Gladys Emily Walker - Perrin - Hill
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Gladys Emily Walker
My grandmother Gladys Emily Walker was born 10 November 1903 in Carleton, Ontario and was the daughter of John Henry Walker 1877–1960 and Ellen Moffatt 1871–1947 they had 3 daughters and a son:
Gladys Emily Walker married George Edward Perrin 6 June 1925 and they had two children:
When her husband George died, Gladys Emily Walker-Perrin remained single and raised my mother by herself and with the help of my great grandparents until after my mother married my father in 1949. In 1950, Gladys Emily Walker-Perrin married, who I knew as a child, as my grandfather, William McCarroll Smythe Hill, (born 5 November 1899 in Bellfast, Antrim, Ireland and died 15 January 1987 in Toronto) in 1950 at the age of 47. Grandpa
Hill or "Willie", as he was known. Previously he was
married to Mary Halliday (1899-1946) on July 11,
My mother was friends with Peg and Ruth as a child, in fact Peg was the Maid Of Honour at my mother’s wedding, in 1949. After Gladys and William were married in 1950, friendships between Peg, Ruth and my mother became strained, as my grandmother wanted new furniture to begin her new marriage. William’s daughter’s thought she was trying to erase the memory of their mother, even though their mother’s furniture was given to them. William lived at 70 Wroxetor Avenue in Toronto with his daughters Peg and Ruth, just around the corner from where the Cranstoun’s then lived on Pape Avenue. When "Willie" married my grandmother, she and my mother moved in with Willie and his daughters.. During their old age Grandma and Grandpa Hill sold their house and moved to an apartment on Thorncliffe Park Drive in Toronto. When Gladys died in 1976, Peg and Ruth moved "Willie" into an old age home back in the neighbourhood where he had lived for years. The situation between the siblings became uneasy as the “Halliday side”, unbeknownst to my mother, had a family raffle on my grandmother’s furniture and when my mother was told about a family raffle there was nothing left, it all went to the children of her stepsisters. They did that because Peg’s mother-in-law (West) questioned why my mother should get anything. When my parents got to the apartment there was one piece of furniture left which they had given to her mother as a wedding present, with another family members name on it, my father picked it up and took it, my brother has it now.
That was the only momento my mother received as a memory of her mother, as everything had been taken away. Gladys' personal family papers and pictures, everything, my mother got none of her mother's things, it all went to her stepsisters children. The incident caused a huge family fight between Ray Bossi, Ruth's husband, and my father and the family relationship ended there. There were a few "cold" conversations after that but the family ties had ended. “Willie” moved to an old age home and died in 1987 and lived long enough to see his great grandson, my son Brad. When Gladys Emily Walker-Perrin-Hill died on November 30, 1976 she was buried with her first husband Edward George Perrin (Section 12 Range 19 Grave 24) at St John's Norway Cemetery & Crematorium at 256 Kingston Rd, Toronto, Ontario. William McCarroll Smythe Hill was buried with his first wife Mary Haliday (Section 4 Grave AA11) at St. John’s Norway Cemetary & Crematorium at 266 Kingston road in Toronto, Ontario. Unlike his daughters, Willie cared for my mother and provided for her in his Will.
William McCarroll Smythe Hill William McCarroll Smythe Hill was the son of Phares William Hill 1865-1946 and Martha Smythe 1869-1966 and he had a sister Olive Beatrice Hill 1896-?. "Willie" was born in Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland. I was lucky enough in my life to have met "Willie's" mother Martha Smyhe and his sister Olive, who never married. The picture below is one my mother took at a Thanksgiving dinner. 1946 had to have been a particularly rough year for “Willie”, as he lost his father Phares William Hill on January 24, 1946 and a few months later on April 4, 1946 he lost his wife Mary Halliday. He looked after his mother and sister until they died. One has to give it to old “Willie”, he was an electrician who must have loved my grandmother a lot as he made sure my mother was looked after, as well as the wife and family of his son Donald Browne Hill, who had passed away in 1972, when he, “Willie”, passed away, despite the antics of his daughters. My grandfather was like my father’s father, Langford Duer Cranstoun, he would sit in the background and not say very much. I have fond memories of him, being at my grandparents house on a Friday evening and running down to the corner of Wroxeter and Pape to wait for Grandpa to walk up the street. He was easy to spot carrying his large black lunch box. When I saw him I would run down the street to greet him and try and walk (more like run) with him. he walked at a rather fast pace and it was difficult to keep up with him, somehow I managed. We would always stop into the fish and chip shop at the corner and he would get dinner which we would take home. Upon reflection, it is through him that I developed my love for fish and chips and as a result I eventually opened my own fish and chip shop in Alliston, called the Simcoe County Fish & Chip Company. My grandfather William McCarroll Symthe Hill carried a brown wallet with his initials WMSH engraved on it and he gave me that wallet before he passed away in 1987 and I carried it with me for years until it finally wore out. I never understood what the initials on the wallet stood for until I started the family tree. My grandfather left an estate valued at $175,289.99, pretty good accumulation for a guy born in 1899. After all the bills were paid out of his estate my mother and her siblings, Peg, Ruth and Don all received $40,000. One thing I never knew about my grandfather until I started my family history was that he, at 17 years of age, on January 5, 1916 enlisted in the Canadian Army for WWI. I never ever heard anything about him being in the war, ever. Like my grandfather Cranstoun he never said anything abut the war either. In May 1916, 5 months after enlisting he sailed for England, on March 14, 1918 he was discharged for being medically unfit for duty and being under age.
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1925.
They had 2 daughters and a son:
