non sibi sed toti	Parsons Family and Friends

Emily Index Chapter One: Her parents Chapter Two: Growing up in Wicklow Chapter Three: The Years of the Great War Chapter Four: Boarding School Chapter Five: The Idyll Ends Chapter Six: The Morris Minor - and Poland Chapter Seven:January 3rd or My Journey to Warsaw Chapter Eight: Sewerynov 3 Chapter Nine: Love in a cold climate Chapter Ten: Escape with a baby Chapter Eleven: Dubliners Chapter Twelve: Post-war London Chapter Thirteen: In Metroland Chapter Fourteen: Dreaming Spires Chapter Fifteen: Sheffield Chapter Sixteen: Gold and Diamond Chapter 4: Boarding School Boarding schools were an accepted part of life in Emily's family. Her father had been sent to a boarding school in England. Her mother, while she was in Dresden as a 16 year old, chose to be a boarder at a school in the city. They continued the custom by sending Charlie to Cheltenham College, from where he wrote cheerfully to Emily a letter laced with delightfully dated expressions - bucked, oof, topping: Hazelwell, Cheltenham 1/12/18 My dear Emily, I am so glad my letter cheered you, well cheerio again half a dozen times and then once more for luck. Just lately I have been very bucked with life, I don't know why but I have. Today, however, the gramophone spring has broken so I am fed to the teeth with everything. However I think of how bucked I was yesterday and say that the gramophone doesn't matter a blow and then I am left very fairly braced. Please thank Mother very much for her kindness re oof but don't let her put herself out as you see I have £1 which is plenty only the more you have the more you spend. Oh yes I heard from my small friend the other day. Old Strachan. I wrote to him asking for a letter and a photo. Both arrived in a few days and in future I know him as Bob? Topping old fellow he is. He said I might come down here for a weekend. I am sure you would quite agree with me going out with him if he did come, wouldn't you? just to satisfy Unwin I write. And oh yes again, I have passed for sergeant and hope I may wangle promotion before I leave. I got 91 out of 100 and was 1st. I am 6th this week. Well goodbye for the present, with love to all from your very loving brother Charlie L/s. It was, incidentally, very fortunate for Charlie that the war ended when it did. He was, as he wrote, an N.C.O. in the school Officers' Training Corps, and like all the young men of his generation he had faced the prospect of conscription and the torment and danger of Flanders trenches, in the war that had already taken the lives of two uncles. As it happened, he left school the month after the Armistice was signed. Emily's turn to go to boarding school came just a month after she received that letter, and just after Charlie left Cheltenham. Perhaps her parents could afford the fees for only one boarder at a time. She was to go no further than Mountmellick, a Quaker school in the centre of Ireland. Term began on 14th January 1919. After a last day in Wicklow playing a game of hockey with her mother on the Murrough and a visiting friends for tea on Monday, Emily and her mother and father travelled up to Dublin on a rainy Tuesday morning. There Edward left them, having to attend a Prayer Book Revision committee, and Evelyn and Emily enjoyed the Dublin shops and cafes until the time came to go to the handsome imitation of an Italian palazzo, Kingsbridge (now Heuston) Station, where Emily said goodbye to her mother and caught (but only just) the 3.50 train. Nowadays one would expect to go to a new school in September, but in those days it was quite usual to join a boarding school at any time, and to leave after anything from a term to several years. The Friends' School, Mountmellick, was one of the buildings in the town square. It closed as a Friends' School soon after Emily left, but a national school still stands on the site, and the building facing the square may be the same one that Emily knew, though there are many newer buildings stretching back from it now. Miss Moss, the Headmistress, welcomed her. When she gave her a timetable that included Latin, Emily said, "I don't think my parents want me to do Latin." Miss Moss told her firmly, "Everyone does Latin here." One of Emily's tasks that first term was to copy hymns and devotional poems into an exercise book, and to learn them by heart. This was her own personal hymn book. She had to get used to the outspoken comments of her fellow pupils, who would make rude remarks about her hair if she did not keep it neat and tidy. The term before Emily started at Mountmellick was the time of the world-wide influenza epidemic, which it is said killed more people than the Great War did. Pupils at the school had caught 'flu. One girl who had been sent a chicken during the 'flu