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 wonderful thread. All four of my grandparents were born in 1897. My grandad was gassed in the Battle of the Somme when he was 19, and my gran made artillery shells in an enormous munitions factory.

My Grandad was in the coldstream guards and was stationed at Buckingham Palace when Queen Elizabeth (Princess at the time) and her sister Princess Margaret were small children and they used to kick their little red ball at him trying to get him to move! He'd only wink at them which made them giggle.

My grandfather was part of the force that liberated Belson. He spoke fluent German and was given a sword by a German soldier when they surrendered. It's in my Mum's house. He died before I was born

My Grandad was also sent to Sissinghurst Castle where he met my Nanna - her mother, my heart grandmother worked as the cook for Vita Sackville West and my Nanna used to help with cooking and cleaning. They were married at Sissinghurst Castle and my dad was born there x

great grandmother

My granddad is the illegitimate child of a famous German composer who escaped Germany during the war (he was Jewish).

My grandma was one of 16 children and her elder sister was my grandads legal guardian. His mum died in childbirth, and his dad was drowned in the river by someone stealing his money. His uncle married my grandmas sister. My grandma lived with her sister as a child as her parents only had 2 bedrooms! So she was brought up alongside her future husband.
2 sets of my grandmas sisters had the same name as their father married twice, so my grandma had 2 sisters called Mary and 2 called Alice.

My paternal grandfather was imprisoned for handling stolen goods when my dad was a toddler and the family kept it secret for 80 years. Nobody ever breathed a word and my grandma was over 90 when she died. My mum never knew about it.
Had it not been for local newspapers being published online, we would never have known.
He always was a bit odd and very unlike the rest of the family.

My maternal grandmother raised 6 of the 7 children born to her in a two up two down miner's cottage in Wales, got them all into Grammar School with scholarships and saw all the boys become Doctors (one a highly respected criminal pathologist) and all the daughters become nurses all while being the first telephone exchange operator in Abertillery.

My paternal grandmother was sold as a servant girl aged 8 or so, because her mum died and her dad couldn't look after all 4 children. She was eventually pretty much adopted by the couple she worked for, although we think they were possibly abusive towards her.

I was told when young that my Grandad was the youngest of 13 children. The next youngest was about 12 years older than him but it never occurred to me how strange this would be. However we have now heard that he was actually the oldest child of one of his 'sisters' who we knew to have become a nun. Very catholic family so I suppose the story makes sense.

My paternal grandfather was a carpenter and made the wooden benches for in lecture theatre that I later sat on as a student. He also worked in the Belfast shipyard and had lots of interesting stories to tell.
As a child my maternal grandmother heard the screams of a teenage neighbour during a backstreet abortion, the neighbour died and the abortionist and the neighbour’s mother (who had arranged the abortion) were later jailed.

My grandfather was purser on SS Athena until 1938 when he had to retire due to MS. He shot himself shortly after the sinking.

Athenia

Mumski my dads uncle turned out to be his older brother. But dad didn't find out until long after his DBs death. Very sad.

My nan’s birth wasn’t registered till she was in her 60s and she had no official documentation until then. How she emigrated, married, worked etc, we have no idea!

My grandad was also one of the first in the UK to have a kidney transplant from a live donor - both he and the donor lived for a further 25+ years afterwards.

My grandfather won Mastermind and Brain of Britain. Unfortunately, I am utterly useless at quizzes and general knowledge 🤪🤯

My great grandfather was one of 6 brothers that all served in WW1. Sadly only 4 survived.

My grandfather served at the Navy in the Gallipoli campaign in WW1.

He was also a cad and ran off with my nan while he was still married (he never divorced and my grandparents never married) and left his wife with 3 children.

He went on to have 5 children with my nan.

My grandfather walked out of (what was) Czechoslovakia to escape the communist regime, he had got my mum and my nan on the last train out.

My Nan got a GCSE in English language and lit aged 70.

My other nan was the first woman in Stoke On Trent to drive a car.

My grandmother used to sign for her pension at the PO with a X

My grandmother (who was a nasty, cruel woman, and I don’t have much nice to say about her, but I will say that she had less than three years of schooling during the Great Depression in rural Australia, so she was not well-educated either...) was a rabid Irish catholic and a racist to boot. After she died, I found out that her “German” grandmother - a concert pianist, of whom she was terribly, terribly proud - was actually a Russian-born Jewess. My grandmother blamed the Jews for “killing Jesus” and would be spinning in her grave if anyone found this out!

This knowledge had me brimming with Schadenfreude - but I had nobody to tell!!!

Both my grandfathers worked building the QE2