Page 5 - Demo

1IntroductionI started writing this during the Covid lock down. I realised that I knew very little about my parents%u2019 early life%u2019s and had never really got down to asking them about it. I wished I knew more but it was now much too late. I think that we become more interested in our antecedents as we get older, and my own family perhaps will feel the same in the years to come. And so, this should give them some background. The first problem was what to tell and what to leave out. I talked this over with Gabby who was not interested in any of it. After much thought I have told my story pretty much warts and all. If this upsets any of you, so be it, but I think it might be helpful later in your life to understand what we went through and realise that life is not always what you would like it to be. I hope you find it interesting and although it is dark in parts, it wasn%u2019t a bad life. Early DaysChapter 1My great grandfather was James George Hooper. He was born in Illogen in Cornwall in 1843 and died in Newquay in 1922. He had married Elizabeth Jeffree born in 1844 in Perranwarthal and she died in Greenwich in 1904. James was an engineer and the son of a farmer whilst the father of his sister was described as a farmer and copper miner. So, it is likely that James would have worked on the steam engines used to drain the mines. Tin mining in Cornwall was always a bit hit and miss and so at the age of 23 he moved to London and got a job with the Metropolitan Board of Works. They had just built a series of pumping stations to deal with London%u2019s sewage. The system had been designed by Mr Bazzelgette and at least one of the pumping stations still exists today. James worked at the Deptford one. Initially he is referred to as an engine fitter but when he retired in 1907, he was the superin-