THE RAY/HEDGES FAMILY HISTORY BLOG...: AUNTIE CONNIE & UNCLE JIM, MY DAD'S SISTER & BROTHER-IN-LAW...

MY AUNT & UNCLE:

CONNIE RAY & JIM MILLS…

THIS HAS BEEN A TOUGH ARTICLE TO PIECE TOGETHER FROM THE MEMORIES, SUGGESTIONS AND IDEAS SENT TO ME BY CONNIE'S SONS STEVE AND ROB, ALSO FROM THE RECOLLECTIONS OF HER SISTER SHEILA'S SON JOHN FURNEY. I HOPE THAT SOME IDEA OF CONNIE'S & JIM'S LIVES WILL BE CONVEYED...

THANKS TO STEVE, ROB & JOHN FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS, INCLUDING SOME OF THE IMAGES...

Uncle Jim Mills’ background:

Jim Mills was born in the Llanelli area, Wales on December 28th 1919, with other family members apparently living around Ammanford, Carmarthenshire. His father George, wife Sarah and the offspring were by 1939 all living at 113 Albert Road, Stechford, Birmingham. Jim was listed on the census for that year as a 20 year old labourer, general stabling, whatever that may be.

Albert Road, STECHFORD...

In the last published full census of 1911, George & Sarah had lived at 5 Railway Place, Tumble, Carmarthenshire, which sounds like a fascinating address…

Jim’s older son Steve recalls that Jim, his sisters and brothers, along with their parents George (a coal hewer) and wife Sarah had walked from Carmarthen to Birmingham, over a period of time obviously, ultimately making sure that the sons avoided going into the mining industry. This must surely have taken place during the 1930s…

As a young lad, Rob Mills recalls visiting a farm owned by a member of the family in Wales with older brother Steve and apparently they threw their mum Connie from a hayloft into the piles of hay below on one memorable occasion. It was decided whilst staying there that dinner would feature one of the farm’s chickens and so one of the creatures was chosen, likely by Rob and Steve, both wearing their cowboy T-shirts and henceforth it was beheaded, splattering Steve with blood… Another memorable moment for the brothers, I reckon…

In 1939 Jim’s sister Eveline, who was married to a chap called David Lewis, was living at a dwelling called Dorwydd Cottage with her daughter Mair, 5 & and two evacuees, Netta Jubbie, 23 and Rosina Jubbie. Rob reckons that Netta married his uncle, Brinley and he used to call him Bryn Jubbie…

Rob recalls taking Jim and Connie to visit Eveline for a weekend who was still possibly living at the aforementioned Dorwydd Cottage in Pontadawe. He is unsure whether Eveline was still married to coal hewer David Lewis by that time but he knows he stayed inside the smallest dwelling he had ever seen!

An amazing Sunday lunch of roast chicken, lamb and beef was produced with all the trimmings but the dining area was so tiny that turns had to be taken to eat at the table, especially as Eveline’s sons Gareth and Gethin had turned up with their wives… Pubs were closed on Sundays in Wales and so everyone present huddled round a tight parlour, usually only used when guests were about…

Rob also remembers Eveline’s grown daughter Mair turning up in a convertible sports car to his house in Bromford Lane, Birmingham and taking him and his mum for a meal in Uttoxeter of all places but some distance away from Ward End, clearly! Rob needed to be up for school the following morning, too…

The remnants of the Mills clan had, according to Steve and Rob, later moved to Victoria Road, Stechford, although Rob has now realised that Albert and Victoria Roads are so close to and almost a continuation of each other, that perhaps the house he visited as a kid could simply have been 113 Albert Road.

So, what about World War Two?

Apparently, according to Steve, the Military Police discovered Jim and his brothers hiding in the cellar of their house in Albert Road when WW2 had broken out and all of them were subsequently ‘conscripted’ into the services. Brother William went into the RAF, siblings Edgar and Melvyn joined the Infantry but Jim, aged 19, was conscripted into the South Staffordshire Regiment, Steve believes and was eventually despatched by air to fight the Japanese, as a Chindit.

So who, or what were the Chindits?

Lieutenant-Colonel Orde Charles Wingate created the Chindits, named after a mythical Burmese beast called a Chinthé, to harass Japanese troops behind enemy lines.

ORDE CHARLES WINGATE...

Steve seems to think that Jim joined the Chindits around 1942 which had recruited around 2000 men for an elite force, purely for jungle warfare. It was hush-hush stuff, he told me and Jim spent the latter part of the war in Burma. Rob thinks that Jim might not have been a South Staffs soldier but was selected to be a Chindit anyway from whichever Regiment he had enlisted in. The 1st South Staffs Regiment was actually there in Burma at the time, as was the King’s Liverpool Regiment, plus others, so without Jim’s army number, it is impossible to say which Regiment he had joined at the outbreak of war as a 20 year-old.

