Tell me one interesting fact about one of your grandparents

[listsandbudgets]

Because I'm bored and nosey.

My nan could speak Italian but only in the imperative because she and my grand dad had Italian prisoners of war on their farm during world war 2

My granddad was awarded an MBE

My grandfather was a para- trooper and landed on d-day, I only found this out at his funeral, my dad was given his beret.

My grandad was the pilot of the plane which flew the queen on her first flight after the news that her father had died, meaning she was now queen. Went from Nairobi (Kenya) to Entebbe (Uganda) think it was.

I discovered only recently on the “Find My Past” website that my Maternal Nan is half French. I’m looking forward to doing further research to see where my Great Grandmother came from.

My grandmother was employed at a missile factory at Barrow in Furness. Her job was to screw the explosive nose caps on. She was the clumsiest person in the world (probably be diagnosed as dyspraxic nowadays) so how the hell she didn't blow the whole place to kingdom come is a mystery

My very, very, VERY proper granny (now nearly 90) recently told me a glorious anecdote about playing poker and drinking whiskey til dawn in the male only halls at Cambridge in the 50s, then being helped out of the window by a posse of undergraduates to avoid being caught by the porters. I now see her in a new light!

My grandad was the flight navigator on the last ever Lancaster bomber flight.

my grandmother and her brother were put into a children's home when their father was ill and their mother couldn't cope. Sadly, she was left in the children's home and he was taken back home, she never spoke about him at all and we only found out about her brother when his family traced the family tree and found us but sadly she had already died and he never got to see her again.

My grandad was asked to sign for Man United, but he made more money as an accountant. He knew some of those killed in the Munich air disaster as could have been one of Busbys babes.

My paternal grandmother was the seventh child of a seventh child and was truly as mad as a box of fish.

My grandad crashed his motor bike under a lorry in the 1930s and survived 10 days in a coma. His lasting injuries meant he wasn't fit to fight in the war (as well as a semi protected profession), so he spent the war as a bus mechanic, air raid warden and firefighter (I'm not sure when he slept)!

My Grandfather was a stoker on HMS Lion in the Battle of Jutland. He was a Navy weightlifting champion and a bare knuckle fighter. He also played the Concertina in a Navy band and once played for the Tsar of Russia in the Winter Palace in St Petersburg.

He was a bit of a character.........

My other grandad was a pilot in WW2, he flew through the Norwegian fjords to drop agents and supplies, his plane was badly shot up on one mission, and he barely made it back on just one engine, sadly his tail gunner (a teenager) didn't make it, my grandad who was only in his early 20s at the time always felt responsible for not bringing him home. He threw his medals in the bin during a house move.

@NutellaFitzgerald my granny was also a typist at Bletchley. I wonder if they knew each other!

My grandma got pregnant whilst married to someone who was injured in a racing car accident and unable to "perform". The got divorced. She had my mum alone then another boy from a different dad who was as adopted and my mum didn't know about this brother until she was in her 50s. Then she married my grandpa

My grandpa's family were polish resistance and he was arrested at the start of WW2. He was sent to a concentration camp and put on hard labour. He escaped the labour detail and walked until he met some Americans. He was sent to the uk then fought for the allies in Italy before returning to the uk as a refugee.

When war broke he was as going to volunteer as a kamikaze bomber....being arrested saved his life!!

My granny and grandad on the other side were just awesome people. I miss them so much!

My Nan was a child in Jersey during the occupation. She has loads of stories about things like hiding their farm animals from the nazis, and one time her and her brother stole the guns of 2 nazi soldiers who were having a swim and left them on the beach.
I did a school project about her when I was at school as we did a topic on the occupation.

One of my grandfathers was sent with his siblings to a workhouse after their mother died tragically in 1900. Even by the poor standards of the time it was a horrible environment. As an adult he twice became town mayor of the place he moved to.

One of my grandmothers came from such a poor family she was sent out cleaning after school at the age of 9. This was the 1920s. At 14 she went 'into service' as a live-in maid.

My other grandfather became a POW of the Japanese, spent 16 months in prison in Singapore, then survived a Japanese 'hell ship' and a few years after that working hard labour in Japan itself. He was close to death from starvation when the two atomic bombs were dropped and ended the war . After the war he worked in a British bomb factory and might or might not have buried a-nuclear warhead under a beach when it closed .

My maternal grandmother was a child/teenager during WW2. One Sunday she decided she didn't want to go to Sunday School. She begged my great grandmother to let her stay home. There was an air raid on her town and her local church was hit, killing 21 children.

She was a dancer and trained at Sadler's Wells, but struggled to get work as she was tall for a ballet dancer. She always said she was too tall for the corps de ballet but not good enough to be a soloist. She did one season as a professional, I think with Ballet Rambert but I'm not entirely sure, then packed it in for a more stable job in an office. Just as well really as her new boss would be my grandad!

Such a wonderful thread.
My Paternal Grandpa was a Lancaster pilot throughout WW2, all of the photos of him are very dashing. My Paternal Grandma was also in the RAF.
My Bampy (Mother’s Dad) was in the Army in WW2 & was at Dunkirk.
My Nanny died when my Mum was 19, having never really recovered after her birth. My Mum lived with her Aunt for the first few years of her life. All of my Nans teeth fell out after having my Mum too, but bizarrely grew back a few years later!

My grandad was injured going over the top
In the Battle is the Somme. He was 15 and returned to the war once he was better. He had what we now call PTSD for the rest of his life and died at 48 (after having 7 kids)

Pressed too soon. My other grandad was the son of a bizarre (and unpopular to
Locals) marriage between the local shopkeeper and a gypsy girl. Grandad had a gift with horses and travelled the country working with them - until he got the daughter of quite a well off family in to trouble! They had 12 kids. He lived till he was 98 and told the most amazing stories of his childhood. He always smelt of brill cream and his pipe.

My grandparents (whom I never met sadly) were all born 2 centuries ago! 1890s
I'm in my early 40s

I sometimes imagine what they'd make of day's World!

Something I've always found a funny coincidence, my great grandma (mum's nan) was born in 1899 and my mum gave birth to me just under a hundred years later, same month five days apart. Mum's got a photo of her holding me when I was about two and she died shortly after :( really wish I could have had a chance to meet her properly.

My grandad (mum's dad) died halfway through an episode of Corrie. He took his final breaths as the end of part one music came on. Makes me go cold sometimes thinking about it and then other times feels quite comforting because I love Corrie.

One of my grandmas spent all her life thinking her mum was her sister. We only discovered the truth after her death.