Diana Therese Kavanagh (11 Oct 1929 - 28 Jun 2022)

In loving memory of Diana Therese Kavanagh who sadly passed away on 28th June 2022

Diana, or Dinky was born in 1929 in what was then Burma, in Yenangyaung, on the Irrawaddy River, by the strategically important Burma Oilfields. Second daughter to her ‘black country’ English ex- British Army, and by then, working in The Burma Oilfields, dad Samuel, and 5th child to her Irish and part Asian Postmistress mother Constance. Her brothers, Terrence and Eugine, and oldest sister Kathleen are sadly deceased, however she is outlived by her Sister Paddy, who sends her love from Canada today.

Paddy has sent us some of her reminiscences from Burma:

“We loved to play in the garden, We had a cabin trunk full of dolls, which were neglected, instead we enjoyed playing with the simple wooden toys that the gardener would make for us, and also had fun playing in the sand and mud. Our nanny would whisk us off to be cleaned up before going to be with Mum, for whom we were always in spotless pretty dresses.
In the afternoons when we lay by Mum's side resting in the heat of the day, she would regale us with stories about being princesses descended from the Kings of Ireland and we believed every single word!

We were taken to the "American Club" in the evenings and were made a fuss of by all Dad's colleagues who made us tiny cups from the silver foil from their cigarette packs, and would pour a spot of alcohol into them. What different times!
While I can’t be physically with you, on the 18th I will be with you all in spirit when you say goodbye to ‘my little sister’”

However, when Diana was 5, the family, aware of the growing political issues, relocated to the English Midlands, where they started both a fish and chip and a sweet shop, but their generosity to all the family and friends who liked both chips and sweets, did not work to create successful businesses.

Samuel, who, in a spirit that has continued down the family line, upgraded his army and oilfields skills by self-studying aircraft engineering, and started working at the aircraft manufacturer Boulton Paul’s in Wolverhampton, a position that was essential to the country when the second world war broke out when Diana was nearly 10.

The family Being Roman Catholics, Diane and her sister went to the Wolverhampton Catholic Primary School, St Peter’s and Paul’s.

Meanwhile, her future husband Columb’s family were migrating down from Motherwell in Scotland for work, and he joined the school at the age of 10. He quickly spotted Diana, and took the blame (and therefore sadly the cane) for her, by owning up to having taken cherries from a harvest altar, after seeing her and her friends help themselves! In this way he won her heart,….. forever…..

They went on to separate secondaries, but their families helped each other out during the war, swapping their home produce such as eggs and vegetables and also getting the occasional parcel sent from rashion-free Ireland where some of dad’s family lived, occasionally including to the teenage girls’ delight, prized seamed nylon stockings.

At nearly 16, she was ready to celebrate the liberation of Europe, which both her brothers had been fighting for. Her older sister Kathleen, who these days would be celebrated for her upcycling skills, turned no longer needed black out curtains into two beautiful full flared skirts, for her and Paddy to wear that night, and mum added her own bright red trim of bias binding near the hem. She remembered staying out late with each other and their future husbands that night, and instead of the possibly expected trouble for this, they were rewarded by the gift of a watch each from their dad, ‘to help them remember the time’ in future.

This skirt then will have had much wear when they went dancing together at the St Peter and Paul Milner Hall, where they danced to the big band music of the day, and later to Rock and Roll.

Some of us children remember that beautiful skirt, worn on all her night’s out dancing with dad, up to at least 15 years following VE day.

They married in 1950, and honeymooned in Scotland, which became their joint spiritual homeland. The first family holiday, when eventually they could afford a car was to Scotland, and they subsequently had many happy holidays in Scotland, especially Loch Lomond, throughout their lives together.

In 1951 their eldest child Kate was born, followed quickly by Mary, Eddie, (who sadly did not survive infancy), Andrew, Ian and in 1961 by the youngest daughter, Terry. While dad worked all the hours he could to earn enough money for the growing family, mum had her hands full with all of us children, as well as caring for her own aging mother. We have many happy memories of these times, walking the two and a half miles to granny’s, mum making a loaf of luncheon meat sandwiches, and buying broken biscuits from Woolworth’s, unless we were treated to one of granny’s lovely curries, to give us strength for the walk back! There was always a big old pram housing the youngest, eventually Terry, and the next youngest, eventually Ian, occasionally able to hitch a ride at the back of the pram, with some of us turning the walk down the long Tettenhall Road into a race to the next bench!

The day’s work was not done then, dad would in the evenings be growing vegetables in the wonderfully large garden, while mum would be turning his produce into the evening meal, or ‘Tea’ together with, for instance, belly draught, minced beef, fish, or battered and fried Fray Bentos corned beef depending on which day of the week it was!

A particular speciality were mum’s soups, which, given an endless supply of fresh veg, were legendary. Mum would often spend whole mornings in the kitchen to come up with filling soups, cooked as usual in massive saucepans branded BOC, the Burmah Oil Company, that seemed to have left Burma with the family!

Like her older sister Kathleen, mum would be seen now as a great environmentalist with her reusing, and re-purposing! Mum was adept at mending clothes by hand, - stitching burst seams, lengthening and shortening trousers or skirts, and applying patches, not necessarily of the same material or colour, to a variety of clothes. One money saving thing mum did was to make sure that as the children grew out of clothes and shoes they would be handed down. So it was a bit of a problem for those of us who were a different gender to our older sibling! Still, fortunately school ties hid the fulsome girl’s blouses passed down to the boys!

Both mum and dad understood the importance of a good education and despite the norm of the time for children to leave school at 15 and then contribute to the household income, they both committed to ensuring their children's education continued right up to degree level. The first hurdle was the 11 plus, and mum bought practice test books, which had to be completed in pencil, so could be rubbed out for the next child. Some of us spent more effort trying to decipher the answer our older sibling had put in, rather than exercising our brains. Still, it worked, we all went to Grammar school, and then University! Kate was the trailblazer, and Terry, who had the weight of 4 graduate siblings on her shoulders, remembers letting mum and dad know by phone that she had earned her B.Sc from Manchester. They did not quite grasp this news, questioning her as to when she would know, however finally they realised that the youngest of their children, like those before her, had now achieved what they, due to circumstance, had never managed to do. This was despite mum’s gaining the School Certificate with Merit in 10 subjects. This value of education was one of their many gifts to us all.

Another gift was music, due to dad’s talent at the Piano and Guitar, and mum’s beautiful singing voice, many a lovely evening was spent enjoying, and joining in with songs of the past and of the time. Sometimes these events included mum’s wider family, during which recordings were made, and sent over to Canada to Paddy and her growing family, including the song ‘Trains, and Boats and Planes’ very apt considering the distance between mum’s family here, and her sister Paddy.

There was a lovely reunion with Paddy in the summer of 2009, at a joint 80th Birthday celebration for mum and dad, where other members of the family continued the musical tradition with both musicianship and beautiful harmonies.

Sadly Dad passed away 4 years later, and when we visited mum, still saw dad’s jacket and hat hanging in the hallway, a comfort to mum. One of dad’s nephews Michael Carrol bought mum a Poppy from the Tower of London display later that year. This still hangs on the wall of the bungalow in Pocklington, which together with his hat and his mainy oil paintings, helped mum, now without dad, to remember their life together.

So this is the end of an era. Mum leaves 5 children, 8 grandchildren, and up to now 8 great grandchildren, and did not forget her son Eddie, or great granddaughter Alexandra, who also was not long in this world. Mum always had a faith, and was looking forward to reuniting with dad, and others in heaven, where we hope she will be watching us here today, knowing how loved she is. ❤