I was born in Jersey where both sets of grandparents lived after WW2.
My maternal grandfather Bill Bird was educated at Victoria College and, like his three elder brothers, then went out to Chile where he was manager of a nitrate 'officina' and where he met my grandmother Ruth Blake (half Spanish) and where his four children were born. When nitrate crashed he and my grandmother and my mother (the youngest) came back to England. Arriving in Liverpool, none of them knew England at all and so they made their way to Jersey. Both my Bird grandparents are buried in the cemetery at Grouville.
My paternal grandmother Ivy Bishop has a much greater claim as her great great grandfather was Edward Dupre who was Dean of Jersey. Through him my grandmother was related to the Bolitho and Robin family, two of Jersey's oldest clans. She married my grandfather in St Helier parish church in August 1914. My grandfather Sidney Codrington Nation was in the Devonshire Regiment and they were stationed in Jersey prior to going to the Somme where he was badly injured, loosing his leg. After WW2 they lived at La Haule Manor in St Aubin (now a hotel) before moving to Norfolk
My maternal grandfather Bill Bird was educated at Victoria College and, like his three elder brothers, then went out to Chile where he was manager of a nitrate 'officina' and where he met my grandmother Ruth Blake (half Spanish) and where his four children were born. When nitrate crashed he and my grandmother and my mother (the youngest) came back to England. Arriving in Liverpool, none of them knew England at all and so they made their way to Jersey. Both my Bird grandparents are buried in the cemetery at Grouville.
My paternal grandmother Ivy Bishop has a much greater claim as her great great grandfather was Edward Dupre who was Dean of Jersey. Through him my grandmother was related to the Bolitho and Robin family, two of Jersey's oldest clans. She married my grandfather in St Helier parish church in August 1914. My grandfather Sidney Codrington Nation was in the Devonshire Regiment and they were stationed in Jersey prior to going to the Somme where he was badly injured, loosing his leg. After WW2 they lived at La Haule Manor in St Aubin (now a hotel) before moving to Norfolk
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