epidemic, whenever she wanted a favour from another girl used to say, "I gave you chicken in the 'flu!" Perhaps hoping to build up resistance to any future epidemic, Miss Moss decided that all the girls should take a vitamin or tonic pill each day. When some uneaten pills were discovered hidden in the school, she insisted that every girl should put her pill in her mouth and swallow it in the Head's presence, and then say "Gone, Miss Moss!" If Emily pined for her parents, she did not have to wait long for contact. A parcel arrived on Thursday. She wrote after the weekend to tell her parents of the first days, and was rewarded with a letter and another parcel. The letter probably told her about her beloved pony, Dan, who had gone out to his field for the first time that year. Emily would also have heard how Charlie had been cycling to Kilmacurragh and to Glendalough visiting relatives. The parcel probably contained food. Yet another parcel, this time with a new skirt, arrived that second week, and Emily wrote two letters in return. On Wednesday 12th February Edward set off for Glendalough by the 5.30 train. Next day Evelyn sent Emily eight eggs, and wrote to Miss Moss. On Sunday Emily wrote the one letter from Mountmellick that survives: "Friends' School Mountmellick 16th February 1919 My darling Mother, Thank you so much for your dear letters. I love to hear what everyone is doing. I daresay Daddie is taking Aunt Kate's service this afternoon, or driving to Laragh. I am so glad that Cousin May has a baby with red brown hair. You did not say whether it was a boy or a girl. What a lot of relations there are to make much of it at Glendalough." Aunt Kate had built a small chapel on the edge of the grounds of Kilmacurragh, and arranged for a service to be held each Sunday afternoon. Laragh is the village nearest to Glendalough, and has a Church of Ireland Church where the Wynnes of Glendalough worshipped. The baby born to May and Jack Wynne was Patrick. "We have had quite an exciting week. Some 'Friends' came for the night on Thursday. Two Mr Webbs and Mr Wigam. He came into the room and talked and he said wasn't I the girl who was nearly late for the train, and he laughed like anything. He is a funny little man. He said he knew Daddie and talked about the S. O. B. M. and said he had done most of the work of the secretary or something or other, but he was shoved off because he wasn't on the committee. Rachel Goodbody has just dropped some turfy ashes all over this letter so please excuse it." Turf is what the English call peat. "On Thursday afternoon there was a gym display for the benefit of the 3 committee people. One of them sang comic songs. In the evening the other Webb gave a lecture about the St. John's Ambulance Brigade. He also told us where our arteries went and how to stop them when they are chopped in half. There is another Friend staying here today, Mr Halliday." Washing one's hair is still a preoccupation at girls' boarding schools, but today's students would feel that the interval between washes should be shorter than Emily had. "Yesterday I washed my hair. Libby Roberts helped me but I'm afraid we didn't get all the soap out because it does not look a bit nice today. It did not really want it much but each class has a Saturday for washing hair every 3 weeks and so I thought I better wash it yesterday as another 3 weeks would be rather long. "Talking about my hair reminds me that I do want some more hair ribbon. I lost a new one and now I only have 2 short ones and 2 stringy long ones. If you could send me some black ribbon about 2 inches broad it would be most gratefully received and acknowledged, and also if it would not be too much could you send two slides. Everyone makes rude remarks about my hair if it is not tidy. I feel a beast asking for so much, and I do hope it won't be too much trouble. They will be very useful and much valued." "I wore the jumper last Thursday and I like it very much. I did not notice that one arm hole was too big. The blue ribbon looks quite right with it. The eggs arrived safely on Saturday. Miss Moss [the headmistress] was hurrying past and said take them down to the kitchen, and you can have one every morning. But I don't know if they are to be beaten up or boiled, as I did not have one this morning. I hope to write and tell you soon how I get them. "We have to learn 'On Nebo's lonely mountain' this week so I will have to copy it into my book soon." This is a poem by Mrs Alexander, 80 lines long, on the burial of Moses, and is the second entry in the hand-written hymn or poetry book. "How are Grace [Morgan] and Rachel? [The maids] There is a boy at Church who disappears behind the organ and I suppose blows it, who reminds me of Ernest! But he is really much more ------- well simple