Dinah was apparently named after her mother's elder sister but she was known in the family as Mamie. She married William Collis, a jeweller and pawnbroker in Whitehaven and they had three sons, Cyril, Gerald and Clarence. Clarence died quite young; his widow Peggy corresponded with my mother. Much later my mother and I visited Cyril and his family in Whitehaven; William was still alive, a spry and likeable 80-year old. Gerald worked for Courtaulds and also was married with a family. I never met them.

William qualified on the strength of a year's study in Edinburgh. He did not have funds to follow a longer course.

Family group, about 1926: Mary, Lionel, Masie and William

At some time in the late 30's William developed pancreatitis and was operated on in a London hospital. (Much later, another doctor commented on the scar, saying "they didn't really know what they were doing at that time"!) He was ill for several months and only just fit at the time of Masie's wedding in 1939. The illness was actually very beneficial in one way - it scared him into sobriety.

William suffered a mild stroke in the summer of 1949 and although he recovered it was decided to move to Oxford and that my mother and I should live with my grandparents, in case of another emergency. So we all moved into the old house over the shop at 158 Cowley Rd; two houses really, since the shop spread across both fronts, but 160 was used for storage. The garden was also double and Mary used it all to grow her own vegetables. The photo shows me with Mary, holding a cat which used to visit the garden.

James Nicholls about 1880.

This picture of Maggie, Thomas and Mary must date from the late 1890's.

The picture of James suggests a degree of prosperity. However, his wife died about 1884 and the family broke up. Even before then, life clearly was hard; on being asked (much later) how she was affected by her mother's death, Martha remarked that it had been a relief, since she had been made to work so hard, helping her mother and looking after the younger children.

Mary said little of her early life with her parents; the story I remember is her describing how she used to dress up a pet cat in dolls' clothes and put it in a little baby carriage and push it around the garden. There used to be a small snapshot of this but I do not have it now. When her mother died, Mary went to live with her aunt Margaret Nichols, now wife to Thomas Reynolds in Mountain Ash. After Mary married, her daughter Masie (my mother) remembered "Auntie Maggie" coming to stay and being full of fun and playing games with the children.

Mary used also to tell a story of walking home from the market behind her aunt, from time to time breaking off a piece from the newly-bought cheese in her aunt's basket; when they arrived home, there was none left!

Margaret was Thomas's second wife; the 1881 census showed Thomas living in Llanwonno married to Martha, 37, with son W.H. then a pupil teacher. Mother and son were both born in Maenclochog, Pembs. At the same date Margaret was living with her father John Nichols

William Henry seems to have impressed his young cousin Mary as a man of learning. He must have died relatively young, because she inherited various things that had belonged to him, including a large Edwardian bookcase with cupboards and drawers under. This always had pride of place in her sitting room.

Martha Nicholls, always called Mattie, married Edwin Birch of the Royal Artillery and sailed out to join him in India, perhaps about 1890. There was a rather nice story that when her ship came in to harbour, he leapt on board from the quayside rather than wait for the ship to dock. Mattie had three babies while living in India but none survived.

These pictures show Mattie apparently still in her teens and Ted as a young soldier; both originals are tiny and faded, preserved in lockets.

By 1901 Mary was living in Newport, Monmouthshire with Mattie and Ted Birch. This picture shows the sisters together, apparently outside the back door of the house.

In 1904-5 Mary was living at "Fernleigh", 72 Malpas Road, Newport, which was probably also her sister's house. At the time Ted and Mattie were in India, where Ted served in the British expeditionary force that went to Lhasa in Tibet. A surviving set of picture postcards sent back to Mary in July 1903 gives some details of the voyage via Port Said and Amritsar to Simla, then the summer capital of British India.

Apparently Mary was the belle of the ball, though she personally found such large social occasions tedious. However, she liked the picture of herself, to the extent that about 1950 she had the surviving rather faded copy rephotographed to enhance the contrast.

Mary and her brother Tom, around 1910.

At some stage, maybe around 1910, Mary lived near Hereford, possibly with relations though I don't know. She used to tell two stories of this period. One was about a disastrous ride on a bicycle on the long hill down into the town - the ribbon lining of the hem of her long skirt caught in the axle and wound up, tying her feet together to the frame of the machine! She had to ride into the hedge to stop and free herself. On another occasion she was driving a horse and trap into Hereford and the horse bolted on the same hill; she managed to keep it on the road but arrived at the inn (the Green Man) with the horse in a heavy sweat. The ostler then asked "Oh Miss Nicholls, what have you been doing to the horse?"

Mary married William Barnes in 1913, in Mountain Ash. This picture of bride and groom was taken at the door of her aunt's house. The registry entry was witnessed by her brother Thomas Nichols and also by Christiania Hill, who was a cousin, "Chrissie". In the 1901 census she seems to be Christiania Lewis, age 7, boarding at the Aberdare Industrial School; her birthplace was given as Merthyr Tydfil. It seems likely that her mother was sister to James Nicholls but I have not yet managed to trace the connection. Later she lived near Hereford, keeping a small country pub at Callow, very old-fashioned with the beer drawn directly from the barrels kept in a back room. I visited her with my mother around 1956. Unfortunately, there are no photographs.

After her husband's death Mattie lived with her brother Tom, who kept the "Blue Bell" at Aberstwyth. She also visited Mary and her family and Mary's children visited Aberystwyth, possibly without their parents. The photo of the children with Tom was clearly taken in Aberystwyth, with Constitution Hill in the background. The picture with Mattie could have been taken there or at Luton.

In the summers of 1942, 43 and 45, my mother and I stayed with "Uncle Tom"; by then Mattie had died but her sitting room was unchanged, with chintz fabrics and wickerwork chairs.