Harry Oscar Worman

Harry Oscar Worman was my maternal grandfather and played an important role in my life.

Harry Oscar Worman was born 19 February 1895 in Norwich to Benjamin James Worman and Laura Noble. It was a very cold winter that year all across Europe with a minimum of -27C in Scotland and there were ice floes in the Thames.

Harry's father Benjamin was a cow keeper in Norwich, that is he keep cows in barns or fields near the city for milking and had a horse and cart to deliver the milk. Harry's mother Laura Noble came from a farming family in Saxlingham village near Holt.

At the time of Harry's birth, his parents had been married 14 years and already had 2 daughters and 3 sons. They went on to have a total of 10 children.5 girls and 5 boys. If the records are correct, their first born Eleanor was 3 years old when they married in 1881 in Norwich. Two of the children died relatively young, Ida at 2 years old (in 1891) and Alan also at the same age (in 1904).

Harry's mother died August 1910 when he was 14 and father Benjamin took on housekeepers until the girls could keep house. The census documentation here gives the following information. Benjamin Worman aged 57-Head of housould, Widower, Married 30 years, 10 children born aliive, 6 children still living, 4 children died, Job-Cowkeeper;
Walter Worman, son, 23, Single, Milkseller; Harry Worman, son, aged 16, single, Watchmaker; Muriel Worman, daughter, aged 14, single, Dressmaker; Edith, daughter, 11, single, Schoolgirl, Annie Myall, Housekeeper, 39, Single,

The cows were kept in a shed in the mews behind 39/41 Trafalgar Street, Norwich, but Harry and the family lived at 92 Hall Road Norwich. The children all went to St Mark's School on Hall Road, Norwich near St Mark's Church. (Benjamin and Laura are buried in St Mark's Church Yard and Laura's parents, William Noble and Harriet ? are buried in Saxlingham Church Yard) There is a family legend that Laura's father was Squire of the Villages Saxlingham-Hempnall but there is no evidence for this. Harry left school at the age of 14 (1910), pretty much the same time his mother died and was apprenticed to Dipples Watch & Clock Makers in Swan Lane, Norwich and trained to be a Horologist (to make and repair watches and clocks).(1). When he was 18 or 19 (1914) he volunteered for the Army in the 1914-1918 war and did not wait to be conscripted.

He served in the Royal Norfolk Regiment and was severely wounded in his left foot during the August landing at Gallipoli, Turkey. Gangrene set in and they thought they would have to amputate his foot. He lay on the beach and in the hold of a troopship for days and said the blood, the flies crawling over him and the heat and the stench from the wounded were unbearable. He had a life-long hatred of flies after that which suggests that he was very deeply traumatised. He was brought back to England and taken to University Hospital in London where the skills of doctors and surgeons eventually saved his foot. They implanted a silver plate in his foot to hold the bones together. It was said that it was a miracle his foot was saved but he walked with a bit of a limp and later needed a stick. He was transferred to a military convalescent home with other soldiers at Henley on Thames in a house by the river. As a boy he had learnt to play the piano and he had sung in the church choir and had always had an interest in music so whilst he was convalescing he played the piano and formed concert parties to entertain the soldiers in the convalescent home.

His youngest sister Edith trained to be a nurse during the 1914-1918 war at Colchester. His older brother Bertie was lost on 11 August 1917 in Flanders. One of his other brothers Walter survived the battles in the Netherlands.

He was eventually released from the army because of his wounds. The convalescent home was staffed by Red Cross Nurses and Military staff and ladies from the village used to come in and take the soldiers out to their homes for the day. He was able to walk on crutches but it was about 9 months before he could properly walk again. When he got home to Norfolk he helped his father with his milk round and started to get back into normal civilian life.

About the beginning of 1920 he met Alice Margaret Carter born 1896 in Swaffham and they were married at Wendling Church near Dereham. He was 25 and she was 24.

They lived at 39 Trafalgar St , Norwich, a house owned by his father which they rented. The dairy was on the other side of the kitchen wall and they had a large garden and outside toilet. They had chickens in a hen house, sold cream, milk and butter. A gill of milk cost 1 penny. Harry had a white horse called Colonel and a milk float to deliver the milk. His round covered the Newmarket and Ipswich roads in Norwich. Milk was carried in churns and cans and ladled out with half pint and 1 pint and quart ladles.

They had their first child Marjorie on 14 September 1922 and the second, a boy was stillborn in 1929.

During the same year at the age of 43 Alice was diagnosed with breast cancer and died about 2 years later on 27 November 1931 at home. Harry was deeply affected and went to spiritualist churches and faith healers for a time.

In the 1930s Harry was involved in politics and applied to be a Liberal candidate in the general election, but was not selected. This was his candidature photo. Before WW2 broke out part of the milk business was on a smallholding on the outskirts of Norwich. Eventually this was compulsorily purchased by the War Department for an airfield and today this land is part of Norwich Airport. 