looking, but he walks with his head down like this" [Little figure drawing] I think I have told you all the news. I feel very well, and I really enjoy being here on the whole. With heaps of love from your very loving Emily." The Church of Ireland church is not far from the school, behind the left side of the square as you leave the school. Ernest was Ernest Switzer, a great friend of Charlie's. His widow Mildred lived in a residential home in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, until about the year 2000. Edward was not at home when this letter arrived. He wrote from Glendalough a full and interesting letter to Emily describing an Orange Lodge party put on for him in Laragh, near Glendalough. CAMADERRY, GLENDALOUGH, CO. WICKLOW. Glendalough 17th Feby 1919 My own Sweet Emily, Thank you so much for your sweet loving letter. I am so glad to hear your cheery letters and they do so comfort dearest Mother. I have been up here since Wednesday evening. Aunt Kate wrote saying she wanted me most particularly to come up and to stay with her over Sunday - and as long after as I could. It turned out that I was not to know, but the Hardings and a number of others including the local Orangemen wanted her to get me up to an entertainment they wished to give in my honour. The day after I arrived I received a printed card of invitation "From the Committee" to a party at the Laragh Schoolhouse on Saturday evening at 7 o'cl. We had the Hotel Motor and Aunt K., Gladys, John and Veronica started off at 10 minutes to 7 sharp. As I was getting in the car I heard Gladys whispering to the chauffeur to hoot three loud hoots at the top of the hill into Laragh. This he did and as we crossed Laragh bridge I saw them lighting about 20 torches in front of the School. When we pulled up and I got out to help Aunt Kate out I saw the whole front of the School lighted up and a long row of people from the Schoolhouse door down to the garden gate and Ned Harding and Nancy Tyndall seized me and carried on their shoulders down the row of people who held each other's hands high over their heads, and placed me in a chair at the head of a long table down the School Room. While the people flocked in I looked round and saw the room was wonderfully decorated with garlands of evergreens criss-crossed across overhead, with large wreaths of evergreens and flowers hanging from them in every one of which was a coloured lanthorn. These garlands were alternated with strings of bannerettes. Over the fireplace was a large frame with a large design of Orangeman's symbols and over that a large white banner about a yard wide and 1 1/2 yards long with the following: Cemented with love a hundred thousand welcomes to Mr. E. N. WYNNE on this his first visit to Glendalough in 1919 Up Eniskillen, Aughram, and the Boyne and in the middle at the foot of it was my photo out of Aunt Kate's drawing room. The table was spread for tea for between 40 and 50 with plates of cakes and tarts galore and in front of me a large round iced cake with "Welcome to E. N. Wynne" in pink icing on white, and all sorts of ornamental squiggles round it, and L. O. L. 945 in a circle in centre. Ned Harding got all to stand up for me and then made a long speech inventing all sorts of virtues as mine and how I had endeared myself to them and so forth. It was a bit rough on me for I was so affected at first I found it hard to start, but then I thanked them feelingly and told them how I felt towards them all, and how [I] had always had proof of their kindly generous feeling towards myself and my sister and complimented them on the beautiful way they had decorated the rooms etc. etc. We had a great tea and plenty of fun at it, and afterwards any amount of songs and recitations interspersed with snatches of country dances and Mary Anne and I joined in as one couple, which brought immense applause. Ned H. danced with Mrs Halligan and also with Veronica and then Ned called for three cheers for Aunt Kate, then for me, then Mr Halligan. And Jack called for same for the entertaining committee, and I for the ladies who had attended on us, and we finished up with the National Anthem and got home at 11.45. Wasn't it very kind and touching all the trouble they took and the nice way they did it all. They sent invitations to Mother and Charlie but it was too far for them to come. ... Fondest love to you, my own Darling. May God bless you and keep you well and happy, till we meet again. Aunt Kate sends you fond love. Your very loving Daddie. Letters and parcels continued to go to and fro. Evelyn sent eggs and Emily sent back the egg boxes. Once Evelyn sent some Tobralco linen, commonly used for schoolgirls' summer uniform. Letters were exchanged with Miss Moss. Later in March Miss Moss wrote to say that Emily was