Chapter 10: Marriage and More

Johnnie and Gertie marry

It turned out that Gertie’s mother Dotty and Johnnie’s mother Milly got on together like a house on fire and made all the arrangements for the marriage, very much following the traditions of the Standhope family. Apparently they both shared a love of music hall songs and would spark each other off with snippets of tunes that they loved to elaborate on or even make up as they sang along in harmony. Their meetings to discuss the wedding at either Standhope Manor or the Thornton’s tiny Limehouse flat were often filled with music and laughter and on more than one occasion they ended up leading a riotous sing-song upon the old “Joanna” in the “Five Bells and Blade Bone” public house at No 27 Three Colts Street, often leading to a “lock-in” that the local Bobbies turned a blind eye to; nobody wanted to incur the wrath of the Chief Constable by arresting Lady Standhope for drinking after hours!

The tiny All Saints Church in the village of Standhope may have had early Norman stonework laid over early Saxon foundations, but the Standhopes had completely rebuilt the church in the 18th century in an Italianate style design that looked absolutely perfect as a setting for the wedding of the handsome Honourable John Jacob Winter, the eldest son of an Earl, and his beautiful blushing bride Miss Gertrude Elizabeth Thornton, although her being the only daughter of a boilermaker wasn’t necessarily drawn to anyone’s attention, the wedding day in June 1950 was a glorious summer day and the ceremony and celebrations were enjoyed by all who retired to the larger of the three ballrooms at the Standhope Manor after the ceremony.

They spent their first night as a married couple in a small but comfortable family-run hotel, on the outskirts of Southampton, that Collins had researched and booked for them. They arrived in Southampton by train with a small suitcase each fot for an overnight stay and were delivered to the hotel by cab.

We will leave their first night together as private as they had intended but it was a very happy couple that arrived at the docks in plenty of time to board the “Capetown Castle” liner ready to sail at 4pm on a perfectly sunny Thursday afternoon. The luxury liner set sail heading south, carrying almost 800 passengers, with some 240 in first class. Their trunks for the honeymoon had already been loaded in their first class cabin. The ship was over 27,000 tons, less than a third of the size of the “Queen Mary”, but the trip to and from South Africa was nothing like the transatlantic trade and was very comfortable. The ship had an interesting history, having been built in 1936 it played a part in Operation Bolero ferrying US troops to Britain for D-Day, during which task it sailed almost half-a million miles and carried a total of 164,000 troops across the Atlantic to fight the Nazis. It had been completely refitted in 1949 and was one of the finest vessels among the 15 that the Union-Castle Line used for the Britain to South Africa route.

Johnnie and Gertie travelled unaccompanied and behaved as quiet anonymous passengers and plain “Mr and Mrs”, which as a newly married couple was all the titles they wanted to be known by on this trip. With several stops along the way at memorable Colonial ports, it took 10 days to get to Cape Town where they disembarked and were carried by cab to a private refurbished early 18th century Cape Dutch farmhouse with stunning views of the African countryside.

The couple honeymooned in Cape Town for some six weeks and enjoyed magnificent sunsets and excursions on safari as well as a short cruise to Durban, coming home on the “Carnavon Castle”, one of the Union-Castle Line’s smaller ships carrying just 600 passengers.

In early August, after an eight-week honeymoon, they returned home to Standhope Manor, finding their apartments there completely revamped and secured for them at the Manor and Johnnie’s bachelor apartment in London replaced by quarters more flexible for their future married and family life.

It was in the Spring of 1951 that Johnnie received notice that he would be recalled to continue his military service due to the escalation of the Korean War and that he had to report to the 1st Royal Tank Regiment.

“Sorry, old girl,” Johnnie said, as he opened the letter at the breakfast table of their London apartments, “But when I resigned my commission in 1948, I had signed up after the original hostilities for seven years in 1946, with a commitment to seven more years on Reserve, so I am still committed to recall until 1955.”

“Oh, Johnnie, all the way to Korea?” Gertie asked.

