Born 1885 ?
We think this is the very first photographic image of Edith B Mays.
Another fascinating story is the Mays Page story. It was sad researching this story of lost loves and bitter families. All the information came from old postcards torn from a postcard album of my stepfathers by chance, after he had died.
When my step father was quite old a messenger arrived on our doorstep, carrying a case from London.
He said to Stanley that his last uncle was ill and dying, he felt bad about what happened to Stanley's mother, his sister and had left a sum of money in his will for him.
To our astonishment Stanley refused the offer only to die at the age of 73 penniless leaving his wife, my mother to struggle financially. She had hated me most of her life and now had to ask me for help, this greatly upset her. My brother in Canada did not want to help and her son in law prevented her daughter helping. I also hated her having to ask me, as I could tell how much it hurt her, and I quickly made sure she never had to ask again, by keepinh her topped up with all she needed. Her husbands pride that prevented him from forgiving his family caused pain to those he loved, even after he had died. How can people forgive you if you will not forgive them?
The Mays family were tailors in London,
they belonged to the Jewish community and seemed strict as to right and wrong.
Granny, Edith B Mays, seemed not to have bothered to much about
earning money to live as she had a very large endowment coming her way.
We have photos of her as a shop girl, which is strange when the Mays Tailoring was doing so well.
I guess had she been a boy she would have been in the family business.
In fact she had two brothers. Clarence and the other name at this time, I am not sure.
When Clarence received his inheritance he invested it and started a coin business which supported him and his families all his life.
He ended up trading in Canada, and marring Eleanor. They always seemed content and happy.
They came back to England once to see us and we have a photo of Bernard and I with them.
In true Mays style the strange thing is that when he sadly died TWO WIVES came to the funeral!
Great aunt Eleanor was in fact his second wife and entitled to nothing, Clarence had lived a double life
for years and neither wife ever suspected anything!!
On to sister Edith Mays, my step grandmother and mother to my step father Stanley.
After [as far as I can find out she idled her years until her inheritance came]. Then she decided to go around the world alone but first class. The main thing my father remembered her saying about the trip was that while in China she pulled a China mans plait tail in fun. this turns out to be a insult and she was chased a long way by him wielding a knife.
There is a record of her traveling from Hong Kong to Australia by a P&O Ship,
on this voyage she fell in deeply love with a Greek purser called Stanley Andronocos.They set up home in Australia all seems to be fine until Edith becomes pregnant with Stanley my step father. The details are lost as to why she returned to England as the family never spoke of this period. my step father died never reveling a thing, it was only by reading saved postcards stuck in a album. that we knew anything of this whole affair.
The fact is that upon arriving home the family Mays wanted nothing to do with her, and all the inheritance money was gone. She had one brother in Canada, and one in the family business, neither who would help, and a mother and father that disowned her, it was back to work, and with some training she became the nurse at a boys school in Southport northern England. After Stanley was born she had to place him in orphanage, Whites Homes where he seemed to stay for some time, quite enjoying life. As we were growing up he would return time and time again to see old friends and the owners who seemed to love Stanley.
The post cards came from Stanley Andronocos as he became a captain for P&O we think changing his name to Alexander ? more be fitting a Captain of the P&O line. One post card says "I don't care what anybody thinks I am coming to see you and little Stanley" It is so sad to read of the parted lovers but I cannot understand why she left Australia and her lover for England in the first place. I think maybe they fell out over the baby.
After many years she met a Mr. Page who seems to be totally besotted with her. They are married and Mr. Page tends to her every need, disliking us children and step dad Stanley,
and making it known in little ways.
Gran always got rid of him and me as soon as we arrived for a visit. She would ask him to show me the garden or cut my hair. This he hated and I only realized that haircuts don't hurt the first time I went to a professional barber who didn't yank on my hair. My half brother Bernard and sister Elizabeth were both dark and Greek looking so granny Page would talk to them but myself with fair frizzy Baird hair was sent out of the way. I cant ever remember talking to her only to say hello and thank you etc.
When Gran died Mr. Page who I never liked died very soon after. He was not ill and they never found out why he died so the Doctor on the death certificate wrote Died of a broken heart. He had a small Yorkshire Terrier that went everywhere with him and within a week the dog died, again no reason found. Mr. Page had seven sons in his first marriage who I think Gran took on adding my father later. Every thing we know is only found out from postcards stuck in a very tatty album and saved by chance by me on step fathers death. My step father was very severe and both my brother and I grew up in fear, I guess he was Walt Disney's idea of a step dad. He was totally loved by everyone who met him, he was polite and had impeccable manners. he was very intelligent and gifted in English, but sure liked to bash his boys "to make them tough". I was blessed with a nature of ignoring it when I could, and when I could not ignore it I would roll up in a ball so tight that blows just did not hurt.
My poor brother Bernard to this day shudders as we talk of it.
Miss Edith Mays as a shop girl. She is 3rd from the left
My Mothers wedding to Stanley Mays
The only photo of Mr. Page, here they are on holiday in Wales which I am told is not part of England
A Miss Mays entered as a passenger. Was she on her way home or just going to Sidney on a shopping trip? Flights were few and far between so ships were the main transport. Stanley Andronocos may have some form of discount. There is no Greek crew mentioned?
This is the ship that Stanley Andronocos was captain of after a name change
A postcard from the album. We were told he was captain of the ship and was drowned when the ship sank. This is not true but must have appeased Stanley when he asked about his father. Stanley was so strict but must have had a hard life in the orphanage.
As I view the Ships plans I wonder which cabin Edith Mays was in and what a fantastic character she must have been to set off around the world for fun!
On her voyage from Hong Kong to Australia she fell deeply in love with a crew member called Stanley Andronocos, a Greek Saylor. I have not yet found out how Kong the crossing took but by the time they arrived in Sidney the had decided to stay together. I think that Stanley must have had some friends in Lismore on the east coast of Australia as they ended up there and spent some years together. The postcards mention friends and it seems that our Edith was somewhat of a flirt as on one it mentions it.
From the album I found some pictures and with the help of the web and the wonderful people that spend hours placing data in, I managed to get a photo of Lismore post office where Edith would collect her mail from England. There was never a card from her parents who had washed there hands of her at this time. Also I feel there was a home sickness developing after the flush of first love. When Edith returns home it seems that some beau was waiting but nothing developed. After working at a boys school as a nurse she seems to have met Mr.. Page who is besotted with her until is death only weeks after Edith died. He was said to have had seven sons. Maybe The sons could help and provide some more information. The postcards show Lismore as a outback town and are interesting when compared to today. The post office which must have been Edith's center is still there. I would love one day to walk up the steps as she did all those years ago. We spoke very little in life but as I researched her life I began to see a great fun loving and daring woman, who I admired even though she spent a fortune I feel a great sadness that her loves did not work out. She had little respect for Mr. Page but I am sure loved him in a different way to Stanley Andronocos. Edith named her only son Stanley after his father and maybe hoped that they would be together some time. The postcards also show that she tried to repair her relationship with her mother, to no avail the cards were returned I guess unread.
I made the first photo one of Lismore the post office where Edith Mays must have collected the cards from England. I was so excited when I first saw this picture. As they wrote back and forth they would write" Yours to hand" which meant that they had received the card and were replying.
This is the wonderful Lambourne All Saints Church. All the families lives centered around this church, and most are laid to rest here including Kathleen Faux my mother.
This is how I remember Granny Page as we knew her, we never spoke much and as soon as we arrived she would send me and Ernie out on some errand. Bernard my brother would soon follow then we could escape to Lambourne and have fun. In the warm summer we would lie on our backs and listen to the skylarks, free from fear.