POSED CHINDITS, BUT SILENT CHEERS, SO AS NOT TO ALERT THE ENEMY...

Jim’s war record is not available online and would cost around £30 to send for, although even then, for specific and security reasons, it may not even be complete…

After recovering from malaria, Jim went back into action and years later he told Rob that the men were constantly on the move, trudging through jungle vegetation and avoiding detection, for the Japs didn’t take prisoners at that time.

Jim was apparently mentioned in despatches for some heroic deed performed but when the Chindits returned to the UK, only 750 had survived. Rob recalls that his dad would never respond to questions about how many Japanese soldiers he had killed, always changing the subject.

Steve seems to think that Jim had a mule and lived in fields, fighting near the River Irrawaddy but that he was eventually captured in 1943 and was forced to help to construct the railway bridge over the River Kwai. Actually, the mules used were quietened by the cutting of their vocal cords to prevent them from being heard by Japanese troops.

CHINDITS & MUTE MULES...

Cousin John Furney confirms that Jim had been taken prisoner and that is underlined by the fact that Steve reported that Jim had been ‘repatriated’ in 1945. John has no recollection of mentions of the River Kwai, however, nor of torture.

Steve recalls his dad saying that in attempts to extract any secret information, captives were often placed in river water up to their necks, where fish and eels could feed on their flesh. When Jim was eventually repatriated in 1945, he was then expected to do National Service, according to Steve.

He was apparently sent to Malaya for two years in 1947 and later I believe he worked as a welder on an assembly track for Wolseley cars in Drews Lane, just round the corner from where he was living in Bromford Lane. Odd that my mum and her sister Ivy both worked there too, in the offices…

WORKFORCE LEAVING THE WOLSELEY WORKS...

THE WOLSELEY WORKS AGAIN...

THE WOLSELEY OFFICES WHERE MY MUM & HER SISTER IVY WORKED...

Jim’s sisters Ethel and Hilda had nursed during WW2, according to Steve, whilst Melvyn became an alcoholic, whose ‘real Brummie’ wife (Rob’s description) Renee gave him three children.

Post-war:

Edgar appears to be the uncle Steve told me he used to see in the city centre, looking like a tramp and seeming spaced out but when Steve once spoke to him, Edgar asked who he was, to which my cousin replied, “Jimmy Mills’ lad…” He took cigarettes from Steve and shuffled away like an old man. Steve believes that Edgar’s wife had left him for another chap at some point around the time of WW2, taking her two children with her. However, Rob doesn’t recall either Edgar or Jim’s other brother William being married at all, nor does John Furney but Steve reports that William had quite a whiskey problem and Rob reckons that the Mills clan always ‘enjoyed their drink’…

ROB MILLS & NAN RAY, Bromford Lane...

Edgar was often at the Wolseley club in better times however and John recalls that his parents were given lifts home by a rather inebriated Edgar on occasions.

William was ‘thrown out’ of his home apparently, then he left 347 Bromford Lane after a period of time there, before possibly being ejected from bedsits too, Steve reckons, although Rob recalls William purchasing a ground-floor flat in Coleshill, opposite the old Army & Navy store.

Connie Ray:

CONNIE...

Connie was born on 18th July 1922 and her sons Rob and Steve believe that she must have attended either Ingleton Road Primary School, or Leigh Road, like my dad did. Ingleton Road is now called Ward End Primary School of course but it remains unclear where she and her sister attended secondary school, although it could well have been Sladefield Road..

SHEILA, CONNIE & MY DAD...

Connie worked with her sister Sheila at the Penfold Golf Ball factory opposite her house where she was a golf ball wrapper and Sheila was a golf ball cupper (I love those descriptions…) Munitions were made there during World War Two however, instead of the usual golfing missiles…

NAN RAY, SHEILA, TELL-TALE VICTOR & CONNIE (SPOT THE LIKENESS TO ROB, ABOVE...)

THE FAMOUS GOLF BALL...

Cousin John Furney was told by his mum that both she and Connie had American boyfriends during the war but that some folks had reckoned that Connie might eventually pair off with a neighbour from 357 Bromford Lane, a motor lorry assembler called Harry ‘Sonny’ Pittaway, likely the daft guy on the picture below…

My father reckoned that his best man rather liked Connie too, as can be seen in the following image…

SHEILA WITH CONNIE BEHIND; NAN RAY IN THE SIDECAR & MY MUM AT THE BACK...

Steve says that his parents met following the 30 year old Jim’s National Service in 1949, when he spotted her in ‘The Bromford’ pub at the crossroads where Drews Lane crossed Bromford Lane. Jim apparently told his mate there and then that she was the girl he would marry…

The Bromford IN HAPPIER DAYS...