“Not necessarily, they may be short handed in Germany, which is where the 1st Tanks are garrisoned and my commission would probably only be until the Korean War ends. Do you fancy a couple of years learning German and being an officer’s wife abroad?”

“Well, anywhere with you, will be fine, Johnnie. When are you due to go?”

“First of March, apparently, and I’ve been promoted to Major.”

It turned out that the appointment wasn’t in Germany, but he was shipped to Korea via Australia and Gertie waved him off at Croydon Airport on the 27th of February. It turned out that the tanks didn’t really need him and within three months Johnnie, who had always been active in mind and body was bored and when he came back to their London home on leave over Christmas 1951 he told Gertie that he was transferring to the 1st Battalion The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment on his return to Korea in mid-January 1952. When he returned to England on leave in March 1953, he wasn’t able to get Christmas off two years running, he told Gertie that they were having fun training and exercising, going out on patrol and it was interesting work. As for the war itself, he said, it was more like the First World War with the troops on both sides bedded down, lots of ineffective shelling on both sides and this type of warfare could go on for years.

In early June 1953, only about three weeks after sending Johnnie a letter confirming her pregnancy, Gertie received notification that Johnnie had died on 30 May of wounds received in Korea. Through connections she was able to speak to his commanding officer and found out that during the short Battle of the Hook, Johnnie had led his Company into hand-to-hand fighting with the retreating enemy and was among twenty that were killed and a further forty that were wounded.

Johnnie’s body was repatriated in July 1953 and he was buried in a joint ceremony with his grandmother Maudie who died on 12 June and her funeral was held up to bury them together in the Standhope family vault as part of the small chapel attached to the Manor. Maudie had been in hospital for a month and was never aware of Johnnie’s death.

Gertie was devastated by the loss of her husband so soon into her pregnancy. During Johnnie’s absences in Korea, Gertie had increased her work commitments with the bank and hospital to keep herself busy. When she heard of Johnnie’s death, in person from an officer of the home battalion of his regiment and a Constable from the local police station, she called her mother first, as she was nearest, and then Milly.

The womenfolk of her family rallied round. Firstly, Milly made sure she had bed-rest to ensure the babies were fine. By then the presence of twins had been confirmed. Milly met both the boards of bank and hospital, with Collins and Barrington to get her up to speed; she appointed a senior member of the bank management to be chair and managing director pro tem until Gertie was able to take up her duties again. As for the hospital, Gertie was not directly managing anything viral to the operation, only involved in the sub committees handling the planning of future improvements and fundraising as well as providing grants from her own pocket and these could continue without her. Collins volunteered to attend the sub committees and bring any funding issues to both Barrington and Milly’s attention of necessary.

Mildred and Evie also rallied round. Mildred had by then fully recovered for her failed attempts on climbing Everest in 1950, where she lost four toes to frostbite in one of the worst summers in Everest’s recorded history; and then her single-person sailing ship, “Hope of Derbyshire” was de-masted smashed to pieces in the Pacific and she drifted in the wreckage for a fortnight before being rescued ... Evie had a baby in tow, the two-year-old Toby Dorset, but she cheerfully moved the two of them into Gertie’s house to keep her in constant company.

By now Maisie had been Gertie’s lady’s maid for getting on for five years and she was devoted to her mistress, through the happiest times and now the worst time. She was constantly by her side during the pregnancy and the birth of the twins. Maisie served Gertie for 15 years before leaving her service to get married in 1963.

In May 1954, Johnnie was posthumously awarded a medal, a silver Military Cross for bravery, and Gertie went to Gibraltar with Johnnie’s mother Milly to receive the medal from Her Majesty the Queen. Despite the honour to her late husband, it was still a loss too much to bear.

