Nesta Mary Morgan-Owen (cntd)
The 1939 Register indicates that Nesta was in charge of billeted children in the district, children who had been evacuated from cities and large towns. She was living at "Penbryn", the family home in Repton, Derbyshire, with sister Gwen and brother Hugh, who was billeting officer for the area. Maxwell Wood was a commercial Traveller (steel) living at 101 Ashgate Road, Chesterfield, Derbyshire (probably a boarding house).
I was told that Morgan and Hugh referred to Nesta as That abominable sister of ours
but that Morgan settled money on her and that no one in the family knew she had remarried [Windsor 1946, 3rd qt] until after her death. The General Register records that her husband was Harold Sidney Abrahamson or Ashton. This provided the clue that revealed something of Harold's life story. Nesta's husband was Harold Sidney Abrahamson who used the pseudonym of H.S. Ashton as a writer. There is more information about him on
this page.
It describes how Harold worked valiently to try to help the Jews in the occupied Netherlands during WWII and how the Queen of the Netherlands, in recognition of his services to Netherlands' interests during the war, bestowed the honour of Chevalier [London Gazette, 30 Jan 1948] and subsequently Commander [London Gazette, 13 July 1951] of the Order of Orange-Nassau.
How sad that Gwen, on Nesta's death [Hove 1960, 1st qt], when she learned of this second marriage refused to allow the name of Abrahamson to appear on Nesta's gravestone.
I was told that in old age Nesta always wore black, she had lost her good looks and her eyes appeared disproportionately large. She lived to be eighty-two. Probate records state that Nesta Mary Abrahamson (or Woods) of 36 Selborne Road, Hove, died on 11 February 1960 at 19 Albany Villas, Hove, and probate was granted to her husband, Harold, a civil servant.
Harold, of 30 Selborne Road, died in Brighton General Hospital, on 3 January 1962, aged 69 [Brighton 1962, 1st qt] and Letters of Administration were granted to John Gethin Morgan-Owen.