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Grace Mackenzie & Charles Chambers
Grace and Charles were married in 1915. Grace was ten years younger than Charles and was married just after her 21st birthday. The couple lived through two World Wars and had five children (see the mini tree below).
Grace & Charles: Welcome
Grace & Charles: Image
It was said that Grace’s father (William Mackenzie) was against the marriage, apparently because he felt that his daughter was marrying beneath her. As a teenage girl, Grace was working as a 'matron' in a private school (it was here where she met her lifelong friend Ada E. Cooper). Click on the button below (31 July 1915) to see Grace & Charles on their wedding day and to see who was with them on the day.
Grace & Charles: Text
At the time of the 1901 Census, Charles was working in London as a ‘crane stoker’ (his father was a steam crane driver so it is likely that Charles was working alongside his father). However, by the time of the 1911 Census he was working as a Motor Fitter in Coventry, where he is recorded as boarding with another family, along with his younger brother Sidney.
Charles returned south to start work at the Woolwich Arsenal at the beginning of the First World War, but he lost his job at the start of 1922 (most likely due to the numbers of troops returning from the western front). He was out of work for 18 months before getting a job with the London Tram Company (later to become London Transport). The saying goes that "he got the job on the day his daughter Margery was born" in 1923.
When they were first married Grace and Charles lived near the River Thames at 35, North Street, Charlton. (The road has since been demolished for works associated with the building of the Thames Barrier). They went on to have five children - Charles was often recalled as quoting a Chambers’ family saying: “there’s always been a Charles Chambers in the family” and he kept the saying alive by naming his first son Charles, (born in 1916). The couple went on to have three daughters, Doris (1917), Margery (1923) and Valerie (1930), followed by another son, Graham, in 1937.
Grace & Charles: About
In the late 1920s and early 1930s the family enjoyed visits to the seaside on the north Kent coast; often accompanied by their grandmother, Annie Mackenzie (read more about Annie's life in "Families").
In the late summer of 1939 Grace took her two youngest children (Valerie and Graham) for a holiday to south Devon and in the 1939 Register they are recorded as staying with a family in Station Road, Teignmouth. It is thought they returned to London soon after, but they were back in Teignmouth for Easter in 1940.
Grace & Charles: About
Grace and Charles' three daughters were all evacuated from London during the 2nd World War. Doris was working as a teacher and was evacuated to Northamptonshire with her school.
Margery and Valerie were pupils at the Roan School for Girls and were evacuated to Bexhill-on-Sea on the south coast of England. But in June 1940, after the fall of France and with the threat of invasion from across the Channel, the children were moved again; this time to Ammanford in South Wales. (You can read Margery’s account of her evacuation and other recollections - like rationing and ID cards - in ˜Personal Stories”).
Soon after Margery and Valerie were moved to Ammanford, Grace and her son Graham were also evacuated to South Wales; but with Margery and Valerie already settled in homes, Grace and her young son were billeted in different accommodation.
Grace & Charles: About
It was said that Charles and Grace were 'bombed out' of their house on five different occasions. On one occasion they had only been re-lodged five days when they were bombed out again. On another, the family story handed-down is that “the only wall left standing was supported by the [family’s] black upright piano”. After the war one of the family’s former homes, 107A Shooters Hill Road, was cleared for the construction of the dual carriageway (A2) that now leads into Blackwall Tunnel. Again, the story goes that Grace always wanted "to move up the hill" (a sign to everyone that they were doing better!). But when they finally managed it, they got bombed out so Grace then said "it clearly wasn’t meant to be!”
Their first child, Charles E Chambers, trained as a draughtsman and was already working at the onset of World War 2. He was called-up in July 1941 and went on to serve with the Royal Corps of Signals in North Africa and Italy. His sister Doris continued with her teaching after the war and eventually became headmistress at Charterhouse School for Girls in Orpington, Kent. When the school merged with the local boys school she became a school inspector.
Grace and Charles’ last home was a third floor flat in Westcombe Park (53, Beaconsfield Close). Charles was in his nineties when his health began to deteriorate and he was moved into a local nursing home. He died there in 1974, aged 90. Grace, being ten years younger, was still in relatively good health but died later the same year, four days after being hit by a car as she crossed the road to reach a bus stop on Blackheath.
Grace & Charles: About
Grace & Charles: Text
Grace & Charles: Text
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