The World is our Tortoise.

A HISTORY OF MY FATHER LEONARD CROOKES

1911 – 1986

By Eric Crookes

My Dad was born on January 11^th 1911 at Stannington View Road, Crookes, Sheffield. I want to recognise the one hundredth anniversary of his birth on this web-page. I don’t know why I want to do that I just want to do it. I have a feeling that all lives are worthy of recognition no matter how meagre they may seem to be. Most people have many facets to their lives; we are all immediately a son or a daughter to our parents, most of us are a brother or a sister to our siblings if we have any and later we are a husband or wife or a mother or father; and they are just in our family lives.

My Dad’s life was, in his early days, difficult because of the classic working class Sheffield life he lived in a large family in a small house. As we all know the 1920 years were ones of austerity brought about through shortages of work, poor education facilities and the poverty of ambition and culture. As a family they appear to have been close knit, my dad spoke with affection about his brothers and sisters. They were friends as well as siblings. You can see by their dress sense that they had a shared appreciation of the styles of the day, smart suits, jackets and hats: the sisters and wives were naturally attractive and were able to wear fine clothes at the right time.

Work was scarce though and at twenty years old my dad joined the Royal Navy. He made a career of it and served through the Second War and into the Korean Emergency in 1952

My Grandmother, Aunty Elsie and Aunty Edna as a baby

Uncle Harry and Aunty Marion on their wedding day

Uncle Frank

Uncle Albert (standing) and Lew Morton family friend

Uncle Albert

My Dad on a motor bike with a young woman

My Dad with Uncle Arnold

POSM Leonard Crookes

My Mother and Dad on his demob in 1953

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e-mail at ecrookes@wendrick.co.uk