Mary Owen

Mam was born in Holyhead on 29/12/1904.  She was named Mary Hughes.  She was fourth out of six siblings.  Her parents were Hugh Hughes (born 27/8/1870) and Elizabeth Edwards (born 1876).  Her siblings were as follows:

• Annie Hughes – born 2/6/1896 (Annie gave birth to a son on the 20/3/1922 in Pontypridd when she was 26 years old.  She called him Hugh after her father and gave him over to her parents to raise as their own child.  She then moved to live in Dublin where she married Edward O’Reilly and had four boys and four girls.  Her first born Hughie never knew until he was in his thirties that she was his real mother)
• Ellen Hughes  (NELL) – born 24/3/1899.  She married Hugh Roberts in 1916 when she was just 17 years old and Hugh was 19.  They moved to Quebec, Canada to live.  They had 7 children and 17 grandchildren in total.  Hugh died in 1959 aged 61.  Nell died on 30/6/1976 aged 77
• Lizzie Hughes – born 1/1/1901 in Llanficael, Anglesey, Wales.  Dad Hugh was listed as a Farm Labourer.
• Mary Hughes – born 29/12/1904 (Mam).  Married Robert Owen on 22/12/1927.  They had 2 children, Catherine Jane (Jean) and Clifford
• Jane Hughes – (Jennie) – born 11/12/1908. Married John Thomas on 10/12/1930, They had 2 children, Betty and Beryl.  John died on 27/7/1933, leaving Jennie with two small children to bring up.  Jennie married William Frank Hindley 8 years later on 22/1/1941 and their daughter Josephine was born on 13/1/1944.  William died 3 months after Josey’s birth
• Margaret Hughes  (Maggie) – born 1911

We don’t know very much at all about Mam’s childhood, her teens or where she worked in Holyhead.  What we do know is that she knew Taid all of her life since they were second cousins (they shared the same great grandparents) and for a while he lived with them.  She became pregnant when she was 23 years old and married a few months later on 22/12/1927.  She gave birth to a baby girl (my Mum) and called her Catherine Jane.  Four years later she gave birth to a boy and named him Clifford.   They were all rehoused at 12 Llaingoch, and Taid’s occupation was listed as a Newsagent.  Between 1932 and 1939, with 2 children to support, life became very tough for Mam and Taid.  With only a newsagents income and high unemployment in Holyhead, they had to consider alternative ways to make ends meet.

As so 1941 the family moved to Wrexham and Mam began working in the Ammunitions Factory on the Wrexham Industrial Estate helping with the war effort.  She was close friends with a Mr and Mrs Jeffreys – I think she worked with Mrs Jeffreys in the factory.  Taid, on the other had decided to join the Mercent Navy.  When Mum and Dad got married in 1945, it was Mr and Mrs Jeffreys that stood in as witnesses for them.  After the war Mam got herself a part-time job as a cleaner in Barclays Bank.  She became a grandmother when she was 42 years old and during the following twenty years she found herself with thirteen grandchildren and three great grandchildren.  

I remember her home so very clearly, it was like a safe haven and we went there to be spoilt.  Every single one of us remembers with such affection her famous meal of egg, chips and peas and a glass of fizzy corona pop.  No-one ever cooked chips like she did.  Her house was also a safe haven for me after I got pregnant when I was 17 years old.  I was extremely fond of her and she always tried to help my Mum by giving her food and money to help feed her growing brood of children. Mam put everything into looking after Taid when he had his first heart attack aged 56, and she was absolutely devasted when he died at the age of 66 following a second heart attack.  She seemed to give up everything.  She wanted to move from her lovely house and was given an old age pensioners bungalow right opposite Hafod Y Wern School.  But she hated it, she had to give up all of her furniture and possessions because they would not fit in the bungalow.  She was only 68 but seemed like a very old woman.  She just sat at her window and watched the days go by.  Then she arranged for a swap from her bungalow to a downstairs flat which she ended up disliking even more.  She seemed so lonely and sad.  We all tried to  help her as much as we could but she could not really get over losing Taid.   She died alone in hospital 13 years after Taid’s death.

Main World Events in 1904 the year in which Mam was born

• Russia – January 22nd – 500 strikers shot in St Petersburg on “Bloody Sunday” demonstration
• USA – June 26th – The Automobile Association formed by early motorists
• Russia – June 27th – The Russian battleship Potemkin was seized by crew members at Odessa
• Russia – September 5th – Russo-Japanese war ended by Treaty of Portsmouth
• Poland – There were strikes and riots in Poland
• Crete – Crete voted for Union with Greece
• Norway – Norway gained its independence from Sweden
• Switzerland – The Simplon tunnel through the Alps was finished
• Austria – Professor Albert Einstein published his Special Theory of Relativity
• France – first Exhibition by Matisse and other Fauvist painters in Paris divided the art world
• UK – The Balfour government were defeated and Henry Campbell-Bannerman becomes PM
• USA – Henry Irving dies, aged 67