Red Rover
Well, one part of it anyway. I got a new car. Well, a different one anyway. I don’t think “new” is much of an option for most of us. It is actually newer than the last one and has done about one third the mileage. It’s body work is very nice (as you can see) and the inside has to be seen to be believed (it’s nice too).

Anyway, it will do me until the inevitable Deal or No Deal win. It’s only a matter of time Noelly. Also, I gave the last one to my sister and she was very, very happy. Which made it an even nicer Saturday.

The strangest thing about the whole affair was that the dealer turned out to be the husband of someone I sit near at work on a fairly regular basis. Small world.

The Argue Family
And so to last week’s reunion. It was a surprisingly enjoyable affair. I don’t mean to imply that I wasn’t looking forward to it at all, it’s just that I had no idea what to expect. Because we all live in the same city, I tend to know a lot more about my mum’s side of the family and less about dad’s. My paternal grandparents have not been with us for some time and my dad’s brother and his family live away in Portsmouth. When we last saw them at dad’s funeral, it was the first time in 15 years or so. I would love to present a cohesive argument as to why this is so but I don’t think there is one.

So Saturday 7th came along and myself, Mum and Jo set off for Wiltshire. On the way, we stopped off at Bromham and dad’s wife Jane passed on some more of dad’s photos and such. Even now, I am recovering from the shock at seeing some of these. Some are so old and yet there I am. I last saw them when I was 9 or 10 I suppose which is pretty much the same as me never seeing them at all. Dad served overseas, mostly unaccompanied from 1983 onwards on and off and it never occurred to me that he took this cache of his family with them wherever he went. Included in the box was a photo album full of dad’s photos from his early army days -Borneo and the far East. It’s full of maps of where he went and shows a young man that I hardly knew. As mum has pointed out, most of these are from before I was born so he is not even 21. Looking at them now, I wish I had sat down with him at some point and let him tell me more about them. Still, life is not for regretting.

I was strange for Mum too. It was the first time she had been to Bromham. Jo and myself had been there many times in the last 7 or 8 years but it was quite odd to see her sat in the kitchen. Quite literally the last place I ever expected to see her sat.
After an hour or so, we headed over to a place called East Grafton where some kind soul had laid on a bit of a spread and opened their patio doors to a large group of strangers. The rest of the day was spent meeting people who knew me, or certainly of me which was a little strange, as I didn’t know them. My dad’s cousin Peter Beighton (I think that’s right) had spent a large portion of his life investigating our family and his work is quite stunning in it’s depth of detail. I am sure that most of you couldn’t give two hoots for the details but here is the briefest of summaries.

• The Argue family are Irish Protestants, with roots in the counties on either side of the boundary between Southern and Northern Ireland. The earliest records date back to about 1710; there is conflicting evidence as to whether the Argues originally emigrated from Scotland or came over as Huguenot refugees. Many Argues left Ireland during the 19^th century and branches of the family were established in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Britain.

• Robert Argue (1834 - 1919) - Robert Argue joined the British Army in 1852, served overseas in the Crimea and India for 17 years and returned to England in 1871. He was then posted to the Lancashire Militia prior to his final discharge in 1873. He lived in Broughton and Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester for many years before moving to Liverpool in 1908 or thereabouts. He was admitted as a Chelsea Pensioner in 1911 and died in 1919 at the age of 85 years.

  For those of you reading this who didn’t go to boarding school with me, the Chelsea Pensioners live in what was The Duke of York’s Royal Military School. In 1903, the school moved to Dover where it remains today and in 1979 I went there for 7 years.

  It’s also interesting to note that there are many more Roberts in the family. My middle name is Robert, a name my mum chose because she liked it and for no other reason.

Peter has provided me with quite detailed biographies up to and including my dad’s father, Bill and there were even things in there I didn’t know.

Included in the biography are home addresses. Places where my ancestors lived. There are few stranger or moving experiences than searching for these addresses in Google Earth and zooming down to house level in the aerial photographs. Most are still there.

So, that’s enough boring of you all about that. Just one more thing before we go. I just thought I would share these two photographs. The one of the right is Ewan, my nephew and my sister’s oldest boy. Ewan is 6.

The one on the left is my dad. He looks about the same age, so it would be in 1953 or so.

Genetics. There’s nothing in at all really is there???

Categories: Car, DYRMS, Family
Tags: 1953, 1983, Argue, Bill, Biography, Bromham, Car, Dad, Deal or No Deal, East Grafton, Ewan, Family, Google Earth, grandparents, Honda, Ireland, J, Jane, Joanna, Liverpool, Noel, Peter Beighton, reunion, Robert, rover, saturday, sister, Wendy, Wiltshire