My father Ernest George Tooke was born in South East London in August 1907 an Edwardian, the eldest child of his parents Ernest and Ellen.
Dad, Sid & Jack
Two brothers, Sid and Jack, followed before my grandmother had a break from childbearing caused by the Great War. I know very little about my grandfathers military career other than he was fighting in Greece for part of the time where he suffered from frostbite.
About a year after my grandfathers return from the war the family was completed with the birth of the twins Dorothy and Eddy in 1920.
Back in civvy street my grandfather resumed his work as a London cabby and life went on.
Sid, Jack and Grandma with the twins
As the eldest of the family and some thirteen years older than the twins my father was in demand for babysitting and got to take the twins in their pram to nearby Brockwell Park on Saturday mornings. Several of his friends were similarly afflicted, but made the best of it by racing the prams by taking them up to the top of the hill in the park, pushing them off, and the pram that reached the bottom first was the winner. Apparently on one, never to be forgotten, occasion the Dad's pram overturned and both babies were tipped out, a story that has entered family legend.
Dad is holding Eddy
Dad and Grandad larking around at the beach
Life wasn't all work however and there were visits to the seaside especially to Great Yarmouth where my Grandfather's family came from, and trips out to the countryside in the taxi. Although as you can see from the above pictures these were not necessarily informal occasions! It would have been very unusual for a working class / lower middle class family to have access to a car in the nineteen twenties and would have added an extra dimension to their childhood experiences.
Family days out
This was still the heyday of the music hall and this song made famous by Marie LLoyd typifies the era