NAN RAY, 1886-1967...

 Nan Ray (1886-1967)…

NAN: LOOKS LIKE A THEATRICAL POSE...

I know less about my father’s mum than I do about my mother’s mum, due to the fact that we lived with my maternal grandmother until the mid-1950s. My ‘Other Nan’ lived at 347 Bromford Lane, with her daughter Connie’s family of husband Jim, a Welsh guy, plus their two sons Steve and Robert. Connie would remain at that address until she passed away.

NEAT EARLY IMAGE OF NAN...

Nan was born as 'Lily Sarah Ann' on 13th September 1884 but her birth certificate, just received, offers her mum's name as Annie Granner, living at 5 Back 5 Drury Lane, Birmingham. However, there is no father's name. Nan was listed on the 1901 census as Lily, the oldest daughter of Annie Wilson, 16 years old and a ‘press girl’. Her mum was a charwoman and her younger sisters were aged 10 and 6, which leaves quite a gap between Lily and her siblings.  They resided at that time in the Italian Quarter at 2 back of 22 Fox Street, Birmingham, next door to an Italian ice-cream manufacturer…

ANOTHER THEATRICAL POSE...

She would eventually be married to William Ernest Ray, a metal polisher, who worked on Raleigh bicycle handlebars for the ‘Radco’ Company (Radnall & Co.) in Dartmouth Street, Birmingham from 1919 until 1940. The marriage took place at St James’ Church, Ashted on 4th March 1906. He was a widower, his first wife Lilian Maud Mary Hammond having died in 1905 after giving birth to a second child. (This remains to verified…)  

17 year old Lilian Hammond had been living at 10 Frankfort Street with her parents in 1901, John, 57, and Helena (perhaps really Ellen, 37 years old) and her family would suffer several upheavals during the next four years: a pregnancy, a marriage, a child born, Mr Hammond’s death and the death of Lilian, possibly with a second child… 

She had worked at James Beresford & Company in Cato Street, trading from 1901 on that site as manufacturers of brass fittings for railway coaches. The first child, Lilian Winifred Ray, would grow up to marry William Chapman Parker of Freeman Road, Nechells and have two daughters, Norah and Pamela. 

That first marriage took place on 12th April 1903, just four months before their daughter was born on 4th August that year and Miss Hammond’s father, a cycle maker, had by then already died. A bit of scandal there, it seems… 

WILLIAM ERNEST RAY, CENTRE...

The address of William Ray and Lilian was given as 137 Heneage Street on their wedding certificate but it appears that when Nan moved in with William before their marriage, they were residing at number 1 Back of 77 Duddeston Mill Road. William’s father was described as a barrel welder. 

Nan’s father, although listed on the certificate as Albert Edward Wilson died in 1901, likely before the census return was compiled. He had been a wire drawer but the truth of Nan’s parentage is certainly under further investigation.

MY TWO NANS...

However, it looks like Lilian’s grandfather was Samuel Granner (21), who married Emily Tonks (30) on 13th October 1861 in Bordesley. His father’s name was John Granner. Nan’s mother, Annie had given Samuel’s name as her father on her wedding certificate when she later married the widower William Wilkes, a close neighbour, following the death of Mr Wilson.

NAN, LES & MY MUM...

In the 1871 England Census the Granners lived at Court 2 Moseley Road, Aston, Warwickshire. Samuel ‘Gramer’ was there, 29 years old, born in 1842 and was a scale beam filer or fitter. Ann Maria Gramer/Granner, Nan’s mum, was their daughter, born in 1862.

Her other siblings were: Jane 7, Sarah A 4 and Mary L 1. Also living there was Mary Tonks, Emily’s mother, 62, born in Worcestershire.

MY DAD, NAN & LES.
UNSURE WHO THE GIRL MIGHT BE...

Samuel though married twice, his second wife being Mary Ann but she was known as Polly Granner which sounds like an exotic fruit… They turn up as ‘Grauner’ in 1911 when Samuel says that he has had 11 children, 8 of whom were still living…

Samuel’s father was John Granner, born around 1795 and Samuel’s brother Joseph was in the army and measured 5 feet 4 and a quarter inches at 18 years of age.

LEFT TO RIGHT: MY MUM'S BROTHER FRED (BUN), MY MUM'S BROTHER-IN-LAW JACK, NAN RAY, MUM'S SISTER IVY, MY MUM & HER MUM!

Nan gave birth to the following children:

William Ernest who would marry Beatrice Caroline (Cal) Cook;

NAN, HER SON BILL, HIS WIFE CAL & MY DAD...
ANY IDEAS ABOUT THE CHILDREN??? 

Lesley Reginald who would marry Hilda Draper, then Doris;

LES, CONNIE, SHEILA & MY DAD...

Norah May, who was interred at Yardley cemetery on 7th January 1933;

Victor Douglas who married Marjorie May Hedges in 1943;

NAN, MY DAD (WITH CIGARETTE) & MY MUM...

Constance Patricia who married James Mills

CONNIE...

& Sheila Mafalda who married Donald Furney.

SHEILA...

My father reckoned that Nan had been a dancer at the Gaiety Theatre in Coleshill Street, Birmingham, damaging her feet which had bunions through using different pairs of dance shoes from the theatre’s supply. My cousin Steve reckons that she suffered badly from chilblains too and he and his brother Rob were sometimes asked to pee in a bucket when they were young so that Nan could soak her feet…

NAN WITH GRANDSON ROB MILLS, WHO DISPLAYS ONE OF HIS HATS...

