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P.Y. [Phyllis Yvonne] Betts (1909-1990?), novelist (French Polish (Gollancz, 1933) and remarkable memoirist (People Who Say Goodbye: Memories of Childhood (1989). Grew up in Magdalen Road during WWI - grandparents lived Sherbrooke Lodge, Nightingale Lane - frequent references to WC and other local places (cemetery, prison, asylum etc).
PB: I have created on Ancestry.co.uk a BETTS FAMILY TREE.
Arthur William Betts [PYB's father], 1877-1954, married Beatrice Helena Wood [mother], 1877-1963). I have seen refs to marriage both at St Luke, Battersea, and at St Augustine's Bermondsey. Check. On his son Eric's baptism entry, he is recorded as a Cashier, living at 54 Manchuria Road - this leads up to Clapham Common, between Broomwood Road and Thurleigh Road.
Eric Edward [PYB's brother] born Wandsworth 29 March 1904. Died 27 October 1989, Surrey. In 1939 he was living with his wife Doris at 26 Avondale venue, Maldon and Coombe, a Chartered Accountant employed as Company Secretary and Financial Advisor [at?] Fire Extinguisher Manufacturers and Fire Engineers [sic?]"
Phyllis Yvonne Betts, 21 April 1909, Wandsworth - 26 Sep 2005, Cellan, Lampeter, Wales.
Baptised (by John Erskine Clarke), 4 July 1909, at St Luke's, Battersea. Address given as 57 Magdalen Rd [PB: today's 75?].
PB: I'm sure I've seen refs to her as e.g. a warden of a university hostel? Travels to the USA? London in WWII?]
1881: Beatrice and family living at 6 Shelgate Rd in 1881. Beatrice, aged 4. Edward [Edwin?] Wood [father] a "Colliery Commercial Traveller", born "Warwick, Baddesley".
[Wikipedia: Baddesley Ensor]
1891: 103, Bolingbroke Grove. Beatrice, 14, Scholar. Father, 44, "JP. Secretary Building Society", born "Warwick Baddesley Ensor".
1901: The Cedars, Green Street, Sunbury
1911: 58, Nightingale Lane, Edward Wood, 64, "Manager Building Society". Two house maids. On modern maps, appears to be the site of Malins Court, opposite the end of Endlesham Rd, but Timothy Walker's Twixt the Commons probably has more info about the house and the family.
[51? Was it renumbered 77 at some time?]
1931: On the 1931 Electoral Register PYB is described as living at 77 Lyford Road - this is a transcription error - it was Magdalen Road.
1937: PYB embarked for New York, USA, from Southampton 3 October 1937, and arrived back 14 March 1938.
1939: Phyllis is described as a "Secretary", living with her father AWB, a "General Manager Building Society", and mother Beatrice, at 77 [PB: surely it was today's 75?] Magdalen Road. PYB would have been about 30.
AWB died 1954.
2005: Phyllis Yvonne Betts, 21 April 1909, Wandsworth - 26 Sep 2005, Cellan, Lampeter, Wales.