George Henry & Louisa Mary Glover - Late-1950s

George Henry & Louisa Mary Glover

Late-1950s

My maternal grandparents, George Henry and Louisa Mary (May) Glover (nee Turner). Nanny was born on 26 August 1870 and Papa on 26 December 1874. Nanny had a twin sister, Theresa, who died in 1920 and is buried at Waverley Cemetery at Bronte in Sydney. My cousin/godmother, Dorothy Shiels, tells me Nanny visited Theresa's grave each year on her birthday, August 26. She'd take Dorothy, her granddaughter, with her. Dorothy would cut the grass on the grave with a pair of scissors they took with them, specifically for that purpose.

Nanny and Papa met when they were in-service together at one of the grand old stately homes located at The Glebe in Sydney in the late-1800s. My grandmother was the lady’s maid, meaning she attended exclusively to the requirements of the lady of the house, and my grandfather was the coachman, looking after the family’s carriages and horses - today he’d be the chauffeur.

After leaving service, they settled at Crows Nest on Sydney’s Lower North Shore where they raised their five children, George, Keith, Gladys, Colin and Flora. Flora, their youngest, born 1911, is my mother. A sixth child, Laurence, died in infancy. 

The family holidayed at Narrabeen on Sydney’s Northern Beaches each year and at some time in the 1920s they decided to move there permanently. They lived at 8 Mactier Street and we lived next door at number 10. They died within weeks of each other in 1960. Though I was only 10 when they died, I can still see them clearly in my mind's eye and have vivid recollections of sitting on their front verandah with Nanny when I was just a small child, listening to the stories she told. She was a great story-teller. 

On my way to school each morning, I would call in on Nanny to say good-bye for the day. I usually found her in her darkened, Victorianesque bedroom, cluttered with porcelain vases and figurines, brushing her long white hair vigorously. After many strokes of the brush, it was ultimately fashioned into a bun at the back of her head, held in place by a hair-net. From what I remember, Papa was usually pottering in his garden while all this was going on. He loved his garden and took a great deal of pride in it. I can still conjure-up the beautiful fragrance of his sweet peas to this very day.

Mum and Aunty Glad cared for Nanny through her final illness. Mum later told me she had suggested to Papa that perhaps he might be more comfortable in another bed during that sad time. Apparently he responded that he had been sleeping alongside his beloved May for the past 70 years and wasn't about to change beds any time soon. And that's exactly where he was, sleeping beside her, when she passed away. He died soon after at nearby Manly Hospital, following a massive haemorrhage.

They are pictured above on the front verandah of their home at 8 Mactier Street. The French doors behind them lead to their bedroom, where Nanny died. There’s no date recorded, but it pictures them as I remember them, meaning it would have been taken some time in the late 1950s. Their remains are interred beside each other at Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens & Crematorium in Sydney's North Ryde.