If you follow the family tree up, you will come to my grandfather Bob’s parents, his father, also called Robert, was a laborer who served in the First World War, which led to him winning a medal for his service. His wife, Amy Boanson, stayed at home with their three children. Nothing is really known about Amy, but I did find out she was a music teacher. She was the one who taught my grandfather Bob and maybe my grandmother how to play the piano, something my grandmother, never really does anymore, maybe due to her forgetting or due to the fact Ive never seen her near a piano in my life. Amy died in 1957.
Robert sr, just like Amy, was born in Hartlepool, before the war he was a laborer, just like his father. When you combine that with the fact at that period, Hartlepool was one of the biggest ship building towns in the country, you can be pretty certain he was working in the ship yards, along with his father. When war was declared, he signed up quickly, along with his cousin, who was under the age of conscription. He died in India while fighting for the British Army, his name is still on the war memorial in the middle of Hartlepool’s town centre, near the docks. Once when I was around 8 or 9 years old, my grandmother took me to the giant stones and pointed to his name. The only words that came out her mouth were ‘We have a war hero in our family’. I never really pressed her for answers to my questions until much later on. The death of the cousin, really did hit my family hard. However, Robert wasn’t told about his cousin’s death, until he had arrived home. His parents didn’t want to upset him. Robert later died in 1963.
The Peckett Family Tree 