Growing up as a pre-teen in my mother’s native England, I
always heard family references to “Uncle Fred”, the older brother of my
grandfather, Arthur Chinery.
Frederick George Chinery seemed like a mythical figure to
me. My aunts spoke of him with great
reverence. They would recount the story
of him having died in WWII due to the sinking of the boat he was on, by the
Japanese, when Singapore was evacuated in 1942. But, I just don’t remember them saying much
more about him.
I had also heard that when he left England, he left behind
one of his possessions. This item was
his gramophone. The gramophone was held
in tight possession by his half sister Ethel May Norman (Flack). And there were several people in our family
that wanted to inherit this treasure.
Frederick George Chinery was born the 26th of
February 1908 at Frinton Lodge, Great Holland, Essex, England. [1] His parents were William Henry Chinery and
Lydia Matilda Boreham. Subsequent
records search indicate that they were not married at the time of his birth. In fact, in the UK 1911 Census, he and my
grandfather are given the last name of Flack, Lydia’s last name from her
deceased husband Both their births are recorded as Chinery though. Fredrick is the first
of 4 children William and Lydia have together.
William had 5 children from a previous marriage; Lydia had three
previous children. Both of their first
marriages ended due to death of their spouses.
My aunt Ethel, Fredrick’s older half sister was a very
strong willed woman. I remembered her
well from my younger teenage years. She
had suffered a stroke at one point, and the prognosis was not good. But she pushed through and eventually left
the hospital. She walked with the use of
a cane as long as I could remember afterwards. And she always kept her wits about her.
Several years later (about 1983-1984), I had returned to
England now in my early 20’s. I was in
the USAF, and I would often drive to the Ipswich area to visit my
grandparents. On one of those visits,
Aunt Ethel surprised me by asking if I would like to have Uncle Fred’s
gramophone. She remembered a story about
me when I was a younger boy; I was fascinated with wind up gramophones and I had
saved my allowance until I could afford to buy one for myself. I quickly said yes, happy to be the new owner
of this family heirloom.
It was black, with gold lettering stenciled on the top. The initials were FGC, although the F for some
reason was very worn out.
It was around this time a letter to the editor of a local
newspaper was brought to the attention of my grandfather. The rest of the story takes another 30 years
before it begins to play out.
[1] England,
General Register Offices, Birth, Marriage and Death Registrations, Birth
Registration; Apr-May-Jun; 1908; Registration District Tendring; County Essex;
Volume 4a, Page 803, Line 350.
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