Local Folk

Mary Shillingford (aka Polly)

By Dave Cresdee

My wife's grandmother was employed at a Brighton aircraft factory during World War One which may well have been the one mentioned by Peter Clark. (Comment posted 30/04/2007 ref:- Local Folk. Working Men & Women). Her name was Mary Shillingford but she was known to her friends and family as Polly.

Polly later married Hugh Pearson but died from kidney failure within five years of giving birth to my wife's mother, Beulah, born in 1921. As health and safety in factories at that time was never a big issue, one wonders whether the fumes from the 'dope' assisted with her early demise.

The date of the photograph appears to be 1917, I can just about make out this date from a very faint pencil inscription on the rear. The photo is very clear and Polly is sitting in the second row from the bottom ninth from the left hand side. It will be interesting to see if anyone in this photograph can be recognised as one of their family's relatives. I rather doubt that any of the staff are still around.

Beulah's war time contribution was at Bletchley Park assisting with code breaking during the Second World War. She is alive and well and living with my wife and I.