Memories from Tiny Spencer and Jean Lang, his daughters Father talked very little but when he did we all listened. It was an occasion. He was beloved by his linesmen. Tiny used to drive with him when he went to work, when they passed the linesman driving out, they all used to wave and say Hello Mr Spencer, Good morning Mr Spencer. When Jean used to have nightmares that was the King was coming to […]
Author: Jennifer Lang
Eda le Messurier
Eda was an only child, and born in Guernsey. Her father was the postmaster of Guernsey. She grew up speaking Guernsey patois and english, but went somewhere in France to learn “Parisian France”. She also went to England, Rotherham, in Kent to learn to be a teacher, where she was a teacher in the 1911 census at the Municipal school at Rotherham. Then she returned to Guernsey and then eventually became the headmistress of a […]
Granddad – William Stringer
William Stringer was a teacher from Lancashire. He moved to Guernsey where he met and married Eda Le Messurier. In Guernsey he was headmaster of a boys school, and Eda was headmistress of a nearby girls school. He came from Ashton under Lyne. They had two children, Margot and Desirée. Margot was born in 1914. In 1916 he enlisted in the Lancashire fusilliers. He wasn’t supposed to enlist if his wife was pregnant, but she […]
Memories of Great Gran – Alfred Thoume le Messurier
Alfred Thoume le Messurier was “great-gran” to Jean and Tiny. He had been the postmaster of Guernsey, like his father before him. His daughter Eda Le Messurier married an englishman, William Stringer, who had come to Guernsey to be the headmaster of the boys high school, and after a decade of marriage, they moved to English, as WIlliam got a job as a school inspector in the north of England. Eda (who was an only […]
Niagara – the Mine and the Gold
Donald Lang Reminiscence I think I knew the name RMS Niagara before she went out of circulation. June 19th 1940, just before the winter solstice, was a day that I remember as clear and sparkling. Don’t ask me about the weather on any other day in 1940. At the other end of the world the then current Republic of France was dying. Until I looked up the dates recently I did not connect the two. […]
Glee Recollected
Kings College Glee Club 1946 -50, by Donald Lang A few weeks short of 13, and still with a few vocabulary challenges, I went to a meeting to discuss the proposed production. When a couple of roles were outlined, I remarked a lot more loudly than I would have dared even a month later, “ That calls for a prefect.” In the event there were two school prefects on stage, one second in command to […]
Margot reminiscences by Donald Lang
Margot (Marguerite Stringer) was Donald Lang’s mother-in-law, and he wrote this about her. The first time my path came close to Margot – and vice versa – neither of us saw the other in the crowd. She was in Sargood Private Hospital with a new baby. O’Rorke Hall just happened to be next door. When exams finished for the year the University students resident there celebrated. We never discussed that. It was much later when […]
Earliest Memories
Reminiscences by Donald Lang What is the earliest event of your life that you can distinctly remember, and assign an approximate date? The subject can be a useful conversation starter, or stopper, with a new acquaintance. Over a string of occasions numerous events from my own life have surfaced, unsorted. Placing them on a time line is not as easy as calling them forth. For some people, “It was when we were living in…” does […]
Ian Maxwell Lang
Reminiscence by his brother Donald Lang In 1931, when Ian was born, the shooting season opened on his birthday. The “lads” who worked for Dad on the farm made a miniature bow and arrow for the new baby.. This they presented to Mum for Ian’s later use,. Dad for quite some time referred, or spoke, to Ian as “Mr Tell”. Almost any group of siblings will refresh you about stereotypes of the problems of each […]
Blood donations
When I was seventeen and resident in a student hostel we were invited to give blood. At that age it required parental consent. I was a conformist. I got the consent first and missed that initial rush. Donation, once done, did however turn out to be habit forming. It qualified as “A Good Thing”. Various features caught the attention of my peer group. Before blood would be accepted ‘in bulk’ a few drops from a […]