Norman John Dimes

  General Notes:

1961 living at 16A The Grove, Isleworth, Middlesex.
1985 living at 399 Nelson Road, Hounslow, Middlesex.
Anne remembers her father and writes ...
Born on 24th April 1915 at 2 Bruce Road, Bromley, London, two months premature. His brother Frank was born in 1920, then the family moved to New Malden in Surrey, where his sister Sylvia was born in 1922. They were not a close family and he had little affection for his parents until much later. He went to Tiffin Boys School in Kingston-upon-Thames and matriculated in 1933. He became a clerk in an office and eventually met Doris Rigoli in the late 30s. They married on 26th July 1941, in Christ the King Catholic Church, Cockfosters, North London. His parents never accepted Doris, perhaps because her parents were European, rather than English, or perhaps because she was a Catholic. Grandad came to the wedding but our Grandmother made an excuse not to come.
He was called Norman by his parents, but John by his wife and friends.
He was not called up into the army in the first wave, due to his short sight, but was in the second wave, so was in uniform at his wedding. He was soon sent off to train in India, then went into Burma, in a tank regiment, to fight the Japanese. He did not return till 1946. Having nowhere to live, he and Doris shared his parents' house with his brother Frank and his wife. I was born in June 1947 and Jackie in 1949. Soon after her birth, my grandparents returned and we had to leave their house. There was nowhere to go until a friend of my mother offered us a room in her 2-bedroom terraced house in Grays, Essex. We lived there for 9 months until we were given a newly-built council house in New Malden. Meanwhile, Norman took a flat up in London, where he worked, and only came back at weekends. This is when he appears to have become involved with another woman who we later found out to be called Ivy. Our Mother eventually found out about this affair. She claimed it was the war that changed him so much. Soon after we moved to New Malden I caught polio and was in and out of hospitals for the next two years - another great strain on my mother.
After five years of a very unhappy household, in 1954 my father finally walked out. My mother could not divorce him, being a Catholic in those days, but she went to Court to get a legal separation and maintenance, as he was sending so little money each week. He came each Sunday to take us to his parents' house - a fair walk away. He became very close to them after his marriage break-up. In 1958 we moved down to Hythe in Kent, and then only saw him twice a year when we came up to London for hospital appointments. After 11 years of only talking through solicitors, he came down and visited our Mother in the Spring of 1965 and then he came and stayed at our house in August 1965. He led our Mother to believe he wanted a reconciliation, but after this visit she never heard from him again before she died. The rest of his family chose to have no contact with us.
In 1966 my mother died, and a year later he wrote to tell us he had married Sylvia Rose Hughes, on 2nd March 1967, whom he told us he had recently re-met, but we found out later they had been living together for years. Jackie and I liked Sylvia, and we became much closer to our father at this time. They were then living in a flat above a parade of shops in Hounslow, but eventually bought a modern terraced house nearby. My father had been working for a chemical company, but when it was taken over, several of them put their money together to start their own company, Graphite Engineering, which made industrial heat-exchangers. He was the Sales Director, and eventually travelled to Trade Fairs in several other countries. He also invested in a pottery/holiday cottage in Devon, and his proudest moment was when Margaret Thatcher visited it. Unfortunately, that made quite a loss and had to be sold. He was very proud of his first couple of grandchildren, but eventually the novelty seemed to wear off and he saw very little of the youngest ones. He made excuses to stop coming to visit us, and we only saw him when we could get to Hounslow - not always easy with small children!
On 7th April 1988 we had a phone call to say he had died. He had had a bladder problem for over a week, but had refused to go to a doctor, then he collapsed and was rushed to hospital where he died, of pneumonia caused by bladder cancer. Sylvia was distraught for a very long time, but survived him for another ten years. She did nothing but watch sports on TV, smoke, drink wine and feed the birds in the garden. She developed throat cancer but died while having her first course of chemotherapy, on 5th July 1998.
She was buried with my father in Hounslow Cemetary.

Norman married Doris Marie Milanie Rigoli on 26 Jul 1941. (Doris Marie Milanie Rigoli was born on 20 May 1914, died on 20 Apr 1966 in Folkestone, , Kent, England and was buried in St. Martin's Churchyard, Hythe, , Kent, England.)

Norman next married Sylvia Rose Hughes 2 Mar1967. (Sylvia Rose Hughes died on 5 Jul 1998.)