 1920 - 2009 (88 years)
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| Name |
Anne Deidre FORBES-ROBERTSON |
| Birth |
28 Dec 1920 |
174, Lloyd Street, Mosside, Manchester  |
| Gender |
Female |
| Death |
14 Nov 2009 |
| Cremated |
27 Nov 2009 |
Worthing Crematorium |
- Our mother, who was born in Manchester in 1920, was schooled in Belgium and Switzerland. Her parents divorced when she was only four and her mother, a successful actor's agent, had the means and sufficient lack of interest in her six year -old daughter, to wave her off on the Victoria Station/Ostend boat train (a farewell kiss would have been an emotional exaggeration!)
She had been to two boarding schools in England before going to Belgium but she wasn't prepared for a 'total immersion' in French -she was only allowed to speak English on Thursdays. She never took to the gruelling school life in the outbacks of Antwerp and finally managed to persuade her mother, who she saw mercifully little of, to have her moved to St Gallen in Switzerland: There, after having spent seven years speaking French, she was thrown into a Swiss German environment - and adored it. Rigorous morning classes were followed by skiing in winter and long mountain hikes in spring and autumn. Her close friend at the time, Maribel Maranon, daughter of a well known Spanish doctor, had to return suddenly to Madrid at the outbreak of the Spanish civil war.
Ann's command of German was such that she had no difficulty in finding work in Berlin once she left school. She worked in the passport office in The British Embassy until the outbreak of war and acquired a great collection of Jazz 78r.p.m's; exchanging coffee, received via diplomatic circles, for early Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Paul Robeson, etc, records - lots of people were only too happy to get rid of 'black' music during the Nazi era, in exchange for a beverage which had become very scarce. Her eclectic musical tastes found her in the Berlin Concert Hall where, on two occasions she almost rubbed shoulders with 'an insignificant dwarf of a man whose clothes, like his ideas, were too big for him' -Adolf Hitler.
Her boss at the B.E. was an affable, middle-aged gentleman by the name of Frank Foley who, she then thought, spoke and understood little, if any, German. Great was her surprise when she learnt, less than ten years ago, that not only had her charming boss been virtually bi-lingual but he had also been responsible for saving countless Jews. (see:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Foley )
After the war and once her three children were in their teens, she started working with a charming and dynamic couple who had recently set up the International House Language School in Shaftesbury Avenue -a stone's throw from Piccadilly Circus. A long and fruitful working and social relationship ensued with John and Brita Haycraft during which time Ann ran the accommodation agency for the students and started up her own summer courses for foreign school children in various centres throughout Britain.
In recent years, having moved from London to Shoreham on the coast of West Sussex, Ann had the good fortune to have various 'Guardian Angels' as neighbours, especially her son-in-Iaw's brother and his wife. She wasn't always the easiest person to get on with; she could be autocratic and domineering at times and loved nothing better than a good political discussion (often argument!) Like our father, George, she was a staunch socialist.
Ann was armed with a ready, and often wicked, wit: - on answering the phone to a double glazing salesman for the third time in the same week, anxious to sell her his wares, she said that she would consult her husband who had died 25 years before, but still gave her good advice - she never heard another word!
She will be missed by those 8 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren who she had more empathy with than her own mother had ever had with her and, of course, by her two children.
Vivien and Michael
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| Notes |
- Ann was educated in Switzerland. As a result of being able to speak fluent German, in 1939 she got a job in Berlin with the War Office. She was on the last train out of Berlin at the outbreak of war.
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| Person ID |
I000284 |
Mills/Rushton Family History |
| Last Modified |
1 Dec 2009 |
| Family |
Captain Vivian Hayes MILLS, b. 1 Jan 1911, Forte Villas, Cork, Ireland d. 22 Dec 1976, Lauderdale Road, Paddington, London (Age 65 years) |
| Marriage |
9 Sep 1939 |
Gretna Green |
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Vivian H Mills (George) and Ann Nelson King Marriage Certificate
They eloped because Ann's mother didn't approve of George.
Ann took the surname Nelson King from her Mother's second marriage. |
| Children |
| + | 1. Sean Anthony Hayes MILLS, b. 3 Mar 1941, The Grove Nursing Home, Barton on Sea d. Jul 2008, Sydney (Age 67 years) [Father: Birth] [Mother: Birth] |
| + | 2. Vivien Ann Hayes MILLS, b. 15 Jan 1944, The Grove Nursing Home, Barton on Sea d. 6 Jan 2012 (Age 67 years) [Father: Birth] [Mother: Birth] |
| + | 3. Michael James Forbes MILLS, b. 12 Dec 1946, Redhouse, Northdown Avenue, Margate (Age 77 years) [Father: Birth] [Mother: Birth] |
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| Family ID |
F000111 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
24 Sep 2017 |
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| Event Map |
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 | Marriage - 9 Sep 1939 - Gretna Green |
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