Harold Wilson LONGDEN (1905-1990)

My Father was born in October 1905 and was the eldest of Walter and Mabel LONGDEN’s three children. He attended the School on The Green in Hasland and left before his fourteenth birthday. His father arranged an apprenticeship for him at Markham’s Broad Oaks Works in Chesterfield and he continued to work there until the end of the Second World War.

He met my Mother (Doris BARKER) in Queen’s Park on Easter Sunday in 1930. She was in the park with her sister (Marjorie BARKER) and he was with his friend John Bottoms (who later taught me to play the piano).   Next day he took her to Nottingham, and it rained all day! On Easter Sunday the following year they were engaged and married in September 1931 at Christ Church, Stonegravels, Chesterfield.

My Mother did not like her mother-in-law. Maybe the telegram my Mother and Father received while on honeymoon in Great Yarmouth gives us a clue – it reads:

‘COME AT ONCE    WANTED AT WORK    MOTHER’

In 1934 my Father had the opportunity of a life time to travel to Russia and install the tunnelling shield to construct the Metro in Moscow. This turned out to be a fascinating journey by train and after six months working in Moscow he was given a testimonial which said that he had ‘a complete knowledge of the most minute details of the work’ and ‘our relations with Mr Longden have been the most pleasant. We found him industrious and sober and a master of his work. Any employer securing his services will be fortunate’. He turned down other opportunities to work abroad since my Mother would not go with him and spent the rest of his life working in Chesterfield.

They had three sons:

        Wilson             1936
        David Michael    1938
        Clive Wilfred      1944-2001

At the end of the Second World War my Father left Markham’s and went to work at the new National Coal Board as a maintenance engineer. Towards the end of his working life he worked at Robinsons in Chesterfield – also as a maintenance engineer.

If you click on the PHOTOGRAPHS button you will find pictures of my Father and also my parents in the 1950's, in 1979 and on their Golden Wedding Day.

My mother died in 1986 aged 76 and my father in 1990 aged 85 – they were both cremated at Chesterfield Crematorium and their ashes scattered there.

Both my brothers have lived in Chesterfield all their lives. David’s two children also live there with their spouses.   Clive’s widow, and their two daughters, remain in Chesterfield following his death in 2001 aged 57.

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