A pre 1900 Photo of the Pace Girls born to Alfred Thomas & Annie Pace (nee: Pitt)
Aunt Bertha
2 April, 2001 Hi Robyn Been looking at your web page, very interesting, but a little sketchy in parts, so I thought I would fill in a few gaps for you. On this occasion I will tell you a little more about our Aunt Bertha. She left home at the age of 18 to try her luck in London, after all the village of Shirley where they lived was not exactly a thriving Metropolis. She eventually became a chorus girl at the Windmill Theatre, a very old and established theatre, very much patronized by the (so-called) Gentry and Service officers on leave from the western front. Many of the girls finished up marrying one of these. Somewhere in the early twenties (I remember her visiting us at Green Lane, and we did not move there until I was three) she gave birth to a boy child, father unknown except possibly to Aunt Bertha, unfortunately she died while he was only a toddler, I think from tuberculosis a Common occurrence of the period, largely due to the shocking living conditions imposed upon ordinary people by Conservative Government, and medical aid being a function of the depth of one's pocket! The child was taken on by our Aunt Annie, who without any consultation with my Mother or your Father, farmed him out for adoption, an act that so enraged my Mother that she and Annie never spoke to each other again until 1958. I did not know of his existence until during the war, while on leave, my mother told me about our cousin Paul, and that he had committed suicide together with a married woman that he was having an affair with. I visited his adopted parents (strangely they only lived in the next suburb to us) they were very nice people and had no other children. Apparently like myself he had joined the Army just prior to the War, and we both came out of France at Dunkirk. So that is what I know of Aunt Bertha, on another occasion I will tell you about Aunt Annie who I visited regularly during her life. Regards and best wishes, Clive.