This tree has been compiled with the help of many contributors. Sincere thanks to all, and apologys to those whose information has not been added yet.

Photos of individuals can be found in their Scrapbooks. To see who has them click the "ScrapBook" link in the left menu. Scrapbooks can only contain a limited amount of text so I am adding feature pages containing a more detailed mix of notes, photos and links. These pages are listed to the right of their Scrapbooks, but are presently very few.

NOTE: The Main Menu (Top Left) will not work when you are in a scrapbook. You will have to use your browser's BACK button to exit or use the "Exit Scrapbook" link below or here.

Details and photos of individuals labelled as living are automatically filtered out of the Tree, however a separate list is available here for living people who have permitted or asked for their details to be published.

If you find any errors or would like to update your line please let me know. Bean

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My Family Tree

Notes

David Eric Bridgen

NOTES: from Robert Bridgen (brother)
David Eric Bridgen, born about Jan 1923, Naval officer in the war and died in the '50's. He married a Dutch girl Marianne, who now lives in Holland and has a daughter May in England who is married but has no children

NOTES: from John Bridgen (1st cousin)
When staying in Durban with Harold and Cecelia, on my departure from colonial service in Tanganyika in December 1965, I spoke to David, in Bulawayo, on the phone and at that time we had no idea that death was imminent. He died in early 1966.

His wife was a Dutch girl (as distinct from Afrikaaner). David was working in the then Rhodesia. Her name is Marike – maiden name unknown. Their daughter is Janneke May

Margaret (Babs) Bridgen

Visited by John & Rita Bridgen in 1996

Jack Alfred (John) Bridgen

Notes from John Bridgen (Son):
My father, Jack Alfred Bridgen, served in the Royal Flying Corps at the end of WW1 and from December 1939 to August 1945 in WW2 in the Royal Engineers as a Railway Transport Officer - RTO, achieving the rank of Major, serving from early 1940 in France being evacuated from St Nazaire in the collapserelating to the retreat to Dunkirk. (It was initially conjectured that a more southerly resistance to the German advance might be mounted but such thoughts rapidly disappeared.)
Subsequently, later in 1940 he was posted to the Middle East, serving in Egypt, the Lebanon and later in mufti in "benevolently neutral" Turkey where it was planned to send troops to the Dodecanese Islands preparatory to invading the Balkans,"the soft underbelly of the axis powers". Nothing became of it all.

Ruby May (Cissy) Bridgen

NOTES from John Bridgen:
Ruby May was 2nd to be born after her mother had suffered one miscarriage

When in 1938 Bernard Yorke deserted my aunt Ruby May, she was left in very straightened circumstances indeed. In due course she married Michael Lamly but remained impoverished.
At Harry's death his son Gerald (said to have been an easy going fellow) inherited the house. On Gerald's death all was inherited by Gerald's widow Kathleen who decided she could not live alone and so invited Ruby May and Michael Lamly to live with her in the house at Norbury. When later Kathleen moved to Brighton she persuaded them to move there too to rooms in her house.She achieved some good will from Ernest's widow Beattie and was left £200.00 in her will. At Kathleen's death she left Ruby May and Michael Lamly nothing.(So with these brief notes you can glimpse something of my mother's admiration for Kathleen and of the rivalries and jealousies [arising from the seen worldly success of some and relative failure by others] abounding.

My mother had had a long and close relationship with her sister-in-law, Ruby May, always referred to as Cissie, dating back to their pregnancies with Dick and Claude (when both were resident with my grandmother Jessie at 39, Elsinore Road, Forest Hill).

Ruby May I remember as a very kind and loving aunt, in that respect very like her mother, Jessie, who at Bernard's desertion returned to her pre-marriage occupation as an assistant in a ladies' wear department of a dress shop. She found being on her feet all day long very trying. Subsequently she became a school meals supervisor for the London County Council.

NOTES: from Robert Bridgen
Called Cissy; youngest of 3 children (dates do not agree with this, needs checking)

Cissy (Yorke) died some years ago. she had separated from her husband Bernard?They had one son (name?) who was killed in the war

Claude Malcolm Yorke

NOTES from John Bridgen:
Claude, was killed when serving in the RAF in 1940 during a German bombing raid on Kenley. He is buried at Whiteleaf along with other fatalities.

Claude was a few weeks older than my elder brother,Dick (Richard Gordon).The two of them had spent their earliest years together in the grand-parental home at Forest Hill.

From War Graves Commission:
In Memory of CLAUDE MALCOLM YORKE Aircraftman 2nd Class - 963688Royal Air Force Volunteer Reservewho died onSunday 18 August 1940 . Age 19 .
Additional Information: Son of Bernard Malcolm and Ruby May Yorke, of Streatham, London.
Cemetery: WHYTELEAFE (ST. LUKE) CHURCHYARD Surrey, United Kingdom
Grave or Reference Panel Number: Row F. Grave 33A.