Biography of Harold Norman SWINNERTON
[Ref. R.18]
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Biography of Harold Norman SWINNERTON
[Ref. R.18]
| Ancestors | |
Profile | |
RAF | |
Employment | |
Photos | |
Index for SWINNERTON |
Harold Norman Swinnerton was born on 6 May 1916 at 101 Ponsonby Street in Liverpool. Norman was the name which he used but he was genarally known as "Norm". When his younger brother became poorly poorly Norman would help his mother to look after him. He attended Granby Street school in Liverpool between 1921 and 1931, graduating with honours. He then continued with night school there for two years in technical studies.
Norman himself suffered a catalogue of medical misfortunes as a boy. One was the loss of his hair for which his fellow pupils would rib him. To counteract that, he decided to do better than them, achieving fourth from the top in school and top in sports including football, cricket and athletics and won a number of medals. When he was 14 years old, he was representing Lancashire when he won a bronze medal in the 440 yards sprint at the English Schools Athletic Association in Stamford and beat the Lancashire record by 4 seconds. Other there thought his school must have provided special training out of hours but this was not the case. It was all done within normal school routine.
Norman joined the Princes Gate gym club along with his sisters Edie and Doris but did not last long as he did not like being up-side-down due to his ear problems. He also continued to train for the 440 yards event for four years after leaving school but eventually lost interest although he did race whilst in the RAF at Dumfriess and again at the end of the war on which occasion he won.
One day he borrowed his sister Doris' bicycle to visit some girl guides but it broke down at Liverpool Lea so he slept on the railway station before getting a lift to Prescott then the train home.
Norman studied to become a Carpenter. He found work with Woolworth's Northern region property department where his eldest brother Bill was the architect. Norman worked at a number of locations, firstly at Prescott then Hoylake and others such as Wrexham and Warrington but especially on the new Blackpool store which was to be the flagship store for Woolworths. He also worked for George Wimpey & Co. Ltd. on a site at Heysham where petrol was being made from coal during which time he stayed in disg in Blackpool. After that he worked for a company from Stockport which specialised in slipform shuttering for containing concrete when building. He worked for a time in Speke during which time he lodged with his sister Sally and cycled to work.
Norman's trade of Carpenter was a reserved occupation but he joined the RAF at the beginning of World War 2. He had hoped to fly but was prevented due to his problem with perforated eardrums so he was allocated work repairing wooden aircraft.
On 23 May 1942, Norman married Maria Carter, daughter of John and Margaret Carter of Blackpool during which time an air raid was in progress. The ceremony took place at All Saints Church in Speke, Liverpool. Norman's Best Man was friend and colleague Herbert Macklin and Norman's sister Emmie was Matron of Honour. Nieces Francis and Sylvia were bridesmaids. The reception was held at 44 Greyhound Farm Road in Speke which Norman gave as his address although it was the home of Norman's brother John who was a prisoner of war at that time. After the wedding, Norman's RAF paybook showed Molly as living at 242 Vicarage Lane, Marton near Blackpool.
After the war, Norman worked at Vickers Armstrong in Blackpool manufacturing prefabricated housing whilst continuing his studies at Blackpool Technical College.
Having decided to leave England in search of a better climate, Norman and Molly sailed aboard the Union Castle ship Carnarvon Castle, sailing from Southampton on 9 September 1947, bound for Cape Town in South Africa. After nearly one year, in August 1948, they moved to to Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia. It was there that they had a Morris Minor car in which Norman taught Molly to drive. He was employed as a Building Foreman. Living in Rhodesia became difficult as calls for independance grew so Norman and Molly left in 1952 and headed briefly back to England via the Suez Canal aboard the Union Castle ship Warwick Castle. His address during his stay was 97 Ellerdine Road, Hounslow, Middlesex which was probably that of his brother John. They then headed for Canada by way of New York, sailing on 7 August 1952 from Southampton aboard the Cunard ship Georgic. On reaching Canada thay settled in Hamilton, Ontario but by January 1954, they were back in Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia again.
On 3 July 1958 Norman and Molly boarded the famous Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth at Southampton bound for New York with their destination being Santa Barbara in California. At that time they had Rhodesian citizenship and passports, their address being c/o Whitby, P O Box 166, Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia and Norman's occupation being Carpenter. In February 1962 they found their way to Australia where they rented a cottage near Sydney Harbour bridge. However, they returned to Santa Barbara in August the same year where they settled, then in 1965, Norman building an impressive house for themselves on the lower slopes of the mountains at 2622 Montrose Place. He had extended his studies for two years in Santa Barbara and achieved an Associated Science degree in building subjects. He was working for a building company which was registered in his name but it went out of business in the 1960's. He had prepared the Bills of Quantities for Santa Barbara airport also the YMCA building.
Norman's wife Molly died on 6 April 1992 having suffered increasingly from Alzheimer's disease. Norman had been devoted to her and attended her constantly in her last days. A year after her death, Norman took up work as a male dancing host on cruise liners. It was on one of those cruises that he met Mary Ann Cross who had already been married four times and whom he went on to marry himself. The ceremony took place on 15 December 1994 at Grace Lutherian Church in Santa Barbara. Norman's Best Man was fellow Liverpuddlian Joe Best. The reception was held at The Red Lion Hotel in Santa Barbara then the honeymoon was taken in Las Vegas. Norman's niece Nicky thinking of his age had said to him "What are you going to do on your honeymoon" and he replied "We'll think of something".
The couple lived in a condominion at number 6, 215 Moreton Bay Lane, Goleta in Santa Barbara, California. Having married, Norman continued travelling, bringing Mary Ann to England as a stopover on a cruise bound for Russia. They visited various members of his family and Mary Ann was shown typical aspects of British life. However, she decided to return to USA rather than complete the tour to Russia, leaving Norman to complete it by himself.
This marriage turned out to be a nightmare for Norman. It transpired that Mary Ann was a gold-digger of the most incidious kind and she set about trying to discredit him also work on him psycoligically to undermine his health. She found endless reasons to highlight inconsideration and mistreatment and at the breakfast table each morning Norman would find a typed page of his supposed indiscretions from the previous day. Having been unable to wear Norman down, she instigated divorce proceedings and they were separated on 18 August 1998.
Norman always had a very forgiving nature and therefore tolerated her behaviour but, on 19 January 1999 suffer a stroke, probably brought on by the stress of her constant agitation. He was paralyzed down his left side. Mary Ann had been going into his house and removing items of value and disposing of other things, including personal papers and possessions belonging to him. She was also trying to gain Power of Attorney over Norman. His family back in England were alerted to what was happening and decided to take action to protect Norman. His nephew Christopher Parsons visited Norman and was able to arrange Power of Attorney on himself and he also arranged for a restraining Order to be served on Mary Ann should it become necessary. She tried other tactics to dominate Norman such as attempting to have him declared mentally unfit then she pesterd Norman trying to turn him against his family and friends. On Wednesday 24 February, Norman's nephews Malcolm Smith and Tony McClure flew out to Santa Barbara. The marriage was finally anulled on 29 March 1999.
Having come from humble beginnings, Norman was rightly proud of his achievements as he was of those of his brothers and sisters. Through his own hard work and astuteness he had become a dollar millionaire. He had become the focal point of the Swinnerton family as he had kept in touch with so many relatives, wherever they lived in the world. He became the vice-president of the Swinnerton Family Society and the USA representative. Although he had suffered more than his fair share of difficulties he never failed to see the best in everyone.
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