My Dad, Stephen William Mosses known as Bill by his family but Steve to his family in Trysull, the village I was born and brought up in. He was born in Wallasey an industrial town on the Wirral, originally part of Cheshire but now an extension of Greater Liverpool. He went to school there and at the time of his enlistment in 1941, he was a Charity Worker though I have been unable to find out which one. He joined the Welch Regiment and trained as a lorry driver. He did his basic just outside Cambridge where it seems he met my mom, Dorothy Irene.She was a WRAC who on her marriage certificate was a Dairy Hand.

 

According to Dads Army record, he married mom in 1943 at Wallasey Town Hall. The picture on page one is the view across the Mersey from the Town Hall.

 

Dad was based in Doolali in India and is probably the source of doolaly tap or a bit of madness. During his time in India he was downgraded to a Level 3 fitness as I suspect he succumbed to the general problems of working in the tropics. His unit was attached to the 14th Army but I do not have a clear idea of where he actually fought during his stay in India.

 

He returned to England in 1946 after acting in a policing role in Burma before his return. Apart from one short turn as a Stoker in Richard Thomas and Baldwins at Swindon, Worcestershire, he has been a lorry driver; he was trained in the Army during 1942. He gave up his HGV 1 when he was over 70.

 

Mom grew up in a small village, Seisdon just outside of Wolverhampton. This place is along with Trysull recorded in the Domesday Book where there was grazing and ploughing land in the Seisdon Hundreds.

 

Mom grew up with her step brothers and sisters, 7 in all ; Dennis, Fred, Billy, Wally, Edie (her picture is on the Home Page), Alan and Tony Crook. By this time Granny Bull had married her husband Jack (I think that was his name)Crook.

 

She lived a steady life in the village and was known as Dot by friends and neighbours; according to Auntie Edie she was a great lover of a good night out and socialising. When the war started she joined the WRAC and when she married Dad in Wallasey in February 1943, she was listed as a Dairy Hand on her wedding certificate. Once Sandra was born, Mom fell into domestic life with a child born almost every year until 1953 when I was born. She still loved a good night out. As we grew up Mom went Potato picking during the summer months at the farms local to Trysull. We would help her pick her 'length'. Later still she went to work at the local factories including the Morlock where washers etc were made and the strip mill Roberts Sparrow next door to the Morlock not far from Wombourne, Staffordshire.