My Family
Matters
Aged 15, Arthur Ryan was a Post Office Messenger Boy. He rose through the ranks to become the London Regional Director and received the CBE.
This is his story of study and endeavour.
Marjorie Dee
Marjorie Dee was born at 1.30 pm on 30 January 1898 at 95 Fairholt Road, Stoke Newington. She was the youngest daughter of councillor and local businessman George Dee and his wife, Annie.
After attending Oldfield School at Stoke Newington, Marjorie became a pupil teacher. She then attended Avery Hill College, Eltham, London. This had been established by the London County Council as a residential teacher training college in 1906.
It appears that she had some difficulties with the College rules. Her father wrote some encouraging words on 5 March 1918: ‘I am afraid you are having a very bad time at college...it may be that you think some of the rules are not right, but try to get them altered without making any bother, for you have to please everyone including the Head....there is one thing very certain: the girls must obey the rules until they are altered’.
The Ryans -
The Ryan family lived at 38 Lavers Road, Stoke Newington which was less than a mile from one of the Dee’s Stores in Church Street, Booth painted this road pink to indicate that its inhabitants were ‘fairly comfortable...with good ordinary earnings’. Arthur James Ryan was born on 10 October 1900.
Arthur’s great grandparents, James and Lucy Ryan were both Catholics, born in Ireland.
His male ancestors were men of letters -
Arthur’s is a classic story of a boy starting at the bottom and rising to the heady heights of the award of a CBE. At fifteen, he followed his father’s example and joined the Post Office as a boy messenger. The next year he passed the examination to become a Boy Clerk and in 1918 he became an Assistant Clerk following another successful examination. Sorted!
Towards the end of the Great War, he served in Ireland as a telephone switchboard operator with the rank of Sapper. In 1919 Arthur attended the School of Accountancy which levied a fee of ten guineas.
He rejoined the Post Office but spent many of his evenings at the City of London College where he studied French, Geometry, Chemistry and Shorthand. The fees for one term were £1 5s 0d. Clearly, Arthur was determined to improve his position in life and had an appetite for learning.
On a social and sporting level he joined the Brownswood Tennis Club. George Dee was
involved with the Brownswood Bowls Club and his daughter, Marjorie played tennis
there -
A boy messenger
Marriage and children
Arthur and Marjorie were married on 8 May 1926 at St Marys, Stoke Newington. My mother and Joyce Saunders, who were Marjorie’s nieces, were among the bridesmaids. Unusually, there were four witnesses to the marriage who included Arthur’s father, Stephen, and Marjorie’s mother, Annie Dee.
Arthur was assigned to work at Ipswich (a posting?) as an Assistant Surveyor and it was while they lived there that Arthur and Marjorie took special delivery of two daughters in 1930 and 1933.
In 1935, the family were ‘redirected’ to Portsmouth and lived at Festing Grove, Southsea. This meant that Marjorie could see more of her eldest sister, Eadie, who was also living in the city.
Later, Arthur was promoted to Assistant Controller and the family moved back to London to a detached house at 32 Arlow Road, Winchmore Hill (below). Before the war, Arthur drove a Lanchester car.
In 1939 it was Marjorie’s turn to care for her mother, Annie Dee. The family moved
to 17 Woodville Road, Bexhill to escape the anticipated wartime blitz of London.
During the war, Arthur was seconded to the Ministry of Fuel and Power as Assistant
Secretary -
Arthur’s career continued to progress -
At Christmas, during the seasonal avalanche of mail, he would be collected from his home by a chauffeur driven car and taken to the sorting office at Mount Pleasant to see how the staff was coping.
32, Arlow Road, Winchmore Hill
Arthur and Marjorie with their two daughters
CBE and retirement
When he retired from the Post Office, he received the CBE. He was also a Freeman of the City of London. An impressive finale for a boy messenger!
Both Arthur and Marjorie had a passion for golf and after Arthur’s retirement they
moved back to Bexhill at 226 Cooden Drive which was near a golf course. Arthur was
driving a second-
(shown left).
Marjorie had a hip replaced and this was to affect her for the rest of her life. The cement didn’t gel, the joint became loose and the resulting repair operation was not a success.
As a consequence, she suffered a fall in the kitchen. She also suffered from poor eyesight due to haemorrhaging of the retina and diabetes, complications from which resulted in her death on 3 March 1983 at the age of eighty five.
Arthur wrote that Marjorie ‘was really wonderful throughout. She suffered considerably
for a long time particularly in the last twelve months. She did however accept her
afflictions with dignity and fortitude and never complained’. A son-
Marjorie is remembered with affection. A nephew says that she was his favourite aunt
-
Of Marjorie
Of Arthur
Arthur continued to live at Bexhill until moving to Abbeyfields Home at Stevenage. There he had a mishap while bathing. He was moved to a nursing home at Gosmore, (a village between Hitchin and Luton in Hertfordshire) where he was near his daughter and her husband. He died there shortly afterwards on 12 January 1990.
As well as his love of golf, Arthur enjoyed bird watching holidays on the Norfolk
Broads. My mother commented on ‘how beautiful the garden was looking ...’ after a
visit in the 1980s -
Arthur apparently sometimes ‘seemed a little aloof’. ‘At first acquaintance he appeared a little daunting...(but) once one got to know him he was fairly easy to get on with and quite friendly’. Although he was an avid reader with an eager thirst for facts which he expressed with erudition, there were some subjects which were taboo. His views rarely changed and could be expressed strongly. ‘His was an uncomplicated character with a simple view on life’.
Above: Arthur and Marjorie 1923c and their daughters.