Lough Family History

I've been looking into my family history for a while now.  I've now decided to begin recording that here.

Right - my family (the ones I consider to be immediate), and the stuff I knew at the start...  Some of this is true, some may be family legend.

My Dad

Gerald Lough. 
- Born Christmas Day, 1950, Whitley Bay.
Actually, the corner of the living room in the house in which I grew up, to be precise.
- As a child, he was considered to be stupid, and a trouble maker.  It turned out, (after he tried to join the navy and failed the physical), that he had very bad eyesight (blind as a bat as he put it), and partially deaf.
 - He started out as a grave digger, became a gardener, and ended up as a groundsman at a sports field complex place (Churchill Playing Fields in Monkseaton, Tyne and Wear).
- He died in 1988, aged 37, of a brain hemorrhage brought on by a disease called Hyperlipideamia.  He passed out in the house where he was born, and died, never regaining consciousness, at Rake Lane Hospital.


My Mam

Sandra Lough (nee Collins).
- Born 1960, in Northumberland.  The story was always that she was from Hexham, but I have no idea where exactly.
- She had three brothers, but had lost touch with two of them (who I never knew, though I think I met one of them once or twice).  They were all taken into care when Mam was 4.
- She's still around, but I haven't seen her in quite a few years (20 this year, actually).


My Nana

Gertrude Lough, (nee Foster).
- Born October 1920, Scarborough.
- Never knew her father, who left either before she was born, or when she was very small.  She used to tell people he was dead.  Actually, he walked out on his wife and two children.
- She trained as a dancer as a girl, and apparently, wrapping her legs round her neck was something she did quite often.
- She grew up in Scarborough.  her mother was friends with the mother of Charles Laughton, who ran a hotel or a guest house.
- Later, on leaving school, she trained in tailoring, but had to give it up, aged 16, when her Mother died.
- Then she went into service as a cook (starting near the bottom and working up, obviously). 
- Her first fiance was killed during WWII, when the ship he was on was sunk, somewhere off the coast of southern Europe.
- At one point during the war, (WWII), she was working for a Lord (she told me his name, but I don't remember), inthe south of England, when her brother, Ronnie, was given leave.   But he was in Liverpool, and couldn't afford to go.  The Lord gave her time off to go, and paid for the tickets.  That was the trip where she met my Grandad, who was also on leave, and a friend of Ronnie's.
- She later worked in a munitions factory, which meant she had to walk home after work, and she was attacked while crossing a field during a blackout.  She stabbed her attacker with her umbrella.  (She still had the umbrella when I was a kid, and it was very sharp!)
-  Nana and Grandad were meant to have been married earlier than they were, but Grandad's leave was cancelled.  So instead of the parachute silk dress that a friend made, Nana ended up being married in a dark blue suit.
- Nana had pnuemonia three times (the last time was silent, or symptomless, till she kieled over).
- Nana had Rheumatoid arthritis, and had to give up both sewing and knitting in her later years, because her hands were crippled by it.  Before that she never used to be without a needle and thread, or her knitting.  when she couldn't do that any more, it became reading.
- She was also partially deaf.
- Nana died in August 1992, aged 71.
I was mostly brought up by my Nana, (hence all the stories).


My Grandad

George William Lough.
- Born 1920, Tyne and Wear.
- Joined the army in 1935, when he was 15.
- During the war was promoted to sergeant, but got himself demoted on purpose, because he didn't like having to give orders to his friends.
- Became a paratrooper during WWII, airdropped into Arnhem, and fought there.
- Somehow ended up in Denmark, (WWII), being helped by a family (when we went there on holiday in 1981 my Nana insisted on looking them up to say thank you).
- Fought in the far east somewhere - his war did not end on VE day - he had to wait for VJ day.
- Smoked a pipe.
- After the war held various jobs, including fireman, delivery driver, something in a button factory.  When I knew him he was working in a library.  He used to bring me rejected books.
- Died 1977, of lung cancer.