Its a mad world out there, on Friday you’re on the FaceTime to your mum and on Sunday you’re sat beside her bed watching her take here last breadth…
Losing one parent is heartbreaking, but when you lose your last parent its world shattering, its been nearly 4 months since mum passed and I still wake up every morning, thinking I should ring her and then it hits me full in the face, I can’t ring her anymore, I can’t listen to her asking me to repeat things or speak a bit louder as she can’t find her hearing aid…
For those who never knew or met my mum and for those who did, I’ve posted below her Eulogy, some people know who my mum was and what she went through in life, for those who didn’t this might explain a little about who she was and what she was the way she was…
Re-reading it now myself just makes me realise how much my mum did in here life and how much she endured as a child, and yet she survived and became a wonderful caring wife to my father and an amazing mum to myself and my two elder sisters… have a read and she for yourself why its so hard to think she’s actually gone from our lives
Jane Winfred Young Elgey (Nee Reid)
Born 9th June 1929
Johore Bahru. Malaya
Jane was 1 of 5 children having an elder sister and 3 brothers. Only her younger Brother Dirk Reid & his wife Lucy is with us but could not attend today due to their ill health.
Our mother, Jane attended a Catholic Convent School for all nationalities, and she also went to school with the Princess of Johore
Our mother Jane & her family had a lovely home & lifestyle and often swam in the Sultan of Johore private pool. As both her parents were friends of the Sultan.
Thankfully our Oma Reid (mum’s mother) cooked & ate the local food for the family which I am sure helped them survive the POW Camps & was a good grounding for things to come.
13th February 1942
Our mother Jane & her family escaped Singapore on the Mata Hari as the bombs were being dropped. Whilst on the ship the children were given sweets & one got stuck in mums braces & she often wondered how her teeth would have ended up if she still had braces on
Their ship did get some damage from the bombs but did not sink and they limped into Sumatra where they were captured by the Japanese. Our mother Jane and her family were put amongst the Eurasians in the various camps as the Australians & English kept to themselves.
Mum & her family spent 4 years in Sumatra in various Camps as they were moved around.
Mum once said banana skins don’t taste nice as they used to fry or boil them before eating them. I recall her telling us they ate anything and everything they could get their hands on. My mother’s Oma Kobus, her grandmother died in Camp and mum was very close to her.
15th August 1945
The Japanese surrendered and soon after our mother & her family flew to Singapore on a Dakota from Lahat Aerodrome, it being mum’s 1st trip on a plane, it had square portholes. They stayed in the Raffles Hotel until passage was allocated for them on the M.V. Antenor where they docked in Liverpool where her father was waiting for them. No grand reception or brass bands welcomed them.
On arriving in Paisley mum was enrolled in the Paisley Grammer School although she was 16 at the time she was put in with class of 12-year-olds as she had lost so much schooling.
1946 -1949
Paisley Grammar School
On leaving Paisley Grammar School in 1949 she worked at
Coates Thread Mills, Science Dept testing the strength of the thread made there. She didn’t stay there long as she secured a job at Paisley Co-operative Manufacturing Society Ltd
Worked in the Bespoke Tailoring Dept making bespoke jackets from start to finish where she worked until 1952 at the age of 23
She then went to work for Fulton’s Dye Works, near Barrhead as a Control Clerk pinpointing where each dyed material was at the moment.
Jane also then went onto work as a Nursery Nurse at Children’s home in Rhu Helensburgh with one of her friends.
Mum also worked the old type of computer sending information to the Mills in Manchester
Mum also worked in a NAAFI in Winchester
When Mum her boyfriend Duncan who serving in the Army split up his friend Harold was stationed in Hong Kong who asked if he could write to her and they became pen pals.
Harold met up with Jane for the 1st time whilst on leave and within a week of meeting Harold who had travelled up to Gretna Green from Hull where mum met him as she was staying with her elder sister Erica. They then travelled upto Paisley & on the train Harold gave her a box of chocolates but had replaced one of the chocolates with an Engagement ring. They travelled up to Paisley to her mothers for approval & her mother Marie took to Harold & said yes.
Harold only had a few days leave but could not get a special licence to get married in Scotland, so they travelled down to Hull and were married on the 12th November 1955 at Hull Registry Office. It certainly was a whirlwind romance. Soon after Harold was posted to Gibraltar. Whilst in Hull Jane stayed with Harolds parents & I recall her telling us that she worked at the Metal Box.
Mum joined Harold in Gibraltar in the summer of 1956 where Glynis was born. They lodged with a local family until they could secure Army Quarters to live. Harold had a shilling left over from his pay which he used to save and asked mum if there was anything she needed before he saved up for a car. She said a sewing machine so that she could make all her own clothes and baby clothes for Glynis.
In 1959 Mum & Harold were back in Hull stopping at Harold’s parents who lived in Hull. Jacqueline was born in the January.
In 1961 they moved to moved to Freshwater Isle of Wight where mum took on a few part time jobs.
Chalet Maid Summer Season. Totland Bay IOW
Cafeteria Assistant, Norton Chalet Hotel , nr Yarmouth IOW
Around 1963 Harold bought his 1st house in Carrs, near Haslingden in Lancashire where we lived for a couple of years. Whilst there Mum worked at a Fishmongers whilst Harold had been posted to Singapore.
