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| Vin's Dad was Horace George
Callcut who was born April 23rd 1900 and brought up in North London.
He was a hard working man of great ingenuity and kindness.
This photo was taken during the First World War when he
was in the Royal Navy Coastal Motor Boat Service stationed at Osea Island,
Essex. He had many stories to tell about how the boats were kept
afloat and in working order. By the age of 18 he was a Chief Petty
Officer.
After the war he joined The Noiseless Typewriter
Company in London and became one of their leading technical
experts. There he courted and married Ivy Doris Allen who lived in
Walthamstow. She was the Company's best secretary and encouraged to
enter the World Speed-Typing Championships. In spare time he would buy up
ex-war service Indian and other motor cycles for restoration and resale.
Mother spent many hours, she said, sitting by the
roadside while a reluctant machine was being mended again during an
outing. 'Just when he had managed to get one fully reliable, he
would sell it.' was amongst her poignant memories. Iris
was born in 1926 and Vin in 1935. By then, Dad was with
Baker's Typewriter Company, near Ludgate Circus. During the Second
World War he worked long hours in London by day and by night was with the
Home Guard manning Bofors anti-aircraft guns on Chingford
Plain.
After the war there was a critical shortage of
typewriters so he went into business rebuilding machines that had been
recovered from the debris of burnt-out offices. He made a weekly
trip up to Fleet Street to deliver 'as new' Remington Noiseless, Underwood
Noiseless and traditional makes of typewriters to the offices of
'The Daily Mail', 'The Daily Express' and others.
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| Ivy Doris Callcut,
Vin's mother, taken in her new Spring outfit in 1953. She was the
youngest of the family, having a sister and three brothers. Born and
brought up in Walthamstow, she excelled in the happy use of English, had a
ready wit and a phenomenal memory for poetry. After qualifying at Clarke's College she
joined The Noiseless Typewriter company. She quickly became the
Company's best and fastest secretary and helped to man their exhibition
stands. They encouraged to enter the World Speed-Typing Championships
but marriage beckoned. Iris was born in 1926 and Vin in 1935.
During the war she drove ambulances in London and volunteered for other WVS
work. In 1946 they moved to Chingford where she enjoyed leading
activities with the Townswomens' Guild Civic Group and the Chingford
Hospital League of Friends. They enjoyed singing in the concert
choir of St. John's Leytonstone and occasionally at the Albert Hall with
massed choirs under Sir Malcolm Sergeant (also known as 'Flash Harry' to
later prommers). |
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| William Gardner Allen
was Vin's Mother's Dad. He had come from Aberdeen and was therefore
in the London Scottish Regiment during the First World War. Before
then he had been Foundry Foreman in a casting shop near Dalston in North
London. He was gassed in the trenches and unable to work
again.
As a grandfather he excelled in entertaining children by
telling imaginative stories, drawing cartoons with great talent and
cutting out paper shapes to make models until his death in 1939.
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| Reunion in
1956. At 5' 11" tall, Mum was still the 'Little Sister'. From left
to right; Percy Allen, (Maroochidore,
Queensland, Australia)
Ivy Doris Callcut (nee Allen)
Arthur Allen (Leeds, Yorkshire)
Rosemary Searle (nee Allen), Whitstable, Kent.
Len Allen (Sydney, NSW, Australia) |
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