First born was Edward Frederick 4 years 5 months before me. My 1st sister was born 3 years before me, her name was Cecilia Mary, then another brother Charles 1 year 4 months before me. My next sister Joan was born 3 years 5 months after me, and a two year interval between Leonard, Robert and Margaret Betty.

We were brought up to be Christians. Church 3 times on Sunday and most activities within the Church during the week. Allowed to read on a Sunday in between Church times, of course we had meals, which my mother cooked. We helped when us girls were old enough. The boys did not enter the kitchen. My father was very Victorian and had a hard life as a boy but always seemed to think girls must be taught how to run a home where as the boys had to be educated to hold good position in life.

Our mother died at the age of 58. 25.September 1945 with Cancer primary in the womb. She suffered for many years and my father married an aunt [who was my] mothers brothers' wife in 1946. She looked after my father will as he looked after her when she became senile. When she died at the age of 84 he went to pieces. We all did our best for him but did not satisfy him he desperately wanted to live with Charles, but that was not forthcoming. Father died in March 1982 at the age of 94. Joan and myself have many regret over his death and wish we had been a bit more understanding towards him. Although we did a lot for him and his second wife while she was alive. But we have to live with our regrets. Although I feel he gave up on himself.

Edward Richard Ventris Porter O.B.E. b.15.July 1887 / 28.March 1982

Ventris was his mothers maiden name, and has been handed down from one generation to another his son Charles took on the name therefore it has been handed down in his family.

He left school at the age of 13, but educated himself further by books and interested in Politics he was rather a closed book to the family but things I remember and will pass on. He was born in Chelsea married at 21 to the girl next door who had 3 brothers no sisters. He had five brothers and two sisters one the eldest of the family and one the youngest who is still alive at the age of 93. I have enclosed a piece she wrote a little while ago. Perhaps she was thinking of writing a book.

He was registered under the national registration act. 1915. Edward Porter (Engineers Machinist of 16 Raddiff Avenue. Harlesden N.W. London He won an O.B.E. order of the British Empire in previously had won M.B.E. Member of the British Empire it was in Lord Bevans time and he won it for his work preventing strikes during WWII. He was a voluntary worker for the union of engineering in Lloyd Georges time in the Liberal parliament. Later joining as an organizer then in 1920 became Trade Union Official and district organizer in Bristol: Moving from N.W. London where he lived in 4 Brighton Rd, Redland until 1927 where he lived at 11 Eastfield Road, until moving to 14 Logan Road, Bishopston in 1939.

Rebecca Mary Robinson b.13.August 1887 / d.25.September 1945

I had an affinity with my mother as soon as I was born. I have been told by her and my older brothers and sister how I would cling to my mother she would do her work about the house with me in her arms. I hated to be parted from her, which happened when I was six and I was sent to an isolation hospital for 16 weeks. I was very ill with diphtheria, followed by scarlet fever then rheumatic fever and paralysis in my legs. In those days no visitors were allowed, and to me I had been abandoned. I can remember the time when I was taken home, I vowed never to let my mother leave me again. As I grew older and more sensible and knew my mother had to be shared I loved my brothers and sisters as well. My love from me to my father was a little different. I respected him, but he was not a man you could show your love to. He kept his distance but knowing he loved my mother as I did gave him a place in my heart.

When I was married and in love my mother still took precedence in my mind even after she died I felt her presence with me. Even now when I visit her grave I feel close will I ever meet her again I ask myself? That I will know after I am dead, but will not be able to pass on any information so on one will know. My mother died on 25th Sept 1945.