BRILLIANT IMAGE ADVERTISING THE GAIETY THEATRE...

Steve believes that Nan was a showgirl, singer and trapeze artist which is interesting because William, her future husband, had apparently been involved with circus work from the age of 14 as a bit of an acrobat and tightrope walker, according to my father.

JIM MILLS, CONNIE & SON STEVE...

Steve recalls Nan having a taste for ‘Snowballs’ (Advocaat and lemonade) which she and her best friend Rose drank in the lounge of the Wolseley Club in Drews Lane, strangely where my mum and her two sisters worked in the offices. Nan and Rose also smoked ‘Cadets' tipped cigarettes.

THE WOLSELEY, DREWS LANE...

The belief exists that Nan had Romany blood in her, hence choosing daughter Constance’s middle name to be Patricia and her sister Sheila’s to be Mafalda, both names given to European princesses, Steve understands. An Italian connection is also possible, for Fox Street was in Birmingham’s Italian quarter and added to that, with many Wilsons being canal workers, perhaps Nan has her origin there… However both Nan and Grandad had links to circuses, trapezes, tightrope walking, dancing and acrobatics, so there could be a link to a Mediterranean background there. Nan had a dark complexion as did Sheila, Connie and especially Les, although Will and my father always tanned quickly in the sun, as do grandchildren John Furney, Steve and Rob Mills, and me.

THE ADULTS STANDING,LEFT TO RIGHT: CAL, BILL, NAN, NO IDEA WHO THE NEXT WOMAN IS, THEN LES, MY MUM, AN UNKNOWN GIRL, MY DAD.
AND FINALLY, PART-KNEELING: SOME ODD CHAP.
WHO IS HE???

Connie and Sheila believed themselves to be psychic which they felt had been inherited from Nan who, Steve reports, had a ‘bit of a dark side’. He also recalls that Nan often holidayed in Tal-y-bont, Wales but also made day trips by coach which were organised locally.

ADULTS, LEFT TO RIGHT: CAL, BILL, NAN, UNKNOWN WOMAN, MY MUM & THAT ODD CHAP AGAIN. 
HE MUST BE WITH THE UNKNOWN WOMAN!

Nan lost her husband in 1941 when the effects of WW1 gas, added to the use of metal polish in his job, plus his cigarette smoking, likely resulted in his premature death.

ADULTS: CAL, POSSIBLY HER MUM? & FINALLY NAN...
THE MIDDLE CHILD MIGHT BE CAL'S DAUGHTER NORMA?

Nan had a sister called Isabella who married William’s nephew Harold and they resided at 113 Denville Crescent after leaving Devon Street. The other sister Harriet married Henry Jenkins who was apparently an army heavyweight boxing champion from Devon Street. His brother John moved from Heneage Street to Canada, possibly around 1905 - 10. 

CAL IN THE MIDDLE, MY GRANDAD IS ON THE RIGHT BUT THE CHAP ON THE LEFT COULD BE CAL'S FATHER...

Nan would pass away on 17th December 1967 from Cerebral Artero Sclerosis at Summerfield Hospital, Western Road, Winson Green. She was cremated at Yardley Cemetery on the same morning as my mum’s mother was buried at Witton Cemetery, 22nd December….

NAN, MY MUM & CONNIE...

I can recall Nan’s Bromford Lane House really clearly for it was very similar to that of my ex-mother-in-law’s on The Ridgway, Erdington, although the dwellings were on the opposite sides of shared entries. Coal was delivered into a space with a small, metal door inside the entry and that delivery was accessed from a door inside the kitchen, meaning coal dust would certainly have been circulating where food was cooking and washing was being dealt with, adding yet another hazard to Grandad’s lot, already struggling from the effects of German gas attacks, metal polish fumes in the workplace and his cigarette smoking.

PRETTY SURE JIM MILLS IS CARRYING ME, THEN IT'S SHEILA, CONNIE, NAN, DON FURNEY, MY MUM & HER MUM...
BUT WHO IS THE GIRL???

The pantry was off the back room/living area and as a kid I recall the hall being very dark and the front room kind of off-limits, which I now put down to the fact that Grandad would have been laid there after his passing and prior to his funeral.

SHEILA, CONNIE & MY DAD...

I loved the original cooking range in the living area though, blacked and with lots of nooks and crannies, which fascinated me.

NAN WITH SHEILA, MY DAD & CONNIE...

I met neither of my grandfathers, for William died 9 years before I was born and my mum’s father passed away in 1936.

BIRMINGHAM CITY FANS AT MY WEDDING IN 1976, TAKEN BY
ASTON VILLA'S PHOTOGRAPHER TERRY WEIR:
STANDING: JOHN FURNEY, ROB MILLS, JIM MILLS, TONY SHORTMAN (NORMA'S HUSBAND), DON FURNEY, STEVE MILLS, ALICE HEDGES (MY MUM'S SISTER-IN-LAW);
SEATED: ROB MILLS' PARTNER,  STEVE MILLS' PARTNER, NORMA & TONY'S DAUGHTER, CONNIE, NORMA, SHEILA (WHO IS HANGING ONTO MY MUM'S BROTHER-IN-LAW JACK EASTWOOD...
MOST OF MY MUM'S FAMILY WERE ASTON VILLA FANS...