Dorothy May Lloyd 1916 - 2015

My mother was born on 22nd March 1916 in Kingston upon Thames. She was the fifth child of seven and the second daughter of Edward William Collins and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Moorey. They lived in a small house at 20 Victoria Road Kingston though the two girls slept overnight in a rented room in an adjacent house.

Mum had a sheltered upbringing, taught Sunday school at the nearby chapel and eventually found employment in the Kingston Leather shop where they made leather clothing. Billy Cotton, the band master, was a customer.

In 1940, at the age of 24 she was asked to relocate to the North West to help start up a factory making textile and leather accessories for air planes. She lodged with Mabel Salisbury in Victoria Street. She met my father while doing ARP duties on local rooftops! When he was called up, she remained in Lytham and started up a small dress making business with some of the ladies that she had worked with during the war.