First published in the West Sussex Gazette 18/2/93

This week we take a look at a shop in Rowlands Road which is still much the same today as it was in Edwardian times, and we explore the lives of a former pharmacist's family there.

Up until the first world war, the chemist's shop at 13 Rowlands Road was run by a Mr Macdermott. He sold it to one Thomas George Young, a Geordie who had previously practised as a pharmacist in Lewes.

He and his wife Dorothy raised a family of three daughters in accommodation above the shop renamed T.G.Young, Pharmacist; the two younger daughters Margaret and Dorothy both served an apprenticeship there. In 1934 the family moved out of the flat and into a brand new house in George V Avenue, part of the rapidly expanding suburb of West Worthing. The house at number 105, Tom named 'Lowfell' after the area in Gateshead from where he originated.

He kept the chemist shop on until he retired in 1946, whereupon he took to crafting driftwood from the beach, a hobby that he pursued with much vigour, spending countless hours in his workshop at the end of the garden sawing, chiselling and polishing, turning unwanted flotsam into small items of furniture and ornaments. He was so dedicated to creating beautiful works in wood that it was almost an obsession, often to the annoyance of his patient wife.

Prior to the second world war he was heavily involved with Worthing Swimming Club at the old Heene Baths, and was secretary for a time. His lifetime hobby was canoeing in the sea off Worthing in a self-built canoe, and in the summer he would compete in the annual regatta in a rowing skiff.

Tom's eldest daughter born in 1915, Irene Violet Young better known as Ivy (and with her initials it is not difficult to guess why), often accompanied him on canoeing excursions. For much of her early years she was engaged in seaside activities, being as the beach held a special fascination for her. Educated at Our Lady of Sion Convent School before taking a secretarial course at Brighton College, her first job at a middle-class department store in South Street did not make use of her newly-trained skills. It was as a sales assistant at Hubbard's, where fashion mannequins paraded, which many of you will remember before the shop became Debenham's.

During the war, Ivy and her female compatriots went to tea dances at the Assembly Hall, and it was at one of these dances in 1941 that a large number of Commonwealth soldiers from Canada appeared on the scene, who were billeted at the sea front hotels commandeered by the Ministry of Defence: Eardley, Cavendish, Kingsway, Stanhoe and Beach hotels.

One of those Canadians, a William (Bill) Cory of the 1st Canadian Survey Regiment, who was billeted at the Beach Hotel told me recently, 'We used to park our military vehicles under the trees in Ilex Way, out of sight of enemy aircraft.'

At one of the wartime tea dances handsome young Bill met this pretty young lady Ivy and rapidly got to know and like her very much, so much so in fact that he soon paid regular visits to her family's home.

'Their house at George V Avenue was one place where you could get a hot bath!' Bill reminisced in his broad Canadian accent, 'Three of us regularly called there: myself and two buddies Paddy and Gordon.'

During the latter part of 1941, Ivy joined-up, enlisting in the Womens Auxiliary Air Force (the WAAFs). It was while she was on leave that Bill popped the magic question and less than a year later in May 1942 the happy couple married at St Columba's Church, St Michael's Road. After little more than 18 months in the Service she was discharged while pregnant with their son Alan in the summer of 1943.

When the war ended, Bill remained in Germany for seven months in the army of occupation, then returned to Canada in the early part of 1946. Towards the end of that same year, war bride Ivy attempted to join Bill in Canada but experienced harrowing problems with the ocean journey.

'On her first sailing from Birkenhead, a cattle boat collided with their ship, so she had to return to Worthing for two weeks,' Bill recalled.

Her second attempt, although arduous, was successful.

'After a boat trip of 10 -- 12 days and a train journey of four days, ' said Bill, 'she arrived in Saskatoon in December 1946.'

Conditions were prohibitively wicked as he recalled. 'The temperature was freezing: 30 degrees Fahrenheit below and the ground covered with about two feet of snow.'

They both missed England so much, Worthing in particular, that two years later, in July 1948, they returned, this time as a couple, to England, on board the Queen Elizabeth from New York, and set up home in Worthing, at Heene Road.

'It was a difficult period in our lives trying to resettle, but with the birth of our daughter Lynn we became very much more settled,' Bill told me.

Before the war, Ivy became involved with the Worthing Swimming Club, no doubt through her father's association with the club, where her many tasks included teaching youngsters to swim and committee work, and she was even a member of the ladies' water polo team.

'Heene Road Baths was bursting at its seams and that's when I got involved too,' announced Bill, 'probably the only non-swimming chairman the club ever had!' he smiled warmly.

When the Heene Road Swimming Baths closed, Bill and Ivy gradually parted company with the club, and instead, they became more and more involved with The Independent Order of Foresters, a fraternal benefit society that fitted in well with Bill and Ivy's commitment to people. She was able to make use of the secretarial skills for which she was trained earlier in life. After joining locally in 1960 they went on to become involved at national level, and then for eight years internationally when he became a Supreme Councillor, a marvellous opportunity for a couple who loved travel so much, as it meant three trips across the Atlantic every year to the USA and Canada.

Amazingly the couple had such great stamina that they still found time to help with activities run by the church they regularly attended, the United Reform Church in Shelley Road.

'During all this time, Ivy was a strength and support for our involvement at our church, especially with Sunday School parties and outings,' recalled Bill.

A retired sales rep for Lumley & Hunt builders' merchant, Bill has relations over in Canada but would never go back there to live.

'I believe that here in the U.K. we have a wealth of historical, theatrical and musical heritage together with awe-inspiring country scenery and well-organised sports and leisure pursuits,' he said.

'Every time I look at the sea, to me eternity starts where the eye meets the horizon. What's behind it is the mystery of the whole of Creation!'

In May last year, Bill and Ivy celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Sadly, after a lifetime of giving, loving, working and dedication, Ivy died just one week before Christmas. Yet she has left behind a legacy of positive mindedness and unselfishness remembered by their many friends.

First published in the West Sussex Gazette 18/2/93