Wigan Album

Keith..what a lovely photo..your Mum and her friend were very pretty.

I agree with Maureen, what smart,well-turned out, attractive girls they both are

They look immaculate. Wonder if they're waiting to see 'Gone With The Wind'? Or, waiting to meet two Pem lads? Two pretty wenches, no danger....

Thank you for your kind comments, I believe they may have been waiting for their dates, my father who had joined Wigan RL the season previously and possibly his friend another Wigan Welsh RL player. My parents were married for 60 years.

What gorgeous girls. So well dressed, bet their boyfriends were so proud of them.

Well done Keith!You've got the right woman this time! The friend IS the REAL Betty Morris, my mother, who loved her hats! If it is 1939,she is 17.
I have looked at the other photo several times and wondered if she is Mollie Fitzpatrick who was a friend of my mother's. I don't know if Fitzpatrick was her married name but your mother was always Phyllis Brown, never Bowen so I think it must be maiden name.

What a beautiful photo of two very smart and attractive Ladies!

Thank you Kath, so pleased I've got it right at last. Don't you just love these comments.

It's good that the comments are so positive but you and I know that our mothers were something special.

Quite so Kath - I couldn't agree more.

They say opposites attract and that may have been the case with my parents. As an ex-professional rugby player my father had a very calm temperament, my petite mother with her auburn hair……..well enough said. He was Welsh, my mother Wigan born and bred was English, well so she thought until I discovered her maternal line also came from Wales. My parents shared a capacity for hard work and a determination to do everything for their family - we could not have had better parents.

Did you ever meet Ted Ward? We met him once in M&S when I was about 11 and all I remember is a Welsh voice saying Hello Betteeee and that was the first mention of him I heard. So, was he of the other persuasion and being under his mother's thumb a load of codswallop?
Further info on John Cooper on Nellie Burton!

Hi Kath, Ted was a lovely man and a very good player. I remember meeting him with my father, (they had signed in the same year 1938 from Llanelli RU) when he was the manager of Wigan RL (for a relatively short while in 1953) and it was during his time as manager that the great Billy Boston was signed. Ted was of the other persuasion.

Omitted to mention a big thank you for the interesting information on John Cooper - I've replied on Nellie Burton!

Kath, I have one of my father's personal photos that included Ted, I'll try to find it and post it on site.

It would have been 1953/4 when I saw him. I suppose my mother was his street cred with the fans but I think she loved him! Fortunately my father bowled her over and the rest as they say is history!

I've never had this "problem" but some men seem to have a kind of magnetic attraction that appeals to women, I think Ted fell into this category. Thank goodness for your father, a timely interception, as a rugby player Ted would have appreciated that.