1964 – Mum, Glynis & Jacky joined Harold in Singapore where Mum met up with her childhood friends and also her father was still working out in Singapore & her younger brother Dirk who was also living in Singapore
It was now 1966 and we were back in Hull where Harold bought a house in East Hull, Vincent was born in May just before the World Cup of ‘66
Whilst in Hull mum had a few part-time jobs working at the Astoria Bingo Hall & Four in Hand Pub. Our mum worked round our school hours and was always home when we finished school
Later that year we moved to Portsmouth into Army Quarters
By 1967 We were back in Singapore for another 3 years with Harold
We were back in Hull in 1970 and eventually moved to Mkt Weighton on Christmas Eve & just as we started to move it started snowing. Harold had rented a van as he had only a week’s leave before being posted abroad
Since 1971 until the 1998 mum worked at
RBM Massey’s, Petrol Pump Attendant
She also worked at Europower on the Twilight shift
Royal Mail, Postwoman even doing a round on a Moped to HOSM but mainly on a bicycle around Mkt Weighton
On a Monday she could be found at Crows Auctions at Selby Market with Harold aswell as helping him in the Shop aswell as the Workbasket and later helping Glynis
Mum had met a few celebrities during her life including the late Dame Anna Neagle in Gibraltar, she also met Jon Pertwee in 1984 at Liverpool Garden Festival.
Mum was also invited and attended Garden Party at Holyrood in 1995
She also went to London where she was one of many who joined the campaign for Prisoners of Japan for compensation which was long overdue.
Mum’s POW Camps were immortalised in the TV Series TENKO altho’ she told us life was much harsher than the tv series had portrayed. She later met up with Lavinia Warner in person in Chichester where she met all the cast of the TENKO & other internees who she had not seen since she was liberated from the camps. She was also interviewed by Pam Rhodes for a Special programme of Songs of Praise for VJ Day which you can still watch on YouTube.
In January 1999 our mother lost her soul mate Harold & she often spoke about Harold in the present tense. She missed him greatly as he was her one & true love. They had a truly wonderful marriage & I remember them renewing their vows at this very Church as they had married in a Registry Office.
15th August 2015 Mum & I attended one of the VJ Day Memorials where we met Dicky Bird and other Internees who were captured by the Japanese and Mum met up with other internees whom she had not seen since the end of the war & had a good catch up.
Mum was also invited to attend the VJ Day 75th Memorial on the 15th August 2020 at the Arboretum in Alrewas in Staffordshire where we met Sophie Raworth journalist & newsreader, Dan Snow, MBE Historian & TV Presenter, we also met & had a lovely conversation to the then Prince Charles & Camila, as well as Boris Johnson PM which was the highlight of the weekend for her. It was an emotional day for her remembering those who never came back & died in the camps. The BBC televised the VJ 75 Commemoration.
Mum loved her artwork and painting and went on various painting holidays. Mum met Ashley Jackson whose father was also interned in one of the POW Camps in Sumatra but sadly did not return. Ashely Jackson invited Mum to the opening of his Gallery in Holmfirth last of the Summer Wine Country. She was also a member of various art groups in Pocklington and Hook and raised monies for the Royal British Legion selling Poppies door to door aswell as visiting the local factories. She also collected thousands of Bras for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to help raise funds for them.
Another pastime of mum’s was dressmaking and knitting as she made the majority of her own clothes and ours when we were growing up and in her later years she enjoyed her crochet & knitted squares to make blankets for another charity.
She supported various charities over the years including the Gurkha Welfare Trust and was also a member of the Royal British Legion.
Mum also enjoyed going swimming and going on Baldry’s Coach Trips with Rose Bradshaw and her friends
She also travelled in Europe & stayed in Youth Hostels with Cath Sissons
Mum would help anyone out and never saw bad in a person & only saw good.
I now know where I get my love of taking photos as mum has numerous photos from not only her younger days but also of all her trips abroad whether it was with the Church to Italy or her painting holidays in the UK.
More recently mum was awarded the Freedom of Mkt Weighton in December 2020
And only this Christmas Jacky took her to switch on the Christmas Tree lights in the Town. This being the 2nd time she had been honoured to do it, the last time being when Cllr Stephen King was Mayor.
Our Mum, Jane was a loving wife to our late father Harold &
fantastic mother to the 3 of us & made sure we never went
without. She hated to see Food wasted & on one occasion when
David & I took her for a meal in York at Toby Carvery both David & I
had left a bit of cauliflower, and she looked at both of us & said
“You can tell who was Interned in a POW Camp “looking at our unfinished plate and her plate was clean. She had a wicked sense of humour sometimes.
One thing that sticks in my mind is that she used to say was “Glynis you are my Rock my Rock of Gibraltar”
Mum leaves behind her 3 children Glynis, Jacky and Vincent
Her Grandsons & great grandsons as well as her brother Dirk and his wife Lucy
Numerous nieces & nephews who live as far apart as Paisley, Hull, London, Oxford and Australia. Aswell as her long-term friends from the Camps who she kept in touch with.
There is so much more I could say about her life but trying to get 95 years in this Eulogy we would be here for a very long time & I am sure you all have your own story & memory of our mother.
I end this by saying
“THINGWAY “
“SO “