My parents had quite a collection of silver which I now have care of, mainly because I am the eldest of their 4 children and because I have the space to store all these things. These silver spoons were often used in our home especially at Christmas when I particularly remember the middle one being used to serve the brandy butter Dad always made to go with the flaming christmas pudding.
Mum collected teaspoons wherever she went travelling to go with her coffee cups of course. Her brothers all lived on different continents so she had plenty of opportunities to see Walter in Australia, John in Canada and Michael in South Africa.
Mum's parents were globetrotters too: they met in Durban where my grandfather was a telegraphist for the Eastern Telegraph Company. They were posted to a different country every 2 years so although Mum, the eldest, was born in England her 4 brothers were born in Egypt, Portugal and South Africa.
By the time Mum was 13 her father decided to give up his job and go to Argentina to become a farmer and the family set off across the Atlantic to start a new life in the jungle. Uncle John has fortunately written the story of this adventure where they had to clear the land, build a house with the timber and plant crops. I can just imagine him and his brothers having a wonderful time with no formal schooling apart from a few morning lessons. I think this set of teaspoons is a souvenir of their time there which ended after only 2 years when my grandmother became pregnant again and wanted to return to England. She must have lost that baby as there were no more children in the family.
This commemorative set was bought by my maternal great grandmother Louisa Baker for the coronation of Edward VII. My Grandmother Mae Gritten gave it to my parents for their wedding in1947.
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