Back in June 1953, still wearing the dark clothing as befits a recent widow, she was informed by the maternity unit at her East End Hospital, that she was expecting twins. Mary Muriel Dorothy Elizabeth Maud Winter and John Jacob Charles Daniel Henry Winter were born in 31 December 1953 and 1 January 1954 at home in Standhope Manor with the family physician and local midwives in attendance, with “Jonty” as he was nicknamed, designated Lord Standhope, even though Lady Mary was born half-an-hour earlier in an earlier year.

Milly insisted that Gertie leave the London house and move up to Standhope Manor during the last few months of the pregnancy for the benefit of her health. London was particularly bad as summer turned into autumn and people started lighting their coal fires and wet leaves were burned in back yards and by the local corporations burning leaves in all the London parks, that the whole area had become hazardous to Gertie and her new young family’s welfare. Gertie ended up staying in Standhope Manor for a further ten years, with the children attending the local village primary school and then moving back to the London house and having both children attend different preparatory schools getting them ready for secondary education at public schools.

It had been a tradition that for several generations that the Winter boys were schooled at Charterhouse School in Godalming and that the Winter girls were educated at Roedean near Brighton, from the ages of 13 and 11 respectively, and Milly insisted on this and Gertie, who was permitted to have the children at home for their first 11 years, even though there was some supplementary home schooling included, was considered by Gertie to be a reasonable compromise.

Once the Winter family, with Gertie retaining the title of Lady Standhope, Milly the honorific title of Dowager Lady Standhope, moved back to London, Gertie was keen to work again. Gertie initially spent her working week at the Standhope Memorial Hospital in the East End, having over the previous ten years spent most of her spare share dividends on improving the fabric of the building, while the National Health Service took care of most of the internal fixtures and fittings, although Milly wanted her to take a more active role in the Standhope Winter Bank, which had been run by a succession of Standhope uncles and a cousin and was no longer the powerhouse that it had been under Charles Standhope, Johnnie’s father, and Johnnie himself.

Again, compromise came into play, with Gertie working at the bank for three days a week and at the hospital for two. The days were necessarily short, to fit in with the school day, but was intense. Through Gertie’s efforts, she was able to increase the number of patrons for the hospital, to help improve the conditions for the staff and patients.

Where the Bank was concerned, she originally intended to support Archie Standhope, one of Johnnie’s cousins who managed the bank in the late 1950s, but the board elected her to be managing chairman in early 1964, giving her a much bigger say in the direction of the bank to take a larger slice of the increasing number of small companies that were starting up to take advantage of the rapid changes in technology and manufacture and the bank moved away from the traditional commodities which had been the bank’s mainstay in the previous century.

With the move back to London and returning to work, although she still had the children at home as her main occupation, she did find herself interacting with more adults than she had for some years. In early 1964, when she assumed control of the management of Standhope Winter, she was a 34-year-old widow, extremely wealthy, still very attractive, highly regarded in the fields of business and raising money for charity and a real force to be reckoned with within the City of London.

Powerful women attract powerful men and she was openly courted by a number of eligible bachelors. One of these was a highly respected barrister who was expected to become one of the new High Court Judges that would be appointed to the House of Lords over the next few years. The Queens Counsel Albert Jowett Alverthorpe.

“Joe” Alverthorpe, as he preferred to be called, was a widower aged 54, some twenty years older than Gertie, with a grown up family, but he was also an excellent debater, orator and had won a number of difficult but high profile cases defending clients that had been hounded by powerful businesses. He was also very wealthy, with family money from 19th century textile manufacturers in the same way as the Standhopes had been. There were already a number of strong social links between the two families, so Gertie had often met Joe Alverthorpe several times a year from the time she entered the Winter family, either at Standhope or the Alverthorpe estate at Sandicote. He presented an imposing figure, as tall as Johnnie had been but built a lot bulkier, still had a full head of dark brown hair greying rather distinguishably at the temples, and he was generally regarded as being blessed with a face of handsome proportions.

Gertie was concerned about her children at the time that although her daughter Mary was a strong and determined girl, accomplished at school and sports and likely to be a success when she was able to start at Roedean two years before her twin brother could start at his, while Jonty was not doing so well at his prep school.

