Dear Bruce

I have just discovered your website. A fine upstanding family but they did have a black sheep or a sheepess in this case, my grandmother. I have letters dating from 1902-1911 from her to a Mrs Altham. In one letter in answer to a query she writes "No, Robert Bickerstaff, who died recently in Blackpool was not my uncle, but my father's first cousin. My uncles names are John and Tom"Was there another brother called Douglas who ran the shipping between B/pool & Fleetwood? She must have been his daughter. It's a long and very sad tale of a young girl, full of romantic notions defying every-one and getting involved with a married, Jewish man called Blick. The inevitable happened and she was pregnant. There was a complete "cover up". She came here to Waddington to stay with Mrs Altham until the birth of my father. All the information on the Birth Certificate is false. She called him Reginald Dene after the hero of a book she was reading, herself as Clara Dene wife of John Dene, Actor. I have the certificate. The arrangement was she would live with Mr. Blick,(she never referred to him by any other name) and when they were settled she would come for him, meanwhile she would send a weekly sum.Payments were rare and she soon lost interest in the baby. Then the letters were signed Clara Blick. All cloak and dagger stuff. Mrs Altham had to be sure all letters were sealed and sent to a third person.

Over the years she had twins, Lesley and Leo and later Billy. It appears to be her money they were living on and they were obliged to sell the house and furniture in order to pay off Mr. Blick's debts. This meant moving to Northampton to live with Mr Blick's sister, who until then, Clara didn't know existed. That really was a culture shock. She hated it. When her money ran out they were not so friendly and she was very unhappy. Mr. Blick then died of "consumption" and she had to go and find cheap rooms. In a letter to Mrs. A that Mr. Blane (or Blanc), the Bickerstaffs "business man" suggested she found work in a florist or some such. She wrote "I am worried to distraction. How can I work with 3 children?" Mr. Blane (Blanc) suggested she stay in Northampton.

"I would rather die" she wrote. Then she had a meeting with the Bickerstaffs at Blackpool and would be staying at a hotel in Clifton and asked Mrs. A if she would come over. She seemed nervous. John Bickerstaff allowed her 17/6 a week to be paid thro' the Midland Bank. I do not know if this was before or after the meeting. The letters stop there.

My father was 33 years old before he found out by accident about all this. Mrs Altham has raised him with love. He went to Blackpool to the Bickerstaffs home. They were having dinner with the Linely Pates ,but were very helpful , Dad having explained he wanted nothing but to meet his mother. He was given her address. She did not even invite him in ..She had been so careful to hide his existence it must have been traumatic. Anyway she agreed to meet him in a cafe. Dad waited 2 hours but she never came. Does any-one know Lesley, Leo and Billy Blick or where "Clara" is buried. I am her grand-daughter Marion Houghton, 73 years old and married to Edward.

I feel so sad for her. To-day it would not be a scandal at all, but in 1902 the whole family must have wanted to avoid any public knowledge of my father who was blissfully unaware of any of it.

Regards

Marion Dene Houghton

To send email to Marion, write to overbeck100(at)tiscali.co.uk