Edward Nathaniel Robinson was my grandfather William Robinson’s younger brother.
He was unmarried. He worked at Boots’ factory at Beeston. My mother said he was a chemist, but he was probably some sort of laboratory worker. He must have had a reasonably good position, because he was due to retire at 60, as opposed to 65, which was the normal retiring age for manual workers.
My recollection of him, which may be completely erroneous, is of a tall, thin man of pale complexion with a light brown hairpiece. (I don’t know where I’ve dragged this last piece of “information” from and it may be completely fictitious!)
He lived in rooms (I believe with a landlady) in the hilly part of north Nottingham. He had an allotment nearby, with a garden shed. He spent a lot of his spare time there.
The following two anecdotes are definitely not fictitious.
He quite often used to come to see us at the house in Wymeswold where I lived until I was thirteen. My father was a blacksmith. Uncle Ted used to get the bus from Nottingham and invite himself for Sunday tea. Before he left, he used to fill a bag of horse-manure and take it back, on the bus, for his allotment.
Not long before he died, he went to the dentist and complained that his teeth were not sharp enough. He asked the dentist to sharpen them. No doubt after some hesitation, the dentist obliged. Soon after that, he went to hospital with a cut mouth.
He was looking forward to his retirement, but he died not long before his sixtieth birthday.
He had three entries in my mother’s autograph book. The first two are dated September 1922, less than one month after her mother gave her the book. (The last one (undated) says: I’ll be last in the book.)
I have found two framed watercolours, which he painted. They are of Coats of Arms of a number of schools and towns throughout the country. They are signed in neat handwriting “E.N. Robinson”. They are not dated.
My cousin, Eileen Hall (née Robinson) has sent me the following:
I remember Uncle Ted as he lived with us for several years. As you know the house was quite small and Uncle Ted slept in the little bedroom. Enid and Mary shared the back bedroom which was also quite small. I was in my parents’ bedroom on a mattress on the floor. When Mum and Dad decided I was too old to share with them they had to ask him to find other accommodation.
I remember Uncle Ted’s allotment too. Mum and I used to visit quite often and we fed the pigs. I think the allotment was at Carlton and Uncle Ted lodged somewhere there but I am not sure about that. It would fit in with your statement that he lived north of Nottingham though, wouldn’t it?
Jim Mackley
July 2020 (revised January 2021)
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