Long post
I was thinking about my early days today, and friends etc.
One of my best friends, when young, was Barry Martland.
His family came to Blackpool from Leeds around the end of WW2, as my Dads family did a few years earlier.
I discovered a number of years ago that Barry and the family emigrated to USA when he was in his teens. Not long after that the family went to Canada. I managed to contact him via email some years later. His younger sister Carole also sent me emails. Only this week I asked Carole if Barry was OK. She said that he had become very ill, and wouldn't last long.
Also I have been in touch for years with Geoff Heaton, who I sat next to at Palatine and we became friends. He also emigrated to USA. I know that Geoff has family in the Fylde area. He also has not been in touch recently.
Geoffs' mother, Lucy, maiden name Morton, was the first British woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal for swimming in 1922, 200 mtrs breast stroke (I think). There is a Gold Plaque in her honour in Blackpool. (Can't remember where it is). She also swam the Channel in her early days.
I was thinking about my early days today, and friends etc.
One of my best friends, when young, was Barry Martland.
His family came to Blackpool from Leeds around the end of WW2, as my Dads family did a few years earlier.
I discovered a number of years ago that Barry and the family emigrated to USA when he was in his teens. Not long after that the family went to Canada. I managed to contact him via email some years later. His younger sister Carole also sent me emails. Only this week I asked Carole if Barry was OK. She said that he had become very ill, and wouldn't last long.
Also I have been in touch for years with Geoff Heaton, who I sat next to at Palatine and we became friends. He also emigrated to USA. I know that Geoff has family in the Fylde area. He also has not been in touch recently.
Geoffs' mother, Lucy, maiden name Morton, was the first British woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal for swimming in 1922, 200 mtrs breast stroke (I think). There is a Gold Plaque in her honour in Blackpool. (Can't remember where it is). She also swam the Channel in her early days.