Having sold the milk business Harry bought a 12 bed-roomed house with front and back stairs, conservatory, tennis court and orchard/later caravan park on the beach at Bacton, Norfolk. The house, called Doescroft, was a bargain because, the water being deep at Bacton, it was assumed that Germany would invade here. He had between 20-30 military both US and UK billeted there which reputedly kept him in Cuban cigars and Scottish Whisky for the duration. The orchard was used for growing vegetables and there were chickens, ducks, pigs, goats, and a dog.

He had a grand piano and organised musical evenings for the men.

Harry had a number of housekeepers and eventually married one called Ruby Grapes in 1934 three years after Alice had died. He was 39 and she was 34. There were no children from this marriage and Ruby died at 9am 6 th June 1944 (D-Day - the invasion of Europe) at the age of 44 from cancer. Not much more is known about her or her family, only the reported mis-treatment of her step-daughter.

The UK storms and flooding in January 1953 were very tough with gale force winds and very high seas. In February there was a major storm which destroyed the conservatory. Pictured here, Harry, daughter Marjorie, Friend and conservatory before destruction.

The flooding in Norfolk was severe and the tide came with 6 feet of the house and flooded the garden and the caravans were left floating.

There was a ship on the Bacton beach which had been swept on to the beach by the gales. Ropes had been attached to it and tugs tried to pull it off the beach but without effect. The cargo was oranges and the boxes had broken open and oranges were all over the beach and floating in the sea. (2)

Next day the Eastern Daily Press reported that some people had been made homeless at Snettisham near Hunstanton. Harry made enquiries and towed his four berth Sprite caravan there to house a homeless family until they could be re-homed.

One of my oldest memories is of the "Telescope Room" at the top of the house overlooking the sea. I still have that telescope.

Harry also owned the Coast Guard Cottages in the centre of Bacton village for a few years. (3)

Harry sold the big house in 1958 to a Lincolnshire potato merchant at a significant profit and according to family legend, partly for cash. He bought the Roman Camp Tea Gardens in Aylmerton at auction on a snowy winter's day, when hardly anybody could be bothered to turn up, for a song.  However it had no gas, electricty and a poor water supply. The electricity was connected about a year later at £300 a pole (a fortune in those days), and later a water tower was purchased from the military at Weybourne which improved the supply and local water pressure. A high quality version of this photo can be purchased here . The scene in this photo I remember very well together with the petrol lamps we originally used. (4)

The Roman Camp set in the middle of National Trust property had a licence for caravans and he made a living there. In about 1959 at the age of 64 he met his future wife Winifred Moffatt aged 63 whilst she was holidaying with her best friend Isabel (who had been personal secretary to Rab Butler the politician) and they married in North Walsham in 1960.

Winifred Moffat was a successful woman for her times, reportedly having been the Headmistress of one of Leed's Primary Schools and had recently retired. About this time they generously took on the responsibility for his four grandchildren and provided a stable safe environment for them until adulthood. We lived there with three dogs, lots of cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, and one pony and thousands of trees to climb. It was idyllic for children.

About 1963/4 he decided to retire and sold the Roman Camp for a good price. In the meantime he bought a house in West Runton and had a small bungalow built beside it to retire to, but a passing holidaymaker assuming that he had built it to sell it, asked the price. The holidaymaker accepted the price, so he never got to live there. So without property and Harold Wilson bringing in swingeing tax increases, he and his wife Winifred went for a one year round-the-world trip which meant they would not have to pay capital gains taxes (like many pop musucians at the time). They visited Winifred's brother and family in Australia as part of the tour.

In retirement he speculated in domestic rental property in Norfolk and lived in whichever house he owned at the time suited him best, renting out the others. He moved to Sheringham where he had two houses along with three dogs, later Weybourne where he once accidentally set fire to the neighbouring corn field, and owned a leased-out guest-house in Cromer. He took great pleasure in driving around the Norfolk countryside and along the coastal roads of his youth.

With the transformation of his capital into cash he bought himself a newfangled electronic church organ with Leslie rotating loudspeaker and also played the church organ in Sheringham Church on occasion giving charity recitals. He lived modestly but comfortably.

His final home was in Horning on the Norfolk Broads with a garden that went down to the river and beautiful views. This allowed him to have a launch moored up and various other boats on the slipway. He was very happy in that beautiful part of the world.

He died aged 84 in 1979 and his wife Winifred followed him a year later in 1980.

 

1) Dipples exists today in Norwich and will allow me to photocopy some historical information the next time I visit.
2) A picture of this exists in the National Archives.
3) Picture to be found.
4) Pictures to be found.

Eventually these paragraphs will be turned into a longer piece.

Author: Paul Deitch