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

I’m English, but one GM was born in Chile (1910s) and one in the Falkland Islands (1890s).

One GFather was a GP in the Sunderland slums before antibiotics were discovered. The other would have been 99 today.

My grandfather was involved with the rescue of the survivors of the torpedoed City of Benares evacuee ship, in 1940.

My Gramp was sunk at Dunkirk. Twice. Once on his original ship and then his rescue boat also got attacked.

He lived until his mid-80s though, so didn't fare too badly once he got home (he insisted on jobs based on deck once he had recovered and gone back to sea; being below decks when his ship got hit was, understandably, terrifying).

My great grandad came from Ireland leaving pregnant great man to work for his brother. Plan being he’d send money home this was 1898 he got bored of working in a shop and told his brother he was going home. But didn’t and signed up for a ship and buggered off to Southampton looking for a ship to Africa or somewhere. Meantime great granny had wondered why he’d sent no money came over to find he’d buggered off. So heavily pregnant she got the stage coach (I’m assuming lots of them) to Southampton and trawled the bars and pubs looking for him. Found him battered him black and blue and dragged him from the pub and back to Ireland ! My grandad was born on the ship back all her exertions brought him early. My great granny was scary !!

One of my grandads relatives was the captain of the Mary rose ship

My dad's middle name (Granville!) was in honour of the American my grandad drove ambulances with in ww2. My dad hated it

My grandfather was one of the leaders of the Dutch resistance during WWII and hid 3 Jewish friends in the attic of the family home. My mum and her older brother always wondered why they were not allowed up into the attic with my grandmother to “hang out the washing” and their little sister was....my aunts couldn’t talk properly yet .

My other grandfather was a quite well known artist and designer. Sadly he passed away before I was born as by all accounts he was quite a character! Luckily we still have lots of his work in the family and a few museums.

Oh and my lovely grandmother jumped the poor vicar’s bones for some nookie....at this point she was demented as a doorknob, bless her.

My Grandfather was in the navy during the 2WW aged 16 (he lied about his age to sign up), and when on crow’s best duty one night he saved the lives of everyone on the ship by spotting and the raising alarm on an enemy submarine torpedo coming directly towards them.

Both of my grandmothers were pregnant when they got married. They were both 18.

One of my grandfathers was the crown prince to a minor Indian state, but had it taken by the British back in the days of the Empire.

My other grandfather was on the secret flight from India to Pakistan during partition carrying Pakistan's share of the gold reserve

My gran and her sister married two brothers. They all lived together with 14 kids between them!

my grandfather was one of 8 five girls three boys. The family was so poor that they had 1 egg to share between them as a treat. All three boys could not go to school at the same time as they only had one pair of boots between them and had to take turns to wear them and go to school. Despite this my grandgather could read and write and enjoyed reading his paper

Literally the only thing (other than his name) that I know about my maternal grandfather is that he died of miners’ lung a decade before I was born.

My grandad was at Dunkirk.

He never mentioned it until just before he died.

I don’t anything special happened in the lives of my grandparents. I never knew my paternal grandmother or maternal grandfather.

Maternal grandmother never moved more than three miles from her place of birth, and left school at 13 to enter domestic service. She lived and worked in a big house, with only Sunday afternoons off, until she married the driver to the house.

Paternal grandfather left school at school and spent his adult life as a shepherd, again, within just a few miles of his birth.

My grandfather served at the Somme and Paschendale. He got off the frontline by volunteering to train as a cook. He saved a man's life dragging him from a burning bivouac and years later bumped into him when he bumped a car whilst parking.

He once bought a young lady a new garter as a gift. On condition he could put it on her leg.

My grandma was born in Knutsford Workhouse, and abandoned there by her mother. She kept it a secret, and we only found out when she needed her birth certificate for something, and my mum applied to get a copy. For the first time, my gran saw her mother's name. Sadly, the "father" section was blank.

My grandfather was one of the first men to liberate the prisoners in Bergen Belsen after WWII. He sadly died aged just 49. Many years later I moved to Hohne (sister camp 3kms down the road from Belsen) when my husband was posted their with the Army and my dad was able to visit.

my maternal grandfather was a coal miner, my grandmother was the daughter of the mine owner, don't what my great grandparents thought about it but my grandmother was apparently not someone to argue with when her mind was set

After my grandad was shot at El Alamein and his wound got infected, he was considered a lost cause so they tested a new drug on him. It was penicillin and it saved his life. He wrote loads of letters to my grandmother while he was at war and they make fascinating reading.

This will out me to anyone who knows me but my Grandad was in charge of setting up the Imperial War Museum at Duxford airfield. He once had to arrange the closure of a major motorway in order for Concorde to arrive from the US. He remembers being told "here's £100K, build us a museum." - and he did! He sadly died in February aged 91 but my family is very proud of his achievements and will miss him greatly.

My grandparents met and married within four weeks. She said it was because she was a randy, but true, Christian woman!

My Gran was in the WRAF and worked in a plotting room, she never let us forget it and of course she won the war all on her own. She died in 2016 aged 98, a formidable lady who did not suffer fools gladly and made local shopkeepers cower

My GF went to America and worked in a factory making Pullman railway coaches for a few years. That was in the 1880s. Then he came back to Scotland, or my life might have been quite different!

Fascinating thread.

My maternal grandmother suffered from postpartum psychosis after my mum was born and was in and out of mental hospital until mum was 11 when Granny was sectioned and never came out . I remember visiting her often with my mum who was devoted to her . When mum was 18 grandad met and fell in love with a lady who was a staunch Catholic . He asked my mum to tell his new lady that his first wife had died ! ( mum refused !)
Anyway he went on to marry my step granny but did so before his divorce was Decree Absolute , he then married her again a month later ! We have both wedding certificates , they were devoted to each other and had a long and happy marriage.