Anthony

Before I can reflect on my own life, I need to introduce my parents and the families, places and times in which they grew up. I wish I knew an awfully lot more about their lives, all of them. Nonetheless, what I have come to know over the years has been critically important in shaping my understanding today of myself, mum, dad and others. The ancestry research and reflecting that I have done since my retirement from UBC a decade ago has had a major impact on the way I see them all today and, in turn, the way I see myself and my own life. It would be great to have the opportunity to talk with them from the way I see the world and my life today and to fill in the many gaps in my understanding of them. But that is not going to happen.

I therefore should make clear at the outset that what I have learned over the 76 years of my life so far about the lives of my parents, their brothers and sisters, and their own parents (i.e. my grandparents), either through listening to stories told or observing what transpired during our times together, is unfortunately very limited. Most of what I now know about the lives of my ancestors comes from researching government records and some brief conversations with a few of my cousins over the last ten years. No one has left us collections of letters or written memoirs or histories that would provide details and opinions. At first I thought this was extraordinary but I have come to realize it is the norm. Nonetheless, as others have shown many times, much can be interestingly written. I therefore embark on telling my story with realistically expectations and modest ambitions, and the hope I can rise to the challenge as others have before me.

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My dad was Hugh Patrick Dorcey and he was born in Walworth, London on 25th February 1911. At the time, his parents, Johanna and Daniel Joseph, were living at 134 Boyson Road with his sister, Maureen Ellen (1904), and brother, Owen Michael (1906), both of whom had been born a few doors away at 169. Three years later a second sister, Kathleen Mary, joined them all at 169.

[PICTURE OF DAD]

While to me he was always “Dad”, Grandma Johanna and mum usually called him “Hugh”. Upon occasion he was affectionately referred to as “Boy” by others in the family, which I understand to have originated from him being the younger of the two boys. During my lifetime I heard some of his close friends call him “Hug”, whenever they wanted something less formal sounding than “Hugh”. Interestingly the two grandparents were often referred to as ‘“the Mater” and “the Pater” by their children and later their wives and husbands, a reflection of terms not uncommon in those times and in their social world, oftentimes conveying respect but not always.

[PICTURE OF MUM]

My mum, Florence Myra Pride was born the year after Dad on 3rd April 1912. Her parents, Andrew James and Florence Annie Pride, were then living at 10 G Block of the Peabody Buildings, Lambeth, London. Four years later a brother Walter James was born at the same location.

Grandma Johanna always called my mum “Florence”, as often did my dad, family and her friends. When the three of us were alone, dad would occasionally call her “Tubby”; which I always took to be a reflection of his deep affection and she clearly received it likewise. I never learned the origins of this tickling endearment. Her younger brother Wally who loved her dearly, often called her “Doll” and sometimes “Dolly”; in it I heard his deep love for a big sister, who had always looked out for him. It came out sounding like Cockney slang on his London tongue. Notably her lifelong friend from their school days in London, Grace Fleming (Clark) often called her “Florrie” and this got picked up by her own kids, who still use it when they speak of her today.

THE ORIGINS OF THE GRANDPARENTS & THEIR FAMILIES

DANIEL JOSEPH DORCEY AND JOHANNA RYAN

ANDREW JAMES PRIDE AND FLORENCE ANNIE WARD

All four of my grandparents were born in London between 1874 and 1887. Three of them lived there all their lives and died there; the fourth, Grandma Johanna, only left the city after her husband, Daniel Joseph, died in 1945 and spent the last twenty years of her life living with us in Cambridge or nearby in Saffron Walden, where her older daughter, Maureen, was a nun in the Carmelite Convent. My mother’s parents, Florence Annie Ward and Andrew James Pride, had died in 1925 and 1933, before I was born in 1944, and so I never got to know them. Grandpa Daniel sadly died in a traffic accident on my first birthday and so I was left with no memory of him.

LATER? I don’t know for sure when and where my parents met. Although Mum and Dad were living less than 2 miles apart when she was born and lived that close until the Dorcey family moved north of the Thames River to 59 Leadale Road in Stamford Hill in 1918, I have no reason to believe they knew each other during those early years. After the move Dad lived at the Stamford Hill home with his parents until he married Mum 22 years later and Mum in the meantime lived in a series of places in Lambeth, south of the Thames. So I doubt they met before they graduated from school.

