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

What a brilliant, brilliant thread.

I'll sift through my memories and add my own.

My granny had the wrong date of birth on her birth certificate as her dc was so pleased to finally have a girl he got absolutely hammered "wetting the babies head" and told them the wrong date.

My Grandad was a policeman, and used to push Prince Charles around in his pram when he was a baby as part of his duties

My grandpa was not my grandma's first husband. Her first husband turned out to be a cocaine addicted dentist that she divorced in the 1930s. We had no idea until she wrote a memoir shortly before her death!

My grandpa was the captain of the Doric Star which was captured just before the Battle of the River Plate. His boat sent out the distress signal to alert everyone else. There is an actor playing him in the film of the events. My grandmother was pregnant with my dad at the time!

My dad's parents were both married to others when they married each other.

As with a pp, my Grandad was born in the Victorian era (1892) and I'm only in my forties!

My Grandad enlisted as soon as war was declared, much to my Nana's dismay. He was posted to Jamaica, where he worked in "intelligence". We know nothing more of his time there. He returned to England after eight years, when he met my mum for the first time.

My paternal grandad was a cavalry officer and lived in British India where my dad was also born.
He divorced my grandma in very hushed up circumstances and it was a huge scandal as it wasn't the done thing in Officer circles in the British raj to divorce-. So much so that my dad didn't see his mum again until 9 years later when he met her by chance walking down the street in Aldershot.

My dad looks very dark skinned and has black hair-he's quite Asian looking-whereas both grandparents were blonde and blue eyed so it's fairly clear what happened though my dad will never discuss it!

My Nan was born in 1888 and was one of the original Eliza Dolittle’s. She sold Violets outside the Law Courts in London. I still have her licence. She had 10 sons and then in her mid 40s triplet girls. One of which died at birth.

I've remembered another one - My paternal GF maintained that his birthday was in February not May and that his father couldn't register his birth within the 6 week legal window because of flooding so to avoid a fine he changed my GF's date of birth.

My maternal grandmother narrowly escaped becoming a victim of the holocaust.
She went on what was meant to be a holiday to England with her cousin who was married to an Englishman. In the weeks she was gone, her entire family (parents, siblings etc) were all arrested and presumably murdered. Their crimes? Two members of the family (one of them being her brother) being involved with the Polish resistance Murdered for trying to protect their fellow countrymen.
My Nana married my grandad and returned to Poland 10 years later, had their 5th (surprise!) baby, my mum, and spent the rest of her life running a successful hair salon.

My grandfather founded the Deltic Preservation Society; he's large part of the reason Deltic engines still exist.

And many many other interesting things, a lot of which I only learnt after his death, as he was never one to discuss these things. Always onto the next thing.

I miss him.

My grandmother was born in 1896. She left school at 14 and trained to be a milliner. She made and decorated lovely hats. She brought me up after my mother died when I was 13 years old. She was a lovely lady and I miss her and think about her on most days.

My grandfather owned horse drawn carriages and let them out for weddings.

I’ve already responded about my dads side of the family but how could I forget about my DM’s mum! She died believing she was one year younger than she actually was. Her parents had simply told her a different age - her elder sister had been born just out of wedlock and rather than address this ‘shame’, better to make up a big lie!!

My Gran worked in John Brown’s shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland during WWII. She worked in the big cranes, and had to learn to escape them via a zip wire. Once she could do this she earns her wings, a little metal badge.

My Grandfather was a conscientious objector during WWII, and was sent to prison for it.

My paternal grandfather was a royal marine, and three boats he was on during the 2nd world war were sunk, each time he was rescued and made it back safely.

My maternal grandfather meet his future wife abroad during the war and brought her back to the UK. People were not accepting, and as a consequence she wouldn't teach anyone (children or grandchildren) her native language.

My maternal grandfather spent most of the 2nd world war in a prison of war camp in/ near Poland.

My paternal grandmother's dad died suddenly leaving his wife and 8 or so children, too many for the mum to cope with, so 3 or 4 of the boys were sent to Banardo's for several years.

My grandad owned 50% of the land in the small town I live in. It's was much smaller then, after he died when I was a baby it was sold off and my nan bought a house in the town. Almost all of the profits made from the sale paid for her end of life care twenty years later.

My grandad was orphaned, dad was a trawler man and mum a washerwoman after he drowned. She died from a ruptured spleen lifting a wash tub. His siblings were adopted by cousins and taken to Canada. He was left behind and kicked out of the orphanage at 14. He signed up early and was wounded at Verdun Wood and invalided home. He was 18.

My maternal grandad was always clowning around, and my grandma his wife used to tut. He used to do magic tricks for us when me and my brother were kids. One of his silly sayings was 'I trod on a bun and a currant ran up my leg'.
Later on, my mum told me that he couldn't cope with retirement so he managed to get another job when he was 65. Apparently he was very lucky because he was too young to serve in WW1 and too old to be called up for WW2.

Completely random and probably not all that interesting but my granddad was a boxer when he was younger and he beat Jimmy Savile in a boxing match. We still have the old newspaper clipping somewhere

My grandpa did a wheels on his motorcycle to try and impress my grandma. He fell off and broke his leg. The next day he was due to be posted to Africa with his regiment who were almost all dead within the month.

Grandparent on one side was an immediate descendant of royalty. Grandparent on the other side was a poverty stricken prostitute.

My granny was 6 during the war. They had German prisoners of war work on their farm, they weren't supposed to but on any birthdays they'd have a cake baked and sing to them. Granny and great granny etc had letters for years after it ended from the young mens families thanking them for looking after their boys :)

My granny found her mother dead in the kitchen with her head in the gas oven. She was 11, her mother had PND as just had a baby. My granny stepped into her mothers shoes kept house brought up the baby and younger children.. She never told anyone this until a week before she died. She was the jolliest most cheerful person we ever knew.