Two sisters

At the end of the first world war Charles Plummer Creek returned to his family and his job as a painter in Hull. In 1920 Polly and Charles had a daughter, Thora. Three years later they had another little girl, Edna. They were joined by two younger sisters, Violet and Mary before Polly decided that ten children was enough.

Polly and Charles never had a lot of money and conditions in the house were cramped to say the least. When Thora was 21 she met Albert Phillips. They married on 15th November 1941, Edna and brother Jack were the witnesses. Ten months later Thora was dead. She died from tuberculosis on the 8th September 1942.

Edna left school when she was 14 as was the norm at that time. Her first job, which she hated, was at Needlers chocolate factory but by the age of 17 she was manageress of Hicks bakery shop. During the war she met a military ambulance driver from Wigan, John Grimes though he was known as Jack. They married on the 11th August 1945 but soon after John was posted to Egypt and was not demobbed until 1946. Edna worried that they were not legally married as John was named Jack on the marriage certificate!

Legend has it that she introduced her brother Oliver to Nancy Atkinson when Nancy was working as a district nurse in Hull and Edna was a bridesmaid at their wedding in 1946.

Edna, like her sister Thora, was struck down with tuberculosis. She spent two years in a sanatorium. Luckily for us she was given the drug Streptomycin, which was new at the time, and survived. Edna remained lifelong friends with other patients who she met in the sanatorium. In the 1950s Edna and John had a son followed by a daughter who are both alive and well in the 21st century.

Edna died on 10th October 2001 and was buried in the family grave in Hull along with her sister Thora, husband John and father Charles Plummer.

Three castles

Pip, Squeak & Wifred