quite crowded ! Mick returned safely from the War but her brother Georgie didn’t make it home, he was killed in November 1944.
In 1947 Joan and Mick moved into their own home, a brand new council house in Berryscroft Road. Joan continued working, at home, making aprons by the dozen – it was slave labour but it helped with the expenses. She continued working long after Theresa was born in 1950.
In the 1950's there were many events that Michael and Theresa remember:
In 1953 - The Queen’s Coronation Fancy Dress party on the green, Mum made the costumes - Peter Pan and Tinkerbell !
Riding their bicycles from Laleham to the Totem Pole in Virginia Water with the neighbours and their children.
Their first black and white television with Mum cooking cakes for the neighbourhood kids when they came around to watch it !
Travelling to Nijmegen in Holland in 1965 and 1966 and visiting her brother’s grave in Venray - to mention a few.
Joan was a good Mother and Housewife. She, like all mothers of that era, stayed at home looking after the house, the children and the garden. She loved cooking and all the family will miss her Christmas cakes and speciality Chocolate cakes on birthdays. She also loved her greenhouse, growing most of the plants for the garden from seed – luckily she looked forward to pottering in the garden, cutting the grass etc. which was just as well, as Mick hated it.
The next main highlight in Joan and Mick’s life was the birth of their grandchildren Michelle in 1983 and David in 1985. They saw both the children almost every day and when they went to play school Mick insisted on picking them up so they could ride home on the back of his bike ! Both Joan and Mick looked upon this as some of their happiest times.
In 1995, as it was the 50th Anniversary of the D-Day landings, Joan and Mick travelled to the Normandy beaches on an overnight trip with Michael and Theresa to try and find the spot where Mick had landed on D-Day - needless to say, he couldn’t remember where he came in ! Then in 1999, John and Margaret Sleep, Mick’s sister and Brother-in-law, were organising a trip to the war graves, visiting Venray, so they booked themselves on the trip along with Madge and Les. As always, when visiting Venray cemetery, they left some flowers on brother Georgie’s grave - an act that was to change a few lives - as not long after they returned home Madge received a phone call from Raymond, their brother’s long-lost son ! This was one of the happiest moments of Joan’s life, as she had never stopped wondering what had happened to Raymond after Georgie’s death, she often said she would love to find out where he was and what he was like. A very tearful reunion followed this phone call, when Ray found and met up with the ‘missing’ branch of his family !
2001 saw Mick visiting Moorfields Eye Hospital and later, whilst having check ups and tests following treatment of a benign tumour of the bladder, an MRI scan discovered an aortic aneurysm. This was a very hard time for Joan as Mick had never been ill in his life and she had to live with the knowledge that a time bomb was ticking away inside him which eventually took him from us, aged 83. Joan had also never been seriously ill in her life until a nasty fall on September 7th from which she never really fully recovered. She was admitted to Wexham Park Hospital on 30th September and passed away just 4 days later, despite all the good work and care afforded to her by the staff of the Intensive Care unit, finally diagnosed with a condition known as severe aplastic anemia,
Joan will be remembered by everyone here in different ways - some have said that they will
miss her wit and humour, but her children, grandchildren and family will just miss her being there.
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Dad’s War
