My Grandmother August 1901- March 1988

My Grandmother Agnes Elizabeth Burns (Todd) was born in Newcastle from Scottish parents who had moved from Glasgow before she was born. Her Father was a comptometer on the Glasgow Herald. This job entailed using tweezers to put in the lettering for all the stories before the newspaper was printed and sent out to the public. His eye sight suffered greatly over the years because of this and he had to find another job when he could no longer continue. This meant moving to Newcastle to become a blacksmith and here the family settled. He was George Todd and his wife was Agnes Todd. They had four children Agnes was the youngest.

Life was hard as with most people of that time, and my Grandmother went into service at 16 years old after her schooling. She worked for Duke of Northumberland in their great house and the Duchess gave my Grandmother a silver picture frame when she left aged 21 to work in a bakers shop in Newcastle. The wages were higher and not so long hours.

The bakers was called Carricks in Newcastle Grainger Street and the business continues today but the old cafe has gone. As a waitress she served lovely sandwhiches and cakes to the patrons. She told me as a treat to the staff down stairs washing all the dishes and preping the food, she would send clean cups with cakes in down with the dirty dishes so the staff could find them and enjoy the cakes in secret. There was a ‘dolly’ to put the dishes in like a box on the wall which acted like a lift if you pulled the pully rope. It got food from the kitchen and sent dirty dishes down for washing.

At 20 years old she met a dashing young man James Archibold Burns( my Grandfather) who had fought in WW1 but been injured by an explosion which resulted in a metal plate in his head and gassed in the trenches but he was on the mend. His family owned a chip shop in Benwell and when he inherited the business he was not really interested and placed a manager there, the manageress was robbing the business blind and he lost it to the bank as the mortgage was not being paid while he was away fighting. My Grandmother and Grandfather married in 1922 and had three children, a boy and two girls. They also lived in Newcastle close by to Agnes and George their grandparents.

The eldest of the girls was my Mum who became a tailoress and her sister became a secretary and married an airman and moved to Southhampton. She developed Rheumatoid Arthritis very severely and was in a wheelchair in her thirties.

The boy became a plumber but fell off a roof at 18 years old and became epileptic and never really worked after the accident because of the medication, he died aged 47.

Grandmother used to make extra money during the second world war as everything was on ration, by trading goods eg she had a friend who was a chemist so she got lipsticks cheap and exchanged them for extra rashers of bacon from the butchers wife. She stood in any queue at the shops even if she did not know what they were selling and bought whatever it was, and exchanged it for food. She baked every Sunday to fill the cupboards and pantry for the coming week. Bread, pies, pasties, cakes (even though sugar was rationed)

My Grandfather died aged just 57 years of cancer which was probably caused by the Wills cigarettes soldiers were given in the war for free. Or by the gas in the war who knows. I was born by then so he did see his only grandchild.

So Grandmother had a hard life emotionally but so did many others. Many children did not survive past five years old in the early part of the century.

She was cremated in the same cemetry as her husband in Newcastle, her ashes placed in the Garden of Remembrance.

Lives well lived full of love and sacrifice, the like of which we will never see again. Love to them both.