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Critchleys of Nottingham
This photo is of my mother and a man who may be my biological father. On the back it is dated 19th March 1944, Mansfield Notts. My family sees likenesses to me in the man.
My name is Tony Wright, christened Anthony and born on July 7th 1945 in Bournemouth and brought up in Uxbridge before boarding school in Hampshire, working in London and emigrating to Sydney, Australia in 1976, where I now live. I was raised by Ernest Wright, known as Ben, who I believed was my father until last year when, aged 78, I learned that he was not my biological father. This was a shock, although not really a surprise, as I was unlike him in looks and character.
My mother was in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) at the time.
We believe the man may be Richard Harry Critchley born 23 May 1922 in Nottingham, son of Harold Marcus and Hettie Elizabeth. Richard died 24 June 2012. I have a lot of information about the Critchleys but would love to be able to connect this man to them.
My mother, Margaret Thomson, known as Peggy, was born in Wolverhampton on 27th February 1924. Her parents, my grandparents ran a general store in Whitmore Reans. Her Scottish father drove a motor bike and side car and had lost the first half of his forefinger. It was rumoured that he shot it off to escape the first World War. My mother joined the WAAF and she admitted that she and a Welsh women friend had a wild time of it. She met ‘Ben’, RAF pilot who later became a senior captain for British Airways and was awarded a Queens Commendation for services to flying, at RAF Shawbury, Shropshire, used for flying training and navigation training during World War 11. They married in April 1945, when she was 6 months pregnant with me. Apparently, Ben confided in some family members that he thought that I would be better off if he married my mother. I knew nothing of this until last year.
My mother was a character, she worked at Pinewood Studios after the war as an executive secretary and knew many of the movie stars of the day. She also raced Stock Cars at the weekend and was often seen at Denham Flying Club. She and Ben were divorced when I was 10 years old. Peggy remarried and moved to Guernsey with her second husband where she raised a second son.
Of my biological father I know very little, in the tumultuous times of the second World War, it is easy to imagine how young people were thrown together with an uncertain sense of the future. That he was serving in the forces is very likely, in the RAF probably, and maybe based at Shawbury, but a location near her home of Wolverhampton is also plausible. My half-brother in Guernsey, where he lived with my mother, has unearthed the above photo.
I am keen to find any information on the Critchley family to whom I believe I am related. In particular I would wish to identify the photograph of my mother.
Kind regards
Tony Wright
www.freshperspectives.com.au0
061 417 447 242