Here’s Grandad Crickmore in his old age with his first great-grandchild Rachel. In this picture you can clearly see his maimed right hand, injured in an industrial accident at the age of fifteen.
He found his own way to compensate for the loss; when he retired his great love was drawing, using his own “finger and thumb” technique which fascinated me as a child.
Grandad had a repertoire of music-hall songs, including “Daisy, Daisy” and “If you’re Irish, come into the parlour” as well as a silly sense of humour. One of the family’s favourite games was the word game “Lexicon”, and he would regularly ask us all “How do you spell ‘rabbit’?” and then put down “cat”. Deadpan.
We were inseparable throughout my childhood, driving my grandmother to distraction with our nonsense. His middle name, Jarvis, was that of his uncle but its main use was when Grandma was cross with him (often!): then he got the full “Thomas Jarvis” rather than the usual “Tommy”.
Father of Gladys and son of Harry and Kate Crickmore
Born Thomas Jarvis Crickmore on 3 December 1889 in Bradford, Yorkshire
Married Florence Bell Shearer on 1 October 1912
Died 15 January 1974 and buried in Undercliffe Cemetery