poorly and staying in bed, and Evelyn immediately sent a food parcel and a book. The bad turn lasted only a couple of days. When term ended on the Tuesday before Easter, 15th April, Edward went up to Dublin to meet Emily off the ten minutes past two train at Kingsbridge. He himself had a meeting in Delgany, so Emily went on by herself to Wicklow, where her mother and Charlie met her, no doubt taking the pony and trap to the station. It must have been a very happy reunion, not only with mother and brother, but also with Dan. Emily spent the next day, which was bright but windy, riding Dan around the garden. It was a very happy Easter, with all four of the family together. The only shadow over their happiness was concern over Edward's health. He continued to lead a busy life as magistrate, churchman and Orangeman, even though he had frequent times of sickness and tiredness, and suffered with rheumatism. After three weeks it was time to return to school. This time the whole family travelled up to Dublin to see her off, again by the 3.50 train. Postcards and letters went to and fro. Parcels this term included blue knickers, handkerchiefs and chocolate. In July that year Emily probably read, or heard, that her father's loyalist principles had got him into the British press, as he represented Ireland at Rifle Shooting: IRISH "ART" AT BISLEY BATTLE OF CHALK AND DUSTER. From our Special Correspondent Bisley, Friday The Elcho Shield competition between England, Scotland and Ireland was enriched by a subsidiary competition, confined to the Irish team, as to what political mottoes and aspirations should appear on the Irish scoring board. The Irish team included a veteran shot, Mr. E. N. Wynne, of the Irish Rifle Association, and two very young shots in the persons of Lieut. Blood and Mr. R. B. Blood, who is 18 and has just left school. It was the business of Lieut. Blood to chalk up the designs on the Irish scoring board. Blessed with the national imagination, he headed it, "Dominion of Ireland," adorning the superscription with a shamrock on the one side and an Irish harp, of correct heraldic design, on the other. Mr. Wynne did not observe these party signs and emblems until he had finished his first shoot. He removed them with efficacy, indignation, and a handkerchief. For "Dominion of Ireland" he substituted "Loyal Ireland," and chalked an Imperial Crown above the harp. It was a long business, but he suffered no interruption, for Lieut. Blood was then shooting. AN AVENGING DUSTER Then Mr. Wynne got down to shoot, and Lieut. Blood devoted his attention to draughtsmanship. He restored the "Dominion," and he augmented the shield with the motto "Erin go Bragh" in Erse characters. It was now Lieut. Blood's turn with the powder and his rival's with the chalk. Working with cold and precise diligence, Mr. Wynne rubbed out the horrid words, chalked all over the blazon Quis Separabit? Lieut. Blood returned from the firing point with a decent scoring card in one hand, and an avenging duster in the other. But, alas! the competition was ended, for Mr. Wynne had stayed behind to declare to the captain that if there was any further interference with his chalkmanship he would lay down his rifle. That was a calamity too dreadful to contemplate, for at that point Mr. Wynne had the third best score of the team. So Lieutenant Blood laughed merrily and Quis Separabit? remained in its pride and glory for the rest of the day. ................. England won the Elcho Shield, the final scores being: England, 1,664; Scotland, 1,623; Ireland, 1,609. From the Daily Mail, Saturday, July 12, 1919 Incidentally, Ireland had last won the Elcho Shield in 1907, and did not win again until 2005. After the summer holidays both Emily and Charlie went off, Charlie to University. He was able to come home at weekends, either by train or motorbike, but letters continued to be sent between Wicklow and Mountmellick. One parcel contained 6 eggs, five apples and a pear. One letter had ten shillings in it. This term the pony, Dan, was sent to Laragh while his mistress was away. Term was drawing to a close when another illness hit Mountmellick. Evelyn referred to it simply as 'S', but when a third girl had caught it she decided that Emily should come home. This time it was Charlie (already living in Dublin) who met the train at 5.30, and came home with Emily. They took a train to Greystones, and then took a motor car the rest of the way. Charlie, who always loved motor cars, was whisked away in the car to Bray, and so back to college. Emily's Aunt Edith Wynne arrived the same day for a four-day visit. Dan was, naturally, brought back from Laragh the next day, and Emily celebrated by not waiting for the third Saturday, as at school, and washing her hair on a Thursday. Christmas