Downing, Doris

Doris Downing
b: 07/01/1920
d: 24/12/2013
Biography
Doris was born in Old Hill the eldest of two sons and two daughters: John, Clifford (both deceased) and G. The Downing family later moved to Beeches Road in Blackheath.

Doris married her teenage sweetheart Ernie Grove in 1940 by special licence as she was three weeks short of her 21st birthday. The date was forced by Ernie being given army leave prior to being posted overseas.

Ernie and Doris lived in Beeches Road before setting up in their own home in 1947. Doris had trained as a comptometer operator after leaving Reddal Hill School. She worked for Brades, Nash and Tyzack the garden tools manufacturer in Oldbury before during and after WW2 eventually moving into their accounts department. Brades were first taken over by Spear and jackson and then became Ewell. She retired as head of their accounts receivable department in Wednesbury and moved with Ernie to Wales.

She outlived her husband and let an active and fit life until she was 90. Then began a gradual decline and increasing fragility. She moved to a care home in 2012 and then to The Poplars Nursing Home a few months later. This was rather poignant as we later discovered it had previously been the private maternity home where she gave birth to her only child in 1949. She died there on Christmas Eve 2013.

Updated 11/09/2014 by sdg
Facts
  • 07/01/1920 - Birth - ; Best Street, Old Hill, Staffordshire
  • 17/12/1940 - Marriage - Ernie Grove; Spring Meadow Baptist Chapel, Old Hill, Staffordshire
  • 24/12/2013 - Death - ; The Poplars Nursing Home, South Road, Smethwick
Ancestors
   
?
 
 
Bernard Mark Downing
ABT 1888 - ABT 1947
  
  
  
?
 
Doris Downing
07/01/1920 - 24/12/2013
  
 
  
?
 
 
Trewhannah Hannah Willetts
ABT 1889 - SEP 1964
  
  
  
?
 
Picture Gallery