Rosemary Edna Julia Spencer (27 Mar 1928 - 2 May 2015)

In loving memory of the late Rosemary Edna Julia Spencer Spencer who sadly passed away on 2nd May 2015
Rosemary was born on the 27th March 1928 to Hilda Rose and Ebenezer Sidney Rideout at the Greenwood Cottages in Bromham. Her Grandfather Julius Rideout founded Bromham Baptist Church after vowing that if he survived the Great War he would build a Baptist church.
Rosemary had three brothers, David, John and Roger. When she was a toddler she had a rag doll she named Mike who appears in an early picture with her, John and her Grandma.
Rosemary grew up playing with her brothers, making bows and arrows out of garden canes and playing all sorts of games. She recounted that her mother's clothes prop got broken during a jousting match of some kind. They use to cycle to the railway and watch the trains, a particular favourite was the Turvey Flyer at Stevington on the line between Bedford Midland station and Northampton. At that time it was an 0-6-0 tank engine built in 1900 by The Vulcan Works.
Rosemary and her brothers attended the local school in Bromham which is still used today with its motto proudly written across its gables, “ Those that seek me early shall find me”.
A great friend was Michael Anderson who spent many happy days of his childhood residing with the Rideout family.
Rosemary then moved up to Dame Alice Harper school in Bedford where she and Mava became lifelong friends visiting each other and writing frequently to each other.
Rosemary recalls being taught in science that the atom was indivisible when Lord Rutherford was splitting the atom at Cardington. She recalled that they were also taught the 'formaldehyde theory' that supposedly explained how plants made sugar from sunshine and carbon-dioxide. At the time she thought this to be nonsense as formaldehyde kills plants. From an early interest in plants sprung her desire to study botany. At the time when few women went to university she obtained a first class honours degree in botany.
Rosemary began work at Porton Down under the auspices of the Ministry of Supply. The work she was involved in was an attempt to make Anthrax into a biological weapon. Fortunately this didn't work too well. However, she was one of the few people in the world vaccinated against Anthrax. Not that they tested the vaccine out as it was far too dangerous to do so.
She married Kenneth Spencer, our Dad while they were both working at Porton Down. Dad worked in the Chemical warfare department of the Ministry of Supply. He told us a few hair raising tails discovering the truth about Nazi nerve gas captured by the Marines. Including being ordered to take a cylinder of Sarin on the train from Salisbury up to the Ministry of Defence in London. Fortunately it didn't leak. Common sense was obviously in short supply at the end of the war.
Mum quit Porton Down and Andrew was born in Salisbury. Dad was offered work in Edinburgh so they all moved there. Shortly after, Bob was born making him Scottish by birth. The tenement they lived in had a large communal stairway made of granite steps. As Bob was in danger of toppling, Mum knitted him a woollen crash helmet rather than try and stop him exploring.
A job came up near Portsmouth so the four of them decamped to Lea Park in Havant where I was born. Shortly after that Mum and Dad succeeded in buying 6 Park Crescent in Emsworth. Thanks to Uncle Howard for helping make that happen.
Rosemary, who had often questioned her own faith began to feel a sense of certainty while at Emsworth. First at the church in Emsworth and then Lea Park Baptist church.
An early memory of mine is Mum putting a noisy stranger at the other end of my pram. I of course tried to push him out. The stranger turned out to be our little brother Trevor and soon I was evicted. To complete the set Matthew was born in 1963. Mum, who had hitherto only ridden a motorbike learned to drive a Bedford Van. The forerunner of today's minibus. It was the only way of moving such a large family about.
Three years later we were on the move again to Hitchin as Dad started work at Smith Kline & French in Welwyn Garden City. We all attended Tilehouse Street Baptist Church in Hitchin every Sunday. Mum often going to evensong as well as the morning service. Mum's van driving skills came in handy taking the Tilehouse Girls Brigade on outings.
It was in Hitchin that Rosemary met Sylvia and Tom Martineau with their little girl Sadie. Sylvia was from Jamacia and Tom was from Montserrat. In those days there was a lot of racism with the National Front causing trouble in the town. Sadie used to play with us during the holidays as Sylvia was a nurse at the nearby hospital. Sylvia set up her own pentecostal church in Hitchin. Sylvia retired to Jamaica after more than 30 years of working in the NHS to set up yet another church. The British Government tried to deny Sylvia her pension until Rosemary waded in and shamed them.

When all of us boys started to attend grammar school, Rosemary started a course in social work at Stevenage College. As a social worker she became aware of some of the nasty things that only today the authorities are beginning to acknowledge and sometimes belatedly take action on. After a frustrating start in Social Services where her reports of wrong doing were dismissed, she moved to National Children's Home regional office in Harpenden. She worked in fostering and adoption for many years until she retired.
Rosemary travelled quite widely, visiting her brother John and his family in South Africa with Matthew. She went to Canada with myself and Janet as well as crossing into America at Niagara falls to visit friends of mine.

Reading back through this there is so much more I could say, to sum up her life in so few paragraphs seems so inadequate. She never got over Ken leaving her after 25 years of marriage and she never stopped trying to help her boys. Even in the last year she had words of comfort and encouragement for me even though she was very deaf and almost blind she thought of others before herself. She loved to see her grandchildren and was very fond of her great grandchild Caleb. His visits put a bit of the old spark back into her. The nursing staff said she was always ready with a smile and the only time she complained was when someone put sugar in her tea.