The best I can do is offer the following theory for how they came to meet. It is based on the one thing I know for sure and comments I heard from each of them over the years. In 1939, dad and mum, were hired to be the manager and manageress of the Cambridge Steam Laundry, private company that had been in business since the 1880s and that got much of its business from the colleges and people working for them. The reason they got such good positions, when they were still only 28 and 27 years old is that they had recently graduated from the prestigious training program in modern laundry management that was offered by the Savoy Hotel in London. Since they did not marry until the following year, they must have committed to getting married as part of a long term commitment to the two positions.

Given this the question of when they met narrows to some time between finishing school about 1929 and finishing the training program at the Savoy in 1939, a 10 year period. To be admitted to the Savoy program they needed to have a training and employment record (and perhaps money for the course? Well….

NOTES

The Life and Times of Anthony: AKA Tony

WW2-Today

I want this to be fun to write and read, at least by myself and perhaps also Plu, Zosia, Jeff and Sequoia.

It is my recollections and my reflections on my life, having reached the last quarter.

It is what I wanted to write when I retired from UBC on 1st January 2012. But I soon realized that I could not reflect on my life without knowing more about why my parents brought me up the way they did. And I could not understand why they did it the way they did without knowing about their lives before I was born. It was a rude shock to realize I knew almost nothing about their parents, my grandparents, and the lives they led before I arrived. And so began the 9 year diversion into learning about my ancestors. It has been time well spent. I am amazed at what I have learned about who they were and the lives they lived. But, even more important, has been its impact on my worldview. And how I want to reflect on my life. Well see where this leads.

At some point it will be worth reflecting on what I wrote in 2012 in From Laundry Boy to Professor Emeritus, if only as Preface or Appendix to whatever I write now.

It only makes sense that the first drafting should be in blocks of time in my life. This can be used to explore what I want to recollect about and how I want to reflect on them.

I am going to start with my birth on 28th October 1944 in Cambridge, England. A novel approach! It will obviously lead me to talk about events before I popped, how much will become evident as I explore what I want to say. Likewise a good endpoint will emerge. My best guess? From my parents marriage in 1940 and the start of WW2 through to when I start full-time school in 1950. i.e. the 1940s. Sounds neat. We shall see!

None of this bracketing is to say I won’t want to write about events before 1940 and after 1950 as part of the discussion of the 1940s. There are always ways to do this in the recollections and reflections.

Start by drafting a list of topics/recollections/reflections I want to explore in the period 1940-’50.

Think about alternative ways to structure the progression through them in the writing. This could include a list of n topics only loosely interconnected. As opposed to plod thought the years.

Think about complementary ways to look at topics by secondary and tertiary means (e.g. tables, figures, stories etc).

Make use of our photos as much as possible plus other illustrative materials from other sources.

At least in drafting use footnotes and links to web sites.

Final product could be Pages, PDF, webpage – one or all three. Start drafting as web page along with ancestry drafts on dorcey.org. The ability to directly link to other material is very powerful and attractive.

TOPICS

Cambridge as an extraordinary place in which to grow up. History, town and gown.

Brief bio of Mum and Dad (more as we progress)

What preparation did they have for becoming my parents

Mum and Dad graduate Savoy by ’39

Hired for Cambridge Steam Laundry Manager and Manageress

Reserved Occupation of Manager

History of Laundry and Ownership

Hired with salary and perks: house, car

Location on Cherry Hinton Road

Had been in country side; water and space for horses

A challenging beginning

New jobs

New town

WW2

CHRONOLOGY

XX June 1874 Birth of Daniel Joseph Dorcey St, Saviour Southwark, London (died 1945)

11 September 1880 Birth of Johanna Ryan (Dorcey)16 Dunston Street, Haggerston, Middlesex

4Q 1886 Birth of Andrew James Pride Lambeth, London

1Q 1887 Birth of Florence Annie Ward (Pride), Lambeth, London

25 April 1903 Marriage of Daniel Joseph Dorcey and Johanna Ryan, Our Lady of Seven Dolours, Lower Park Road, Peckham, London

4 January 1911 Birth of Charles Henry Bernard Pride, Lambeth, London (died August 1911)

4Q 1911 Marriage of Andrew James Pride and Florence Annie Ward, Lambeth, London

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