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Isobel
Stories and memories
A woman with secrets
Wyn: "I met Isobel at one of Hazel and Jack's dinners. An incredibly clever woman, she was small, slim and gentle of nature with a warm smile. Not a type I was usually attracted to, but her intellect was intriguing, and she was the antithesis of my previous fully loaded Australian pistol. It was something of a relief! She was a woman with secrets akin to Mother on some level. She denied having any family apart from one sister about seven years older, but I always suspected this to be an untruth. There was a lot of it about!"
And Wyn’s instinct was correct. Isobel was born on 1 April 1908 and actually grew up in Stockport, one of eight children – three boys, five girls. She was the oldest of the girls. She schooled herself in RP to improve her chances in life, whereas all her relatives (uncles and aunts that were tracked down many years later) had strong Manchester accents. She was indeed very clever, getting 100% in her maths matriculation, which was rare at the time, especially for a woman, and she went to university to study pharmacology. She hated the north, so she moved south to Kent with her first class degree to work in a pharmacy which was where she met and became close friends with Hazel.
The way to a man's heart...
Wyn: "We lived for a year near the Staines Works, renting a very pleasant house called Trumps Green Cottage in Virginia Water. On occasion we entertained but Isobel was quite the dead loss in the kitchen to begin with. There was one memorable incident (for all the wrong reasons) involving a chicken. She neglected to prepare it properly, being unaware this was a critical step in the process. It was presented with full fanfare to our guests but all the giblets were still lurking inside. It was inedible! It was only when we moved to Paris for a year soon after and I sent her to the Cordon Bleu cookery school that she became an excellent cook - really first class. She made the best individual steak and kidney puddings that ever graced a dining table anywhere."
The question of children
Wyn: "When I proposed it was on the very strict understanding, there would be no children. I have always had an inherent dislike of children – an actual phobia to the extent that if a small child is brought into a room where I am, I feel the hackles on the back of my neck go up. They make noise, mess and are very demanding of one’s time. I’m probably more afraid of a small child being put in my arms than I am of any beast alive! I liked my godson Nigel very much but he was neither from my loins nor ultimately my responsibility (at this time). Still, it can’t be helped, and for the avoidance of doubt and upset at a later date, I felt it best to agree these terms in advance. My betrothed acquiesced and we married in Westminster on an unseasonably warm and sunny day in April 1935. Third time’s a charm they say!
It was in the early spring of 1938 while we were living in Cairo (I was working for IAL) that she dropped the bombshell - she was in the family way. I was convinced skullduggery was involved, and she had waited deliberately before telling me of her condition. She denied it completely and was really quite upset at my reaction. Although at that time abortions were not easy, one could manage to get one done safely. Not by old women and knitting needles but usually by foreign refugee doctors who if not cheap (£100/150) were very efficient. “It’s too late,” she said, “it’s over three months and I want to keep the baby.”
Wyn considered his historically entrenched position on the matter. What to do now that his nightmare had manifested itself? The idea of having a legitimate heir appealed on some level, and he reluctantly (and somewhat appallingly) conceded that if it was a boy, he would stand fast alongside her, but if it was a girl, she was on her own. Either way, he didn’t want the baby to be born in Cairo, so sent her back to England. He stayed on long enough to get his affairs in order before following on later.
On 30 December 1938 Isobel delivered a baby girl she named Judy Elizabeth in the medical chambers of Knaresborough Place, just off the Cromwell Road in South Kensington. Wyn was registered as the father, occupation: Company Director living at Red Cottage, St Mary’s Platt, Kent with Isobel shown as living at the same address but he had actually already moved on.
Post Wyn
Wyn: "A year or so after we parted she got the divorce she was after, having had me followed in London to catch me doing something untoward. Her lawyer dug deep into my finances and the alimony cost me a lot of money for a while. Then she went and married the bugger!"
Despite Wyn’s abandonment, Isobel refused to give up her daughter and was determined to be a good mother which as Judy herself says, she absolutely was. She and baby Judy moved in with Jack and Hazel in Virginia Water. Isobel and Wyn’s divorce came through in 1940, and Isobel married her solicitor Robert Gibson-Fleming in 1941 when Judy was two. Sadly, Robert was only 47 when he was killed on the evening of 4 December 1957. The train he was on crashed with another in dense fog near Lewisham in south-east London and he was one of 90 fatalities while another 173 were injured.
Judy: "Two years after Robert died my mother reconnected with her and Dad’s old friend, Ken Shenstone (he’d lost his wife to cancer) and happily, they were together for 30 years until she died in 1999. Ken was very wealthy having made his money in steel up in Sheffield, and was another lover of cars, particularly Rolls Royce, Jaguar and anything sporty. He always had five, one for each of his residences in Mayfair, the Isle of Wight, Geneva, Zermatt and Malta. They had a wonderful time travelling all over the world together. He was a widower and had a son, Bill who was a year younger than me. My mother informally adopted him so I had a wonderful sort of step-sibling to hang out and travel with from when I was 19. He was very fortunate to inherit £215k in 1960 together with eight apartment blocks in Miami but all the money in the world doesn’t necessarily make you happy. He committed suicide when he was 39 and we were all completely devastated."
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