My brother, Fred

FRED CROMPTON Obituary

On August 14, 2012, died peacefully at St. Catherine's Hospice aged 88 years. The dearly beloved husband of Joyce, much loved dad of Brian, dear father-in-law of Andrea, and a devoted grandad of Sara. Brother of Hilda, Jean and Dennis. Loved and remembered always.

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I've written before of our 'fractured childhood', caused through circumstances to my mother and father who had no control over the events that befell them through those Depression years. Dad was doing well building houses, the plans for which my mother drew up. Though Fred and I went in search of those plans at various places, we were unsuccessful. They existed in one place we visited, the storage department of Preston County Council, but for one reason or another we were not able to obtain copies.

In the midst of their success, Florence, the mother I never knew, died of cancer in 1930, twelve months and a few days after I was born.

So of my early years at Cottam with my Mum and Dad, sisters Jean and Hilda and brother Fred I have no remembrance, save for odd pictures in my mind of things told me of those days. That they were happy days I have no doubt, and when Dad and I were alone together a few times I'd ask him quietly, ‘What was my mother like, Dad?’ I so desperately wanted something to give me a picture of her that I could hold on to. Her photograph wasn't enough; one I have shows her seated in the open on a grey kind of day. Poor Dad, he just couldn’t get anything out except, ‘She was a lovely woman and companion, a great cook and mother…’, and tears would fill his eyes and he just couldn’t go on. Soon after that I stopped asking; I could see it caused him too much pain.

When I moved from the infant section in the Shepherd Street Mission Children’s Home to the boy's wing, the first boy to greet me was this big boy with a warm smile and face to match. ‘Hello Dennis, I'm your brother Fred. Remember me?’ I didn't, but I liked him and felt really glad that he was my brother in amongst all those other boys who were strangers to me. He went on to tell me we had two sisters, Hilda and Jean, in the girl's wing, and that our Dad would be in to see us when he could. This was all news to me and I was somewhat bewildered by it, and also by other things I'd been told had happened in the family a few years before. So, from sometime in 1932 until 1936 I was alone in Shepherd Street Mission Children's Home, until I found out I had a family.

My big brother Fred kept an eye on me, and I felt good about that. Then a few weeks after I turned seven, Fred told me quietly that we'd soon be leaving the home and going to our home. His quiet excitement was infectious and I began to feel like a person in my own right, not just one of a whole bunch of boys. We had a Dad who came to see us from time to time, just for an hour or two when his work permitted and he was going to take us to live with him and we'd be a family again. Fred did much to make sense of all of this for me. Then, our time at Longridge, after we left the Children’s Home in 1936, were happy days for us as a family. Though war was brewing in Europe, we lived in peace and for a short while enjoyed a time of good food, a happy home and healthy living together. We had about ten years together before separation again.
Came 1939 and Fred joined the Home Guard. His photograph in uniform of that time shows a young boyish figure.

aged 18 years, in Home Guard Uniform

I began to worry that he might have to leave us and go to war as he wasn't called up until 1942. Then, he was sent to join HMS Raleigh, a shore bound Royal Navy station near Portsmouth, I think.  My emotions were in turmoil as I thought of scenes I'd seen of war in some magazines Dad had of WWI, and I dreaded my big brother having to face any of that. He didn't seem too concerned about things; he enjoyed the Royal Navy, the camaraderie and adventure of it all, and came safely through the war to start life again in Preston.

He began to spend more and more time in dancing at the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool, where his blue eyes and dancing feet took him straight to a certain Joyce Hargreaves. They danced a lot there, and I was quite chuffed at him having this delightful young lady to go out with. They married of course, and they married in Blackpool and have had a happy time together ever since with their only son Brian, who is now married to Andrea with their daughter Sara to keep them on their toes. Like me, Fred had a gentle and sensitive nature, which, I like to believe, came from our dear mother.

So this was Fred my brother, I hope some of the qualities that were his have rubbed off on me. I shall miss him more than I can say.

Dennis Crompton © 2012
(first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)