Exercise 2: Family Environmental History
October 8, 2023 By: V. Pattenden
Prof. N. Fennema
HIST 3991: Environmental History
V. Pattenden T00593695
October 8, 2023
Exercise 2: Family Environmental History
Having emigrated to Canada as a child with my small nuclear family, my family origins are based predominantly in the UK and my knowledge of the family history is limited. Fortunately, I managed to gather some information from my mother to combine with my research of areas in which my family originated and places where they settled. From what I can gather, my family’s lives were greatly impacted by the effects of WW1, the interwar period between 1918 and 1939 (which saw the “Roaring 20’s” and the Great Depression), and directly impacted and actively involved in WWII. These factors necessitated and influenced my family’s respective locations, their lifestyles, occupations, and marriage partners. My family were generally townsfolk and subsisted without strong agricultural or environmental connections to the land, although home gardens for vegetables and flowers have been a common theme throughout the generations.
My mother’s father, Ray, was born in Kingston upon Thames, London, in 1914. He came from a large upper-middle class family who owned a family plumbing business and Grandad Ray was a plumber. My mother’s mother, Peg, was born in the London area in 1918 and her father served on the front lines in WWI. He later had a trucking business and their lives were directly impacted by the war, for they often had to shelter from air raids, ration food and at one point a bomb had landed in their yard. Unfortunately, the neighbors across the way also had a bomb land in their yard but that one hit a fuel line and blew everything and everyone up. At fourteen, Peg worked at a London department store and later managed to secure a secretarial position at 11 Downing Street. Peg left her secretarial position to work as a receptionist at Grandad Ray’s family’s plumbing business, which is how they met.
Grandad Ray was from Kingston upon Thames which is a town in southwest London located on the ford of the River Thames. The town brims with picturesque gardens, wharfs, and promenades and is historically recognized as the first Royal Borough and home to the ancient relic, the Coronation Stone. (1) Kingston upon Thames’ earlier economy relied primarily upon agriculture and farming, with productive industries including, brickmaking, leatherwork, boat construction, and breweries providing a rich economic base. (1) In modern times, the town attracts considerable tourism with its desirable location, variety of shopping, several football clubs, as well as by keeping traditional boat-building practices thriving as a historical draw. (1)
Peg and Ray were married in the late 30s or early 40s, at the beginning of WWII, and had a son. Pegs sister was in the Airforce and met a Canadian mechanic from Saskatchewan during her service, they married and eventually moved to BC and settled in the Okanagan Valley. Since Ray was a plumber and considered an essential worker, he was relieved of war duty, but their son was not, and this was the factor which drove them to emigrate to Canada sometime in the 50’s. They settled in Chilliwack, BC, where they purchased a small parcel of land and built a house, which included garden space. Ray was a school custodian and Peg was a homemaker and they had a daughter, my mother, in 1956.
Chilliwack is a small city located east of Vancouver in the Upper Fraser Valley. (2) The name Chilliwack means “valley of many streams” in the Halq’emeylem language of the Sto:lo People, since it is surrounded by two large rivers, known as the Fraser and the Vedder. (2) Cultus Lake and Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park are major tourism draws, with the economy relying mostly on service and retail sectors, with a combination of resource sectors accounting for the rest. (2) Chilliwack is also home to a Canadian Forces Base that was established due to Canada’s initialization into WWII in 1941. (2)
Peg and Ray’s son emigrated back to England when he was around 19 or 20 and in 1967, they decided to follow and, with my mother in tow, emigrated back to England. They settled in Fareham, UK, located in southeast Hampshire at the northwest end of Portsmouth Harbour between Portsmouth and Southampton. (3) Fareham began as an agricultural market town, specializing in seasonal fruits and brickmaking but later grew to include the neighboring villages of Funtley (clay quarry), Titchfield (River Meon and port), Porchester (historical site), and Catisfield, which bolstered the market economy. (3) Nowadays, Fareham supports a major “traffic artery” of neighboring cities and is considered one of the most car-dependent places in England. (3) Fareham’s modern economy relies on lumber, coal, and grain, with its main industries being engineering and shipbuilding. (3)
Moving to the other side of the family, my father’s father, Derek, was born in Portsmouth sometime around 1920. Derek had several siblings, including a twin brother who eventually married a Scottish woman and developed a large family base there. Derek served in WWII at many locations, including, Egypt, India, Iceland and Canada. Derek’s official position in WWII is uncertain but after his duty he held many different jobs including, ship steward, dock worker, and held a security position escorting torpedoes to Scotland for the Marconi. My father’s mother, Betty, was from East Sussex, London and she served in the WAFS (Womens Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron), after her service she held different jobs working in shops and such, settling in Portsmouth with Derek.
Portsmouth is a Port city and is mostly located on Portsea Island and incorporates the Solent, which is an ecologically important and protected coastal straight that lies between England’s mainland and the Isle of Wight. (4) Portsmouth is of major historical significance since it was regarded as the world’s best naval port, the most heavily fortified city, and its harbor constituted the first drydock ever constructed, in addition Portsmouth’s naval base had the world’s first mass production line. (4) The Portsmouth dockyard continues to be a significant source of employment in the area and Portsmouth’s modern economy is tied to aircraft engineering and shipbuilding. (5) The area also draws significant tourism due to its historical sites and seaside attractions.
Betty and Derek were married at some point and had my father in 1951, then another son, and a daughter. They lived in Portsmouth, then Emsworth, and then Southbourne. Their daughter pursued a nursing career in London and eventually moved to Scotland after her second marriage with her two sons from her first marriage. After Derek passed away, Betty lived the rest of her life in Scotland with her daughter and extended family. Betty enjoyed the lush landscape and the highland cattle of Scotland.
My mother was a hairdresser living with her parents in Fareham when she met my father, a painter and decorator from Portsmouth. They married when she was eighteen and he was 23 and worked hard to save money to buy a house. They bought a tiny house in Portsmouth with a small garden and they had me in 1980 and moved to Fareham a few years later and had my brother in 1983. In Fareham, my mother had a thriving vegetable garden, grew flowers and shrubs, planted trees, composted, recycled and dreamed of having a self-sufficient lifestyle in the country. She was also involved with the local Nature Trust, enrolled us in nature clubs, and often initiated outdoor adventures and excursions to parks, meadows, rivers, the seaside, marshlands, forests, and heritage sites.
After many years of planning, saving and preparation, my parents decided to move our family to Canada with the intention of living off the land. In 1990 my family emigrated to Canada and settled in the Okanagan Valley on a five-acre parcel where they successfully raised pigs, chickens, geese, rabbits and grew vegetables, fruit trees, berries, herbs, and flowers. Although they never managed to be completely self-sufficient, they managed to construct a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle than they would have been able to achieve in England.
Bibliography
(1) “Kingston upon Thames.” Wikipedia, accessed Oct 8, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_upon_Thames
(2) “Chilliwack.” Wikipedia, accessed Oct 8, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilliwack
(3) “Fareham.” Wikipedia, accessed Oct 8, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fareham
(4) “Portsmouth.” Wikipedia, accessed Oct 8, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth
(5) “Portsmouth.” Britannica, accessed Oct 8, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/place/Portsmouth-England