Doreen Baird (20 Apr 1925 - 9 Jul 2016)

In loving memory of Doreen Baird who sadly passed away on 9th July 2016.

Mum ... known by the nickname Dean by many since her childhood ...was born on the 20th April 1925 to Richard William Jones and Emily Rowland Ramsay in her beloved Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where she spent the majority of her childhood. The family was complete when her brother Thomas Alwyn arrived on the 25th November 1926. A Geordie lass at heart, she was always proud of her Welsh heritage.

Both children attended Glendower Central Commercial School until 1940 where they excelled in athletics, gaining the remarkable distinction of becoming Victrix Ludorum and Victor Ludorum two years running !

One of her first experiences of World War 2 came in 1940 when, at the age of only 15, she volunteered as a Nurse's Aid at The Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle … just in time for Dunkerque. It was only later in life that she told me one of her first jobs was to irrigate the wounds on the feet of soldiers who were evacuated having stepped onto mines !

She was a certificated member of the Red Cross throughout the 1940’s, and in 1944 she took this further joining the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), being posted to work in the Royal Naval Hospital, Port Edgar, on the Firth of Forth until her discharge from service in May, 1947.

It was shortly after her return to Newcastle, and joining the Ministry of Labour and National Service in a secretarial role, that she met John (Jack) Baird ( a young colliery manager), and they married on the 20th August, 1949. In notes just found she recounts that he “always had a ‘yen’ to go abroad, so no surprise after 4 months of marriage he took the plunge and applied for a post in India.”

In February 1950 they sailed for a new life … though Mum was less than impressed with the ship they were to travel on. It was not, as she may have suspected, a liner … but the Clyde built ‘Clan Davidson’ … a cargo ship with a few cabins. It took over 6 weeks to sail from the UK to Calcutta … passing Land’s End, The Bay of Biscay (in February, so very rough), the Med., the Suez Canal, the Arabian Sea, to British Cochin (now reverted to Kochi) on the west coast of India, before further stops at Tuticorin, Colombo, and Madras to deliver cargo before arriving at Calcutta (Kolkata) … and making the 125 mile journey north west to Sripur.

It was a year later when their first son, Malcolm, arrived … and only a few months afterwards when a serious accident in the mine meant that the family had to return home for surgery to Jack. Thankfully he survived, and was able to take up his career in mining again. Not only that … but Roland, their second son, arrived in April 1953.

The next few years were rather ‘nomadic,’ as the North East mining industry was in decline and Jack had the unenviable task of moving from mine to mine in Northumberland closing them down … but she devoted herself to her family in all situations and was, for the rest of her life, “there” for them.

We moved from Ashington to Cullercoats (the receipt for the first house they purchased still exists, a three bedroomed semi-detached house for 359 pounds 17 shillings and six pence !) to Blucher to Corbridge to Seaton Sluice.
It was in 1960 when we moved to the Midlands and there was a period of relative geographic stability.

From 1960 to 1968 Mum live in the village of Moira before moving to Coalville for a year … before making her final move to the home where she lived for the rest of her life in Nuneaton. Unfortunately, her marriage ended in 1979.

This was almost concomitant with her Mum becoming seriously ill, and Mum had no hesitation (of course) in taking Nana Jones in not only for those weeks when she was at her most vulnerable … but for the next 20 years until Nana passed away in 1999.

It was a delight that Doreen met Irene (Malcolm’s Mum-in Law and Jane’s Mum, who we sadly lost last year) in 2004, and was able to spend happy holidays in both Dorset and Warwickshire over the next 5 years … both with us and simply ‘together.’

She lived her last years in her own home, fiercely independent, overcoming two serious surgical interventions, and with the support of both her sons after she was diagnosed with Dementia in 2010 which finally overtook her.

It is a testament to her tenacious spirit that she held out until the last few weeks when she finally agreed to move to Oldbury Grange Nursing Home a few weeks ago where she received great care, and finally slipped away in her sleep.
This was a strong Lady … of great wit and intellect … who devoted herself to her family … and was always generous to a fault … not only with her family but to the charities she supported.

She will be greatly missed by all her family, not only here but by her nieces and nephew in Canada, and their families.