95241

Generation: E

William Haworth Palmer

Children:

• Marjorie Palmer
• Leslie Palmer

J.P. Married a Journalist in Accrington.

63, Primrose Street, Accrington, Lancs.

Married 30 years, so ? born about 1913, plus or minus 3. Reporter, journalist, and now a sub-editor who arranges the headlines and spacing etc. for the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

Last year when I was going through telephone directories to discover the Murrays of Accrington, if any, I wrote to a number of Whittakers, Gardners, and Palmers. He was practically the only bright one who responded by having the idea that his Grandmother's nephew, a Murray, might be one whom I sought. He was right there!

So next time he visited his married daughter at Hagley, 14 miles from Wolverhampton, we asked him to make sure he visited us for lunch.

He came yesterday from Hagley, having asserted on the phone that he would know the way. So I did not send him a plan, although I felt in my bones at the time that I ought to have done so.

He came, as arranged, with his wife, pregnant daughter and grand-daughter, little Alison, aged 2 1/2, a pleasant little lady indeed. But 40 minutes late.

I met his car at the end of the road, travelling along somewhat uncertainly in second gear. He seemed most sure of himself in that gear.

We had a pleasant lunch, then I showed him what he had come to see, the genealogical tables of his family.

Not only was his interest thin, but he knew nothing about any of the generations previous to his own. Nor did he care.

The explanation would appear to be that his father, William Palmer, (born 13/1/1885) had walked out on his mother when young Palmer was only seven years old, and had not been heard of again, more or less.

Palmer seems to have been in the newspaper line all his life, apart from a spell in the army in War II.

He is a Justice of the Peace, and would appear to be fairly recently appointed, because he knew so many of the answers.

In appearence he was quite strong, tending to over-weight, high coloured, thick neck and early double chin, with slight prominence of the eyes, all characteristics of his sire. He had a marked Lancashire accent. His favourite phrase in conversation was "I mean", occuring sometimes thrice in a single sentence.

His wife was small, alert, quick to grasp a point, and quite curious about the family, of which she had known little.

Marjorie Palmer, his daughter, now Mrs. Ferniehough, had been an infants teacher in several places in Lancashire until her marriage. A pleasant shy young lady who said very little.

They all looked like settling down for the afternoon, but by a fortunate chance Margaret had an engagement for 3.15 (!) and therefore had to leave. Then, of course, I remembered my training schedule, and the four departed very soon after, still in second gear.

This gave me the opportunity of a short "shut-eye" before I took the car to Wrottesly aerodrome and had a pleasant easy jog-trot for some 40 minutes.