[The author’s biological father died of typhoid shortly before her birth in 1904. Her mother remarried in 1908. The author refers to her stepfather as Father or Dad and he was called ‘Mr Hart’ by a colleague, p. 35, but the author does not use the Christian or surnames of her parents in the memoir. ‘Dad’ worked for The Charing Cross and City Electricity Supply Company for forty years. He died March 1937]. 

Dad was the country boy who made good. [Following various boring jobs in London] he was out of work for a time, and as there was no pay or assistance, he decided to return home for a time, so early one Saturday morning, he started out to walk from London to Ramsden Heath (three miles from Billericay), about twenty miles, and arrived late in the afternoon; he stayed a week with his Mother, and then heard of an electrician’s job at Crystal Palace, which he obtained (he said, the organist practicing most of the day on the huge organ there, nearly drove him mad).