John Wilkinson Family Tree
Vivian Knox 1923-2008 Mother
My
mother,
Vivian
Knox
was
born
at
Alnwick
on
29
January
1923
to
Joseph
and
Catherine
Knox
(nee
Wade).
She
was
the
only
daughter
of
four
children.
Her
brothers
were
Joseph
(Born
1925),
Kenneth
(Born
1927)
and
Ronald
(Born
1933),
all
children
being
born
in
Alnwick,
Northumberland.
She
also
had
a
stepsister
Lillian
from
her
fathers
first
marriage.
On
leaving
school
at
fourteen,
she
went
into
service
at
one
of
the
local
large
houses
until
the
outbreak
of
the
second
world
war
when
she
went
to
London
to
work
in
a
munitions
factory.
This
is
where
she
started
smoking
and,
despite
several
attempts
to
stop,
she
smoked
for
the
rest
of
her
life.
I
took
her
to
Lichfield
to
have
acupuncture
once
and
she
came
out
with
a
needle
in
her
ear.
If
she
got
desperate
she
had
to
rub
the
needle
to
take
the
craving
away.
On
the
way
home
she
was
still
rubbing
the
needle
at
the
same
time
as
she
was
smoking
a
cigarette.
After
the
war
she
returned
to
Shilbottle,
married,
and
moved
to
Bilton
Banks.
Four
years
later
they
moved
to
Percy
Road
Shilbottle,
where
she
lived
for
most
of
her
life.
Times
were
very
hard
following
my
fathers
death
and
she
had
to
work
to
survive.
She
worked
at
the
local
junior
school
in
the
canteen
and
cleaning,
worked
in
a
shop
and
eventually
joined
the
home
help
service.
Initially,
the
only
means
of
bathing
was
a
tin
bath
in
front
of
the
fireplace
and
on
a
saturday
afternoon
I
had
to
hide
behind
the
settee
to
watch
Doctor
Who.
Many
neighbours
used
to
give
her
bags
of
coal
to
heat
the
house.
She
lost
her
free
coal
on
the
death
of
my
father.
I
can’t
remember
her
having
any
serious
health
problems
until
late
in
life,
but
I
do
remember
her
having
a
succession
of
boils
all
over
her
body,
even
one
in
her
ear.
This
seemed
to
carry
on
for
a
few
years
so
she
must
have
been
really
run
down
at
the
time.
There
weren’t
any
men
in
her
life
after
dad
died.
The
only
one
I
recall
coming
to
the
house
was
Andy
Lockie
from
Alnwick.
He
worked
at
Hardys
fishing
tackle
works
in
Alnwick,
but
she
always
insisted
that
he
was
a
friend
who
took
her
out
for
the
occasional
drink.
I
always
thought
that
they
should
have
got
married
but
she
later
confessed
that
she
used
him
a
bit
to
get
out
of
the
house.
She
used
to
go
out
with
brother
Ronnie
and
his
son
Derek
and
wife
Anne
quite
often.
They
had
a
few
tales
to
tell
about
how
much
food
she
could
eat,
one
example
was
that
everyone
in
the
restaurant
got
up
and
clapped
when
she
finished
a
very
large
meal.
I
don’t
know
how
true
it
was
but
she
always
took
it
in
good
spirits.
For
the
last
few
years
of
her
life
she
moved
in
with
Colin
and
Irene
at
Tyersal.
She
was
diagnosed
with
ovarian
cancer
and
had
to
go
into
hospital
several
times
to
get
treatment
for
high
levels
of
calcium
in
her
blood.
It
must
be
said
that
both
Colin
and
Irene
could
not
have
done any more to make her stay as comfortable as possible.
Mother 1923
Mother 1923
