Mrs RM Downer (b. 1884): Purpose and Audience
At first glance, RM Downer’s autobiography seems to have been written out of a sense of nostalgia. The title, ‘A Bygone Age’, …
Mrs W.E. Palmer (b.1908): Life and Labour
Memories of Long Ago, is a nostalgic account of some of Mrs W.E. Palmer’s childhood years which she spent living at Harting …
Mrs RM Downer (b.1884): Biographical Entry
211 DOWNER, Mrs. R., ‘A Bygone Age’, TS, pp.31 (c.lO,OOO words). West Sussex Record Office. Born 1884. Father: ‘connected with horses’, working …
Alice Pidgeon (b.1898): Life & Labour
The depression of the 1930’s, has great significance in Alice Pidgeon’s memoir. Orphaned at just six years of age, Alice and her …
Mrs RM Downer (b.1884): Education and Schooling
RM Downer dedicates very little of her memoir to her early memories and school days. As I have explained in other posts, …
Minnie Frisby (b.1877): An Introduction
‘By musing and living in the happy past, I am able to forget much of the very painful present.’ (I:1) Minnie Frisby …
Mrs RM Downer (b.1884): Life and Labour (Part 1)
RM Downer’s memoir is heavily focused on her career as a dressmaker. As I have explored in a previous post, her purpose …
Edith Annie Williams (b. Nov. 1899): Life and Labour (Part 1.)
‘Shortly after leaving the grammar school my mother apprenticed me to the dressmaking trade with a local dressmaker’ (8) Many of the …
Mrs W.E. Palmer (b.1908): Biographical Entry
582 PALMER, Mrs. W.E., ‘Memories of Long Ago’, TS, pp.34 (c.12,200 words). Brunel University Library. Born 1908 in Bramley, near Guildford. Father …
Averil Edith Thomas: Life and Labour
Averil’s family lived in the heart of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, a famous place of trade which held numerous food, drink and farming …