Violet Winifred Bussicott was born on 16th September 1916.
Her Parents
Her father was James Bussicott.
Born on 12th October 1880 in London information about him and photos can be traced on my ancestry site of James Bussicott
However, like my other grandfather, there is a strange story here. I never met him as he had apparently fled from my grandmother and four children, including my mother, in Chelsea, London, after stealing all the jewels and money.
Here is a photo of him with the children, my Mum, the tallest girl, Jimmy, ‘Naga’ and little George.
Apparently, when I was in my teens, he contacted the family and asked to be reunited. They refused and I traced him on Ancestry and found he died in Somerset in 1962. I found his probate and his estate was just £115 which he left to Miss N.A. Symes who presumably he was living with- Didn’t make much of a success of his life!
Like my other grandfather, I never met him but his family was the only Bussicott on the Ancestry site, and there was a raft of interesting stories. including I found the Bussicott’s fought in the Opium Wars in China, the Crimea and other places, but also fought Napolean in Spain where one of them was shot in the shoulder. One was placed in the ‘black hole’ overnight after returning to his garrison in Gibraltar because he came back drunk and without a shirt or his shoes. And I thought I was the first of my family to visit China and Spain, and drunk in Spain! I was beaten by the Bussicotts’ as the family traveller by a century!
So although I was 21 when he died I never met him’, like my other grandfather.
Her mother was Henrietta Agnes Batchelor
Born on 12th October 1880 in London, information about her and photos can be traced on my ancestry site of Henriette Agnes Batchelor
Where you can trace her ancestors back to George Batchelor in 1719
A couple of photos of her
Grandma with my Mum – not a flattering photo I’m afraid
whilst here is a un-edited video of her when she was on at trip with my Mum in Europe. Its quite long
I remember her very well as I was 23 when she died in 1964. Obviously she had a hard life after her husband left her but she was always a lovely grandmother to me.
She worked as a ‘char’ for Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of the turbojet engine. He apparently called her ‘Bussie’ (her maiden name was Bussicott).
All the time I knew her she lived at 29 Luna Street in Chelsea, in London. As a child, throughout the football season, when the Chelsea team were playing at home, we would travel from Eastcote on the Piccadilly underground to Earls Court and then take the no 31 bus to Chelsea. Amazing what you remember! We would sleep at Luna Street. With my grandmother lived her son, Jimmy, who was married to Jo, and her other son, George. On the Saturday we would all – Dad, Jimmy, George, another uncle Charlie and his son, Ray, and me, would walk to Stamford Bridge and then either walk happily or trudge (depending on the result) back to Luna Street for tea. Then we would go back to Eastcote.
Luna Street was a row of 3 or 4 storey terrace houses, with a basement, so quite large.
It isn’t me kicking a football.
At the bottom of Luna Street was the River Thames so the family lived just over a hundred yards from this famous river.
Some 50 years later I met a fellow on the Javea Golf course, Peter Ayling, who as a child lived for a while at number 4 Luna Street, and we must have walked at the same time to Stamford Bridge as his family supported Chelsea. When I did a search on Ancestry I found we were related as his grandfather married my great aunt, part of the Tanner family
Now back to my Mum
Brought up in Chelsea, this is her from being a girl through to developing into a young lady. Very pretty, so much so that Augusta John wanted to paint her, but Mum refused to sleep with him, which he apparently thought a necessary perk of his profession.
I have to sneak this photo in of my Mum to demonstrate what she looked like in her twenties
I believe from what I was told many many years ago, one of my cousins, probably Ray Tanner, had trouble with pronouncing her name and somehow ‘Fluff’ was born, and other than her mother who call her ‘Vi’ this is what she was called for the rest of her life.
After spending over 20 years in Hoylake Gardens in Eastcote. Mum and Dad moved to Kent Gardens in Ealing. A few years later they moved again to 27 Greenwood Road in Thames Ditton in Surrey in about 1965. They were just a five-minute drive from where her brother Jimmy and family and also her other brother George lived on Limetree Avenue.
When Dad died on 31st March 1966, my Mum was only 49 years old. She learned to drive and bought a white mini.
Over the years she had worked in Uncle Charlie Tanner’s shop in Twickenham and ran the sub-post office. So it made sense to find work – which she did with the local Government Surtax office. Later she worked for many years in charity shops in Surbiton and Esher (see her certificate in sundry photos).
She did a lot of travelling in her life, I have a video with her Mum in Europe, and here is a video of her with her Mum and George in Lucerne Switzerland. i, Hong Kong to see Valerie and me, to New Zealand to meet her sister’s (Naga) family, and went on a cruise with Laura and Charlie Tanner.
Some sundry photos and letters (she later threw little away), some of which were very poignant and worth reading. It includes a thank you note to me for taking her to Cyprus for her 80th birthday.
She continued travelling by coming to see us in Spain after we moved here.
My mother and father had planned to come and live in Spain when he retired. Sadly this never happened, but Mum did the next best thing. In 2000, she became one of the oldest people to emigrate from England. Aged 83, she sold her home in England, and she and her dog Chester, came to live in Spain Later her brother George came to visit.
She always had a love of dogs and they were her constant companions throughout her life. There were many before the two Chester’s came into her life. The second Chester travelled to Spain with her and we inherited him. She and we had an emotional attachment to Chester and when he died a lot of other people said a sad farewell to him.
Sadly she lived for too short a time, dying just two years later. Mum died the day after her 86th birthday on September 17th 2002. A Commemorative Service was held in the Ermita Church on the Jesus Pobre Road.
Her ashes, together with those of my father, are buried, as per her wishes, on the Montgo mountain, above the house where Jo and I lived in Jesus Pobre.
.