Farmers, Soldiers, Sailors, Colonisers, Lord Mayor of London, Barons, Boxers, Divorcees, Gamblers and murder victims and that is just some of Granny Utting’s family predecessors!

Wow! What a family in which to marry! Nobody told me about Granny Utt’s (nee Wood) predecessors and their impact on the World before Bridget and I became married. I now understand why she was such a tough lady and achiever in her own right. If she had inherited even ten percent of her ancestor’s genes she would have been a force of whom to be wary. Her sporting achievements on the sports fields resulted in the Vitrix Ludorum at School, her love of being outdoors served her well working on her relatives farm when she was young and being a Sergeant Major in the army during WW2. Losing her first born daughter and then bringing up 3 children after the war never seemed to phase her and she always took an active role in her husband’s job and the various communities in which she lived. 

As it was, I knew of her as a strong willed lady, a keen and accomplished sports person and a very outgoing, energetic mother-in-law. The most memorable thing I remember her telling me was that she felt the Uttings (her husbands family) were a little bit on “the timid side”. This really surprised me as her husband was a great athlete and his family had developed a very successful fishing business fishing in the dangerous waters of the North Sea. They fished in all weathers and in relatively small boats off the beach and all round the coast of the UK. These men to me were tough, hardy, successful men.

It has only been since I have researched her family that I realise why she may have thought that they were “timid”! It is all relative but, she does come from an exceptional adventurous, ambitious, courageous bunch of achievers and warriors.

Over the next few blogs, I will attempt to illustrate what makes me think that. The blogs will be backed up by family photos on my web site, which is “egmdphotography.co.uk”.The families involved include the Dixies, the Woods, the Denbys and the Arnolds. They have lived in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and India and......fought against the French, the Germans and the Russians. They have fought in the Crimean war, the Napoleonic wars, the American war of Independence, WW1 and WW2.

Besides not being shy to raise a weapon in anger they have been politicians, reverends, educators, athletes, gamblers  and prominent land-owners.I am not sure that I can do them Justice but I will try.

In so doing I will base everything on, and from, the time of Granny Utting (Nee Wood). So, let me give you some brief details of Granny Utting to start us off.             

She was born Cecilia Caroline Wood in Lowestoft on 8th Dec 1915, She passed away on 6thMay 1985. Her sister (Betty) was born in 1918 and her brother Robert in 1921.

She married Archie Utting (Her school sweetheart) in October 1940. Their first daughter was born in 1943 and died in Oct 1944). Her second daughter Bridget (My wife) was born in 1945 and third daughter in 1948. Her son Ross was born soon after.  

I will end this blog here and now but will add blogs about Celia's family based on her lifetime over the next period of time. I hope that you enjoy it but more importantly, I hope this gives you a better understanding of Granny Utting’s ancestors and maybe for those of our family, your own ancestors.