ALEX GILBERT, MEMORIES OF THE YEARS 1950-1960

 

Memories of the boy Alex Gilbert (b9/4/1950) of 1950 to 1960.

First son of Mark and Josephine Gilbert.

Alex later changed his surname to Von Tutschek.

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Our parents lived in Leicester when I was born but the first house that I have memory of is the stylish 57 Princess Road (West) directly opposite the gateway to Leicester Museum, it still looks the same today except the house front is purely a facade, all behind this was re-built as council offices decades ago, it is surely a conservation area these days.

My understanding is that grandmother and Papa pooled funds and bought this large four storey house so as to be able to let rooms as a boarding house, I do remember others in the house including a Mr Birtwhistle who had a motorcycle and took this enthusiastic passenger out on it twice. In about 1954/55 the family then moved to Nottingham for commercial reasons and granny stayed on at number 57, I visited and stayed with her a few times. Papa was popular with granny and she cherished me. The most memorable room at 57 at this stage was the large upstairs front room which was a cultured ‘music’ room, it was finely furnished, some of the pieces I still remember, indeed I still have one red wine glass that came from this room.

Our family moved to a house on the south side of Colwick Road very close to the railway bridge, long gone but its situation is easily found. When we moved in it was a dark bleak house. The house was upgraded and we moved on in circa 1956/7 to a 1930’s semi-detached house on Charlbury Road in Wollaton, this house backed on to the canal, I suspect long since filled in. Papa had Polish friends just down the road, they had two children slightly younger than me, one day there was a tragedy as the daughter fell in and was drowned; shortly afterwards this family emigrated to Australia. Whilst we were there the Raleigh cycle Co expanded and the new Sturmey Archer factory was built very close to this house. Years later, between 1966 & 1970 I was to serve an apprenticeship at The Raleigh and beyond this, to live to see this most modern part of the factory demolished in circa 1992-3. We might have been here a year or so before we moved to 29 Lenton Boulevard where we stayed until about 1960. This large Victoria double bay-windowed house still looks much as it did then, Lenton Boulevard is of course much busier nowadays.

Not far from us, only a few hundred yards away on the bend were the Lenton Infants and Junior schools, one on the right and one on the left, these are the first schools I have recollection of going to. I seem to remember going to both, the one on the left first when younger (again I will come back to this), when a bit older I used to walk daily to the building on the right. These two Victorian school buildings, still look exactly as they did then.

These were formative years and I have many memories of living here. In a northerly direction the nearby walled Vicarage orchard was, while we were there sold and a petrol station built, again this has subsequently been demolished, further up road, in those days with numerous shops , a post office and a bank.................a longer walk took one past the large and impressive Raleigh head office, then onto the Catholic Church and a library......and then to (pure white) Asian Corner, named such for other reasons. I will come back to this library later on. As an 8 to 10 year old I had the right to roam far on my own, we had lots of personal freedom. During this period I took my very first ‘job’. Most days of the week I used to take a large & strong Alsatian dog for very long walks cum- adventures. Its owners Captain and Mrs Anderson lived at the large Victorian house on the corner of Lenton Blvd and Arthur Street. The Andersons got good value for money at 6d a day; Micky would have been tired out on his return. Again their house looks to have survived unchanged today and is easily found.

Twice at about this time, circa 1957 both Boris and I were sent away for some weeks to nearby Nazareth House, a Catholic convent-ophanage- children’s home on Priory Street. Our mother was both ill in hospital and convalescing afterwards. We later learnt that she had been seriously ill and had had a lung removed, we were shielded from most of what must have been very difficult times for our parents. The bulk of this large building has subsequently been demolished but I could easily take you to where it was. It was whilst staying here that one of the nuns told me that my granny had died, I was very sad over this but didn’t quite believe her. Despite what you might read in newspapers we were not abused and those in charge did as best they could for us on what must have been modest amounts of money.

