Margaret LONGDEN (1915-1962)

Margaret LONGDEN was the third child of Walter and Mabel LONGDEN. She was born in 1915 at 1 Hampton Street, Hasland.    She married John Henry Brown, who lived in Kent Street, Hasland in 1934 at the Holywell Cross Methodist Chapel in Chesterfield.    He was a bachelor aged 20, who worked as a shop assistant in a furniture shop, and she was a spinster aged 19.    They had three children: a girl and two boys.    Among the photographs on this website is a charming photograph of my cousin Mavis and me - well I think it is!

My uncle John was killed in action during the Second World War and his name name is on the War Memorial in Eastwood Park in Hasland.    I have checked the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and this shows that a John Henry Brown (a Sergeant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve - service number 1107562 but age given as 'unknown') was killed on 21 January 1943.   Since I have always known that he was 'missing' it seems likely that this is the correct record.   He is remembered also in Malta on the Malta Memorial (Panel 8, Column 1).

After the War was over Margaret married Sid Jenkinson in the autumn of 1946.    At the time Sid Jenkinson lodged with Auntie Florrie (Florence LONGDEN) in Hampton Street and his sister had married one of her two sons.   Margaret and Sid had one daughter.   For a time in the 1950s they managed the Shoulder of Mutton Public House in Hasland before moving to live in Cleethorpes.   Sadly Auntie Margaret died in 1962 in Grimsby Hospital - she was 47 years old.

PHOTOGRAPHS