Gertie wondered if the differences in relative success between her two almost identical children, was that while she as the single female parent provided an excellent role model for Mary, Jonty seemed to miss having the guidance that a strong father figure could have provided, were his father Johnnie still with them.

So, at a time when a number of her male acquaintances were appearing to press their suit upon the attractive widow, Gertie was beginning to reconsider her original wish to remain loyal to the memory of her late husband and, partly for the benefit of her son, who had two more years of Prep School to complete before taking on the challenge of attending one of the best public schools in the country, began to entertain the idea of a second marriage and, if she decided to take that route, the best candidate for that role appeared to be the eminent QC Albert Jowett Alverthorpe.

However, it was actually her mother-in-law Milly that called the conference that drew Mildred, Evie, Milly and Gertie together at Standhope one weekend for a conference in Milly’s drawing room.

It was Saturday morning and Jonty was out for the whole morning with one of the gamekeepers, learning more about his latest hobby of bird watching, while Mary was hacking around the estate with the private riding school set up for the staff children at the Standhope stables.

Milly poured everyone’s tea and they all relaxed comfortably around the table once they’d all set their cups and saucers in their place and helped themselves from the selection of dunking biscuits provided.

“I’ve asked you here this morning Gertie, dear,” Milly began, “because we’ve all become a little concerned about his young lordship.”

“Well, he is going through a phase at the moment which is less than positive,” Gertie agreed, “Mary had always protected him at primary school, but now they are going to different Preps, I fear that Jonty is feeling abandoned and directionless.”

“While Mary is developing into a strong character with bags of personality,” Milde threw in, “his little lordship seems to have given up and is rapidly falling behind in virtually all subjects except, apparently, English, where he is excelling at poetry.”

“You know more than I’ve been told by the Head Master!” Gertie lifted her eyebrows in surprise, “And you know this because?”

“I know his form teacher, slightly and obviously I’m Jonty’s favourite godmother,” Milde smiled in return, “his teacher was persuaded that it was in his best interests to let me take a sneaky look at his records and some of his work. I personally thought Jonty’s poetry work was sloppy and trite, but Geoffrey thought that he showed promise, and he does appreciate poetry much more than I.”

“Whether the boy’s good at poetry or not, Gert,” Evie said, “Jonty is definitely not a happy boy at the moment, nor has he been since you moved back to London and started working at the bank. Maybe you’re working too hard or he misses the countryside. What are we going to do about it?”

“I only work school hours, Evie, and I am home by 3.30 every day, I don’t ever take work home and they cannot be affected by my absence because I am never absent,” Gertie said, “I was wondering if Jonty needed a man’s influence, I mean, most of the household staff in London are female, we don’t have the grounds to maintain nor do we need a butler in the house as we never do any entertaining, and my driver lives in the mews and tends to keep to himself when he’s not working.”

“I don’t think you need a man, Gertie,” Mildred insisted and everyone else gave her a look. She turned to Evie. “Well, Evie, Gertie’s got by for a whole decade without a man in her life and she’s become a very successful bank manager, besides there’s hardly a decent man available at the moment, all the best ones have been snapped up, or getting past it.”

Her mother Milly laughed, “Oh, Milde, you’re far too precious for words. You’ve had your marital opportunities and you’ve wantonly scorned them all. You’ve left it far too late, but I think Gertie has a real chance if she wants to get back into the marriage game.”

“I do agree with you, Mother dear,” Mildred smiled back at her mother, “Marriage is really for women who want children or already have children and need to spread the burden of care. I’m 54 and that boat of motherhood has sailed, been breached occasionally, and sunk to the bottom with all hands, leaving me perfectly free to have my deservèd cake and eat it. But young Gertie here is an extraordinarily attractive woman, still in her prime, and could still even manage to pop out another babe or two if she wanted to. A man who takes on another man’s family takes on quite an undertaking, so he would have to be someone pretty special for our Gertie.”