Our parents saw some relatives, we knew our aunts and uncles; Margaret and Anthony who came to stay once or twice. I was particularly fond of him, he was a hero, one who had been away to foreign parts, he had ‘gone to sea’. We visited Aunty Vina and Uncle Maurice in Birmingham whose house I can remember, he always used to give us five shillings on our birthdays and when we saw him. Now looking back I can see how rude we were in not being told to write a note to him thanking him for this, I can only think that our mother neglected to make us do this. We also had an annual visit from (and to?) mothers cousin Anthony & his wife, with their son Christopher who would have been about eight years older than me. Their visits were memorable because they always arrived in interesting cars; they must have been something like a MG’s or Riley's, they stood our as being the choice of a motoring enthusiast. And they always brought a box of old Dinky cars which this toy starved boy loved.

Our father had good reasons to harbour grudges against the Poles, the Germans, most of the Ukainians (those who were in Nottingham had mostly fought with the German army).........and top of the list, Soviet Russia. His times of really tough survival and military adventures from 1939 to 1944 were to dominate all of his children's lives, these ideas were stronger during the earlier years of his older children. He had seen the weak and feeble die easily and it mattered to him that his children were made of sterner stuff, he didn’t want children brought up (to quote) ‘tied to their mothers apron’. We were brought up in a manner that made us robust enough to take the knocks that life throws at one. Our type did not need therapy if we missed a bus.

Despite his ideas about fellow foreigners, there were numerous East European friends and acquaintances who we saw but I would then have taken this as quite normal, we were always aware that we had family far away in The Argentine..............and we knew of Radiono (?) who had gone to live in Toronto. He was a 1940’s friend of our fathers and it is he who is shown on their wedding photos, he must have been the ‘best man’.

It is not too hard for me to look back & see much of this fairly clearly, this era had much in common with the times of our mother, it was closer to the 1930’s and 1940’s than the times we now live in.

Their values and the values of those around us were totally different to those that the BBC endeavour to show us as normal today. Our father was very pleased to identify with the England that he then lived in, he was naturalised in 1950.

It was in Lenton that I first noticed Jamaicans, I remember the few seen as well dressed, their women wore flamboyant bright clothes that seemed too flashy for grey British days. I can’t remember any in my class but there might have been one or two in the school, I do remember one white South African girl, we were all very surprised, how could she be from African and be white?

Our parents had strong opinions about the sort of Nottingham girls who associated with these newcomers and felt very sorry for half-caste children. They foresaw problems in the future.

It was whilst living at Lenton Boulevard that our father must have become self employed, working on houses. I remember him taking ladders by bicycle to do jobs elsewhere. In 1958 he bought his first vehicle, a second-hand early 1950’s Trojan van. Here’s a tip for you, if you ever get to own one you will find the petrol filler cap by tilting the driver’s seat forward, the petrol tank is inside the van under the driver’s seat.

All of these simple memories are from before our move to Thorncliffe Road in circa 1960. Over a couple of bottles of wine, all of this could be elaborated on but I suspect most folk would be too bored & just fall asleep.

And so, to end by illustrating just two lasting legacies from this era.

1. Back to the first memory of early days at Lenton Infants School....or was it an even earlier school?

After our mid-day ‘dinner time’...we were put to sleep in small beds/cots for an hour, this must have been standard practice for young children then.

What an incredible practice they had introduced me to. Take it from this 70 year old, this lifelong habit is quite wonderful, by taking an afternoon nap a man can continue working from early to late without going all floppy in the afternoon. I now know that W.S. Churchill practised this habit too.

2. And lastly; earlier I spoke of Lenton Library, it was here that our mother introduced me to one of my life long passions..... reading (seeking knowledge) & later on, buying books.

In circa 1959 or 1960 whilst at home convalescing from some childhood illness, my mother went to the library to select some books for us to read together.

She came back with a book called ‘Knights of the Air’, as a ten year old I must have enjoyed it because I took it out from the library a second time later on...and then never saw it again for sixty years.

Years later I was to realise that this was quite definitely the very beginning of my showing any interest in aviation, one of my life’s great interests.

In more recent years I have remembered this and tried to find a copy of this book, I did remember its title and also that the front cover showed an SE5 biplane diving to the right at forty-five degrees and that there was a name on the aeroplane..........MAYBE.

Having searched, I can tell you that there are many books called Knights of the Air, it was a very recent fluke that guided me to book images and there it was; the outcome of all this is that just two months ago, in July 2020 I have been reunited with a copy of this book.