Coughtrey home index to chapters photos notice board
Cousin Joan Coughtrey aged about 7
| This photo of my cousin Joan was probably taken in about 1950. She was the only child of my Uncle Tom and Aunt Aggie, my Godparents. The family lived first in Boxted, Essex, then moved to the Mile End area of nearby Colchester when Tom got a job as a porter in Severalls Hall psychiatric hospital. I last saw Joan when I was about 15, when she and her parents came to stay with us one weekend. I took her for a walk on Hadley Common and tried to flirt with her. The attempt consisted of a lecture on the necessity for violent revolution. Whether this was socialist, anarchist or nihilist in nature I don't recall. It would have depended on the phase in my thinking at that particular time. However, I sensed that as a wooing strategy this was not ideal, as Joan seemed formidably more 'mature' and 'sensible' than I, which made revolution a non-starter. Uncle Tom died some time in the eighties. Shortly after that I heard that Aggie was very ill, but my mother had lost the name of the hospital she was in, and I was unable to trace her. I've no idea what became of Joan, but would greatly appreciate any news of her. |