Obituaries
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Ruth Greenwold (Motum, 1942-48)
From Anne Glover, her daughter.
Ruth sadly died on 24th June this year aged 89.
She was born at a nursing home on the corner of Beverley Road and Lexden Road in Colchester. The family lived at 238 Ipswich Road. She was an only child but made friends with the children of neighbours (including local shop owners the Hatfields) and her many relatives living nearby. She wandered about, playing in the woods and paddling in the nearby stream, cycling or tobogganing down the slopes in the winter.
Behind the house, the good-sized garden which looked over fields sown with corn, had a patch for her Dad’s vegetables, a hutch for a pet rabbit and somewhere to keep chickens during the war. Down the road was Mason’s shop where wartime sweet coupons could be exchanged for Sherbet Dabs and from there a boy on a bike made deliveries. A baker came to the house with fresh bread in a huge basket and the greengrocer, with his horse and cart, sometimes gave Ruth a ride up the road. At 4 or 5 years old, she recalled going to the front gate and watching fascinated, as the man on the bicycle-cum-ice-cream-maker made her a wafer with his special tool.
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Aged only 5 she caught the bus on her own to Maldon Road to attend the New Church School and remembered that in 1938 she went with the school to the Park to see a tall, grand lady coming along the path opposite Colchester castle. It was Queen Mary! She attended ‘Miss Betty Brookes Dancing Academy’ and took part in a display on stage, probably at the Albert Hall Repertory Theatre, in Colchester High Street. She must have enjoyed the experience, because much later she joined Colchester Operatic Society and in 1953, danced in a production of Show Boat, at the Playhouse Theatre in St John’s Street!
When war started in 1939 Mr Hatfield constructed an Anderson shelter at the bottom of his garden with help from her father. She had to carry a gas mask and identification card and there was the constant threat of the air raid siren going off. Ruth did not like getting up at night to go down into the horrible, cold shelter and added to this she was in Mile End isolation hospital for weeks with Scarletina, often having to get under the bed and the mattress for protection just in case a bomb brought down the ceiling. Her father, Kesel, had a ‘reserved’ occupation at the Waterworks on Balkerne Hill and was in the Home Guard, Ruth and her mother were evacuated to Rushden near Northampton, but only stayed for about six weeks.
Ruth. aged 9, entered the Lower 3rd form at Grey Friars where her class teacher was Miss Overy (left) and she got on well, making many friends. When she passed her scholarship (11+) she moved to North Hill where she met her life-long friend Bridget Bareham (Nelson).
The High School made a lasting impression on Ruth and later she became an active member of the Old Girls Association, keeping in touch with classmates and sometimes organising events. An annual highlight was the OGA garden party, held at Weavers in Lexden Road.
During her school years Ruth joined the Girl Guides, becoming Rose Patrol leader and camped one summer in the grounds of Danbury Palace near Chelmsford. She joined the Red Cross Nursing Cadets and much later, in 1953, was to help through the night at Harwich, after devastating floods swept the East of England.
After an interview with Headmistress, Miss King, Ruth left the High School aged 16 and got a job as a tracer in the drawing office at the Post Office in West Stockwell Street. Later she took Civil Service exams to become a Clerical Officer but there were no jobs available, and she was told to go to the War Department, working in the Garrison and using her car as part of her job.
She enjoyed playing tennis, swimming, the theatre or cinema, the church Young People’s Holidays. For her 21st birthday her father, who had won some money on the Football Pools, threw his daughter a lovely birthday party at Joscelyn’s Café in the High Street, with about forty guests!
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1955 was a year of great adventure for Ruth and accompanied by her friend, Jane Gill (Elphick), she sailed to Canada, then travelled to Bryn Athyn in Pennsylvania, USA to begin a year at the church college, on a Fine Arts course. She sailed back on
the Queen Mary and after the early death of her father Ruth and her mother moved to a bungalow in Bramley Close. They both had to work but kept a little grey A30 car (right) which Ruth drove to the car maintenance class at Colchester Institute. Here she met her future husband, Geoffrey Greenwold, and on a sunny September 12th 1964 they were married with a reception at the Fleece Hotel in Head Street and a honeymoon in Sussex followed. Ruth Waters (Davies)
and the two daughters of High School friend, Diana Richardson, were bridesmaids, all in peach satin. Ruth and Geoff soon bought 75 Magazine Farm Way and stayed there for the rest of their lives, making it a warm and welcoming home for their two children, Anne and Hugh.
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Ruth enjoyed reading and poetry; music and singing; her garden, flowers and the natural world and delighted in exploring new and beautiful places, in Britain and abroad. As far back as 1967, Ruth joined the Home Farm Women’s Institute making many friends and trying new crafts and even winning prizes. When the children were older Ruth worked at the Oaks Hospital and the Examinations Board. She helped at charities such as Homestart and delivered library books to the housebound. She took French classes and in later life, together with Geoff, enjoyed art classes and lectures from the University of the Third Age and became involved in the Colchester Recalled local history group. Ruth liked puzzles and between them, the daily crossword in the Express Newspaper was never left undone!
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