CONNIE & JIM ON THEIR WEDDING DAY...
CONNIE'S BROTHER BILL (BETWEEN HER & SHEILA) 'GAVE HER AWAY'...
(STEVE RECKONS THAT JIM'S MUM'S FOX STOLE CAME FROM AN ANIMAL SHOT ON THE FARM IN WALES...)

It must have been a quick romance because they were married on 14th October 1950, a month after I was born. Steve and Rob came along on 6th August 1952 and the 25th May 1955 respectively. The married couple of course moved in with Nan Ray at number 347 Bromford Lane. Nan apparently ‘lived’ in the front room and slept in the bedroom above it.

SISTERS...

Steve reckons to this day that there was something of a rift between some members of the Mills and Ray families and his personal view is that Connie’s sister Sheila really didn’t like Jim. Steve thinks that he himself was considered a ‘Ray’ whilst brother Rob was considered a ‘Mills’ but Rob feels that due to all of the holidays the two families spent together, as well as evenings out, he was unaware of any real problem between them. Holidays were often spent with Connie’s sister Sheila, husband Don Furney and son John also, with Hayling Island being one main destination used.

JIM, CONNIE & STEVE (I THINK!)

ROB MILLS...

ROB'S WEDDING & STEVE IS FAR LEFT, WHILST CONNIE & JIM ARE NEXT TO THE GROOM...

However, John asserts that two incidents certainly caused problems within the family. Firstly it has to be documented that the Furneys also lived at 347 Bromford Lane with the Mills family around the 1950 mark, which I hadn’t known. A row, which ended in blows between Jim and Don in 1957 though caused the Furneys to leave, which I will elaborate upon when I write about Sheila, Don and John.

DON FURNEY & JIM MILLS IN HAPPIER DAYS...

A second row between the two families involved Don refusing to allow Nan Ray to stay at his house in Benton Road to give Connie and Jim a break, but more on that in the Furney article too. However, the rifts certainly healed in time and the two families met very regularly over the years, usually at the Wolseley club, or a British Legion club near where the Furneys resided.

GREAT IMAGE OF CONNIE & NAN RAY...

Steve feels that his own relationship with his father wasn’t good at all, to put it mildly and feels that Rob was more accepted by his father. John Furney feels that Rob was sympathised with, probably because of the fact that he struggled with ear problems, resulting in hospital visits when he was young. Steve feels that Jim’s attitude towards his mother-in-law in the house wasn’t always the best either and that his dad, like his brothers really enjoyed a drink or two…

DON, STEVE, CONNIE & SHEILA AMONGST BLUES FANS AT MY WEDDING IN 1976...

However, John thought that despite a ‘nasty streak’ and his occasional drinking excesses Jim possessed a heart of gold and was generous and kind to all the kids, especially. Steve though, fought with his dad, as Rob continued to be favoured in some ways.

ROB & JIM AT MY WEDDING IN 1976...

Not only did Connie live in Bromford Lane for the vast majority of her life, she worked around there too, first of all, as mentioned above at the Golf Ball factory, then in several of the local shops nearby, as well as in the BRS canteen, just across Bromford Bridge, near where Bromford Racecourse used to be.

THE BRS DEPOT...

Bromford Lane: JUNCTION WITH Drews Lane...

My memories of Connie & Jim:

I remember Jim sitting just to the left of the black cooking range in the parlour at 347 Bromford Lane, for the kitchen was first used as what we would now call a utility room for washing clothes, which seems odd when you consider that one door in that room opened into the coal store… Hence the Mills family and my Nan Ray eventually installed a coal bunker in the garden instead and the utility room became a real kitchen but the fascinating range was sadly removed from the parlour.

JIM CARRIES ME & CONNIE LOOKS SO HAPPY...

I can still ‘hear’ Jim saying to me: “Hello Pete…” in his slightly Welsh lilt, the ‘Pete’ sounding to me like ‘Pit’ (reminding me of the coal mines…) He took me to see Aston Villa play Swansea Town at Villa Park when I was 9 years old and we stood at the Witton End to see Jim’s Welsh team lose 1-0. I still remember going to the game on the number 11 bus with him, the ‘Outer Circle’ route which of course links both Bromford Lane and Villa Park.

Connie was a lovely and welcoming lady, always easy to be with and oddly, she became one of the very few people that my shy, withdrawn mother was comfortable in the company of. Connie wasn’t frightened of her brother Vic, my dad, either and she always said her piece to him. This was likely because my father had often reported Connie and her sister Sheila to their parents when he had spotted them out and about wearing make-up in their teenage years, which the girls would attempt to remove before returning home.