Day 1919 was enlivened by the gramophone - perhaps the same machine whose broken spring had made Charlie feel fed to the teeth a year before. The family listened to it in the afternoon, and the day was pronounced very happy and peaceful. Evelyn took tea with Miss Moss during that Christmas holiday. Soon after Emily's return to school in mid January 1920 Miss Moss wrote to report that she was poorly. Evelyn sent a dozen eggs - three of them hard-boiled. The next day a postcard said Emily was better. At the beginning of March Emily wrote to say her throat was bad. An extra vest and linings were sent the next day. On March 20th Emily caught mumps, but only lightly. She was fit and well to return home on April 6th, the Tuesday after Easter. Charlie met her train in Dublin and together they went to buy shoes and to call in at Charleville, home of a relative, before coming back to Wentworth House. During the Easter holidays the political situation affected the family. Prisoners in Mountjoy Jail had begun a hunger strike on Easter Day, April 4th, and the country as a whole joined them in a general strike on 13th. No trains ran, the baker did not call at Wentworth House to deliver bread, and shops were shut. The general strike lasted three days. The authorities gave in and hunger striking prisoners were released, Evelyn wrote, as a band played. On 20th April Charlie and Emily cycled to the person who had been looking after Dan, and brought Dan home. In the next few days Emily drove her mother here and there. Then she returned for her final term at Mountmellick, saying her last farewells to the school on 20th July. During that final term she celebrated her seventeenth birthday and received a birthday letter from her father which is interesting enough to include in full: "Wicklow 19 June 1920 My own Sweet Pet, I write to wish you with all my loving heart a very very happy birthday, and may our loving Father grant very many more all happy and peaceful and surrounded with love. We miss you muchly here, but are always so glad to get your dear bright happy letters, don't think we watch for them to get "news", it is to catch a bright breath of your ever dear self we value them. I have been feeling tired ever since this fine warm weather set in and it makes me very lazy about doing things and O there is so much to be done in the garden. I get in despair at times - "but where is the use of complaining, for where there's a will there's a way." We were having the people from Ballyhenry to tea this afternoon to get to know them, and then Miss O'Neill has just come and says she is going to dump that starched magpie Miss DeButts on us - ugggh. I suppose Mother has told you how very ill Aunt Maria is? We got a telegram on Tuesday asking Mother and me to go to Edie at once. Dear Aunt Maria had had a stroke and was lying insensible in bed and has been so ever since. She was apparently a shade better yesterday but I fear she will never be quite well. We stayed there till yesterday, Aunt Edith came then, and stays with Edie, and we propose to go to her again for a while next week. In fact Aunt Maria died the day after Emily's birthday, and Evelyn went to Greystones for her funeral on Thursday 24th, and then to the burial at Newcastle. I ran up to Belfast last week, and there had my Grand Lodge meeting in Portadown on Wednesday. The County Council Elections had just taken place, and in one village there every protestant house had this notice fastened to its door when they came out: To William and Mary Waite. It is understood that you intend to vote Unionist tomorrow. Now voting Unionist we take it you vote to keep Ireland in bondage. Therefore if you come to vote tomorrow be prepared to meet your God for you shall not return. What has been done in the south can be done in the north. The time for humbug is over. Signed The Black Hand of Glenelly. and them if any were frightened from voting, some Sinn Feiner personated them and voted Sinn Fein in their names. It's a cheerful time. The Diocesan Council has deputed me and the Archdeacon of Glendalough to go to Avoca, and hold a fresh Easter Vestry election there as Mr Robinson acted so badly at the first and it has been declared invalid. Won't we have a jolly time? I don't think. With much fond love to my own Darling Emily from her very loving Daddie. The summer holidays were a delightful succession of outings with Charlie, climbing Carrick Mountain above Glenealy, bathing at Jack's Hole in Brittas Bay, playing tennis or rounders with friends, driving as a family to Tigroney, the Avoca home of the three Wynne sisters, or to a concert at Dromin, a large house near Delgany. On other days Emily would help in the house and garden. The next stage in her education was to be at the Alexandra College in Dublin.