9th March 1927 - 9th May 2020
Waterloo United Free Church, 13 September 2021
So today, after a very long delay, we say our final farewells to Gladys, one of those three Davies women who we here remember as sisters, sisters-in-law, mothers, aunties, friends: the three of them - sparky and sprightly, sometimes great company and sometimes pains in the proverbial, always forgiven and loved over again. If I were to caricature them I’d say that there was the one with the fire in her belly; the one who always stepped out in style; and the one with the twinkle in her eye.
But before you take time thinking which one of these I mean by each of those remarks, let’s dig a little deeper into Gladys’s life story - because I think in doing so we’ll remember someone who was all these things together - feisty and full of life, glamorous in her own way and time, and cheerful and kind, always to the end.
Gladys was born on the 9th March 1927 at the bungalow in Harrington Road, Great Crosby to Jesse and Cyril, a sister to Dorothy (who was born two years earlier) and becoming an older sister to Muriel three years later. The other two each had middle names, Gladys was just ‘Gladys’ and was always a little bit miffed about that!
They all then moved to King Street, Waterloo, where the family was completed in 1939 by a baby boy Leslie.
Gladys went to Christ Church School, Waterloo, and also attended Sunday School at St John’s Church where she won prizes including one for being top in the class at learning the books of the Bible. Lesley found these prizes at home - story books for girls written by women, with improving, moral messages.
Later during WW2 Gladys became a member of the Womens’ Junior Air Corps, a time she remembered fondly. I wonder how many schoolgirls today would enjoy learning skills such as drill, morse code, marksmanship, physical training, first aid, motor maintenance, and aircraft recognition? It must have been hard growing up in the war but it sounds like Gladys made the best of her time.
After leaving school she tried her hand at floristry but decided it wasn’t for her: the reason, she said, was that it was wearing her shoes out too fast.
She found employment at Woolworths on South Road and worked her way up to become head cashier. At this time she joined the local Health and Strength League, entering competitions in various parts of the UK and winning several trophies, among them - very impressively - Miss Northwest Britain 1947 and Miss Merseyside 1948.
She regularly attended local dances, often incurring Dorothy’s wrath for borrowing her shoes without permission; and sometimes if she decided to ditch her dance partner Gladys would get Dorothy’s then-boyfriend Harry Jones onto the dance floor instead; again you can imagine Dot having words with Gladys about that! Another thing she enjoyed doing was going to the theatres in Liverpool collecting autographs from the stars: the likes of Laurence Olivier, Joyce Grenfell, Googie Withers and - twice - Ken Dodd…
Gladys enjoyed taking many holidays in the UK and abroad with Muriel and their cousin Lancel.
While she was working at Woolworths Gladys met her future husband Douglas Chippendale. He was a police constable stationed at Crosby, and their courtship began. What a glamorous couple - the beauty queen and the tall handsome officer. When Douglas was promoted to sergeant they became engaged.
In January 1956 Douglas was seconded to Limassol to join the policing of The Cyprus Emergency, or the Greek Cypriot War of Independence as it’s also known. That same spring Gladys flew out to marry Douglas under the domed white chancel of St Barnabas Church, Limassol on the 19th of May. The newly-weds stayed in Cyprus until December 1958, when they returned home to live in Leigh, Lancashire, and in June 1961 Lesley was born.
In 1963 they moved to Haslingden and then to Bury in 1965; then after Douglas retired in 1967 they moved to 125 Newington Drive, the family home ever since.
At this time Gladys decided to improve her education, taking city and guilds in catering, English ‘O’ Level, typing and bookkeeping at the local colleges and achieving several qualifications. Sadly none of this brought her any new employment, and neither did Gladys achieve her long-time ambition to pass her driving test. However, these setbacks didn’t stop her joining in the activities of the local WRVS and a choir.
Gladys, Douglas and Lesley would enjoy taking holidays together in caravans and motorhomes often in different parts of Wales; and then there were all those years of coming over to Waterloo every Saturday to sit in Nana and Grandad’s kitchen catching up with the rest of the family, salad days I’d call them, times we will always remember and cherish.
After Douglas passed away in December 2002 Gladys filled the void by reading her bible, doing her puzzles and enjoying the company of Pip the cat; then when Lesley took early retirement in 2016 Gladys enjoyed them going out on trips together and having lunch and talking to people. Her latter days were quiet days but she lived a contented life.
Gladys fell asleep in hospital on the 9th May 2020 to be reunited with Douglas and all her loved ones who had gone before her. In heaven, will she still be caught out wearing Dorothy’s best shoes?
So Gladys embraced the whole range of characteristics that she shared with her sisters - there’s no doubt that she has lived a full and active life, a life of glamour at times, a life of quietly loving and giving to others, in her cheerful and kind way. She’s the one I will always remember for the twinkle in her eye, and the chuckle in her voice; someone who it was easy to talk with, someone who put you at your ease. You who know Gladys better may disagree, but in my own memory I cannot recall ever one cross word from her, but plenty of laughter and smiles.
We’re going to sing a hymn together now which is so very well chosen; for the words it expresses might be Gladys’s own words, they might help us express just how we remember her; and they may also be our prayer for ourselves as we seek to take the good things Gladys shared with us into our own lives: let us now stand to sing Make Me a Channel of Your Peace.
Comments