As Avril has now appeared in my story, herewith some background details:
Avril Marie's parents were Geoffrey Lawrence Cramp and Winifred Marjorie Walden, who had been married on April 4th 1931 in Woolwich, London.
Her father Geoffrey Laurence Cramp, OBE, became a British official who served as the Chief Planning Officer in the Ministry of Local Government in Malawi. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1976 New Year Honours for his services in this capacity. However, from various private comments heard by the family over the years, it may be that he had another background role, as an adviser to Dr. Hastings Banda - Prime Minister and President - and as a contact for him with the British Government, but this was never confirmed.
Geoffrey and Winifred had three sons and three daughters:
Derek George, born July 24th 1931, who first married Renée Fell, and had a son Robin, and a daughter, Helen. He later married **** and had a son, Duncan. Initially at university in Dublin studying to be a priest, Derek had a brain seizure of some sort, and afterwards changed to studying medicine. He became a famous professor in Haematology, gained many degrees, and published countless papers whilst a professor at King's College Hospital in London.
Freda Marjorie, born July 17th 1933, who first married Donald Graham Parry on July 24th 1954, at Leytonstone, London, and had a daughter Ceri Jane, born in 1961. She became a head teacher, both in the UK and in Africa.
Avril Marie born 22nd April 1940, in Bexley Heath, who first married Peter Lawrence Field, born January 17th 1934 in Salcombe, Devon. Her second marriage was to Donald Edward Johnson, on March 17th 1967 in Epping, Essex, and they had a daughter Caroline Elise, born March 28th 1968, and a son, Paul Walden, born March 26th 1970, both in Harlow, Essex.
Brian Laurence, born January 17th 1935, who first married Dorothy **** He was present at the first atomic bomb explosions whilst in the RAF, and afterwards joined the Merchant Navy. In later years he was involved with factory machine installations and maintenance, eventually forming his own company.
Susan Carol, born on December 20th 1942, in Bexley Heath, who first married Robin Lestrand Whittle and had a son Robin Lestrand, and a daugher Alexandra Louise. Her second marriage was to Paul Wiggil. She was killed when a roadside bomb exploded during the uprisings in Rhodesia.
Robin Walden, born October 28th 1944, who married Jean **** Rob also joined the Merchant Navy, but went on to become an officer in the coastguard service stationed at Anglesey. He won a substantial prize from Ernie - the National Lottery - and used it to set up a kitchen installation company with his sons.
Avril had early recollections of events during the war, including being able to see her brother Brian through the lathes of the wall to her brother Brian's bedroom after the plaster and all the windows were blown out when a bomb dropped nearby. After the war, the family moved to Leystonstone, where her father became the Town Clerk, and she followed her older sister Freda by becoming a pupil at Hertfordshire & Essex High School in Bishops Stortford. This involved an early morning train trip, where she was watched out for, and safeguarded each morning, by the nice men also travelling on the workman's special. Her time at the school was not entirely happy, as she was constantly negatively compared to her sister, who had been head girl.
Later, the Cramps moved for a time to a house in Harlow, possibly with some assistance from Sir Frederick Gibberd, the master planner and lead architect for the design of Harlow New Town, who was a good friend of her father, but then to Yew Trees, a listed building in Takeley, not far from Stanstead airport. Here, Avril enjoyed visiting the nearby Hatfield Forest on her bicycle, and learning about plants and flowers in their garden from her mother. On one occasion, when in the sixth form, she missed the bus to school, she borrowed her brother Brian's BSA Bantam motorbike - he was off at sea - to get to Stortford. However, the spectacle of a young lady on a motorbike was viewed with great disapproval by the headmistress, especially as Avril had parked the machine in her allotted space! Avril's ambition was to become a teacher but one of the school staff suggested that she was not strong enough for such a role, and her father agreed. He did let her enrol for a degree course in child care, and so she went up to Hampstead, where she enjoyed the usual student activities and pranks, often involving windows left open for late-night returns to the college. Whilst in London, if her brother Brian got leave from the Merchant Navy, he would arrange to meet Avril and take her out for an evening meal at Veerswami's or some other high class restaurant. On one of these occasions, whilst waiting for Brian outside Liberty's in Regent Street, she was told to Bugger off - this is my pitch! by one of the Ladies of the Night who thought that she had competition! During one of the summer holiday periods, Avril and a couple of fellow students took part-time jobs at a hotel on the Isle of Wight, and it was probably there that she contracted Polio. Luckily she had received the first of the immunisation injections being given to youngsters at that time, so was not very badly affected, although confined to bed at home for some weeks.
When Avril finished her course, one of the lecturers suggested that she apply for a position at Roedean, the rather up market girl's school in Brighton. Her father drove her there for the interview, during which Avril discovered that he and the matron were also old friends, which may have helped her secure the position of house matron. She really enjoyed her time at the school, looking after the daughters of princes and rajahs, and travelling back to Brighton from London sometimes in the same carriage as Laurence Harvey, the actor, with whom she would share a taxi. However, after a couple of years, her relationship with Peter Field, who had been quite supportive when she was ill with Polio, began to develop during home visits. Peter was a member of the rugby club that Avril's father had started in Harlow, and he was quite keen for them to get together, so they set a date to get married - April 1st! Things went along quite well for a while, with both of them joining Harlow Opera Society, and Avril becoming Akela to a Cub's group, but is soon became evident that Peter really just wanted dogsbody to cook and clean whilst he concentrated on his teaching job and drinking at the rugby club. Avril had taken a job as a teaching assistant, but was told by the school staff there that she was wasting her obvious talents. One of the teachers went so far as to set up an interview for Avril at Hockerill Teacher Training College, and despite Peter's objections, Avril dug her heels in for once and insisted on attending. With her degree in Children's Welfare, Avril was offered a placement of only two years instead of the usual three, and completed the course with flying colours.
After a training spell at a school in Walthamstow, East London, Avril secured a place at The William Martin school in Harlow, under the headship of Mr. Edgecombe, and she became great friends with his wife and Edge. Avril proved to be an excellent teacher, and parents lobbied at the starts of terms for their children to go into Mrs. Field's class rather than the alternatives. Despite her professional success, Avril received little support from Peter for her achievements, and their relationship deteriorated. The final straw came when Peter declared that they could not afford for Avril to join him on the annual school ski trip that year, and when she declared that she would have a New Year's Eve party instead, he told her that She wouldn't dare! So it came to be that I was able to be at that event at their house in Fir Park, on that fateful evening.