Pearl Ruth Cranstoun
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What a crock, Pearl was forty-seven years old in 1968 when she took all the family papers, the youngest of her siblings was thirty-nine years old, the whole family had met "Bessie" Harper in their house, they all knew the family background and for some reason never spoke of it! So just what was she protecting the family from, she hadn't lived in the family home since she got married in 1942. Pearl Ruth Cranstoun married Flight Lieutenant Alfred George Rowe, at the age of twenty, on March 7, 1942. Alfred George Rowe was killed in action over Essen, Germany on March 11, 1945 at the age of 24. However, due to the fact that it was Pearl who had taken the family history from the Cranstoun family home we need to continue the story. In an email from my cousin, “My mother's unhappy childhood and the loss of her first husband were very traumatic and played an important part in her wanting to provide a stable environment for her children - which I only realized when I had kids. I know my mother was well aware of the family history. She experienced a lot of discrimination growing up as I don't doubt the younger siblings did but probably weren't aware of the reason why. Our grandparents relationship was very dysfunctional. They constantly battled, Grandpop would leave, they'd reconcile and 9 months later another baby was born. At least that's my mother's recollection as to why the kids were so close in age and why there are so few fond memories. Your father apparently spent most of his time at Auntie Fan's to get away from all the discord. I'm speculating that could also account for Stewart's efforts to change his name and distance himself geographically.” It is quite clear from this that Pearl knew my father spent most of his life with his Auntie Fan, a very important to note as the story continues. My father told me that when Alfred George Rowe went to war he sent my father a postcard (I have it), talking about his looking forward to seeing my father's big brother (Alan) and told him to keep plugging at school. When they got the notice that Alfred had died and his chest came back, Pearl asked my father to go and get it. He went with Alfred's brother who had to be forced by my father to drive his car to get it. My father said Alfred's brother went through the chest first and took what he wanted because “he was his brother”. My father was totally pissed at himself when he told me that story because he hadn't given him a beating at the time, for going through the chest first. Pearl gave my father one of the Epaulette’s off Alfred’s uniform and something else, I'm sorry, I forget what it is called but it's for water landings, anyway he still has them...he saved everything. Pearl then remarried to John Thomson born August 21, 1922 in Torry, Aberdeen, Scotland. They had two children. Uncle Jack, suffered from Post Traumatic Stress when he returned from WWII and lost every hair on his body, so there are very few pictures of him. One story, told to me by my father was that Uncle Jack was a baseball player, a pitcher and from what my father says a pretty good one. He used to practice throwing a cannonball up in the air and catching it with his throwing arm to strengthen it. One day Uncle Jack gave me that cannonball, which I used as a child to practice shot put, I still have that cannonball today.
Pearl had knowledge of the family history but due to the colour factor remained silent and after I opened the door some of this information began to come forth, in dribs and drabs. I knew there was more, as I was with my grandmother as she lay dying in her living room when Pearl left the house with all the family papers. I knew this because I saw this with my own eyes and I needed to tread lightly in order to obtain the information, because the family had not spoken to one another in over fifty years. After nearly two years of polite correspondence I finally received an email from my cousin, “When Grandma, Fan, Grace and Bar immigrated in 1911 they initially stayed with Charles Percival who arrived earlier. I'm assuming after Frederick Whin died in 1909 there wasn't much left in the way of support in England. As far as I can remember, there was no mention of Charles after Grandma married. I'm also speculating that he wasn't too pleased about a mixed marriage and cut off contact.” Let’s get this right, Grace arrived in 1907 with her husband, Carter Needham and son Eric, born 1904. Charles Langford Duer Cranstoun returned to Antigua for his father’s funeral and copied the following dedication off a board, my father identified the handwritng immediately, “That’s daddy’s handwriting”, Langford Duer Cranstoun, as soon as I showed it to him. When my cousin finally started to communicate with me she sent me some interesting information showing Pearl knew a lot of the information presented here, but for whatever the reason, kept the information to herself. My father being the youngest by quite a few years knew none of this information. The following is copied from a photocopy I received in November 2012 from my cousin, along with these papers were photocopies of old family pictures my father had never seen and Langford’s passport from 1920, and his diploma from the Antigua Grammar School. “Female Orphan Asylum John Athill, Nathaniel Hill, Charles Este, James Thibou, David Cranstoun, John McIntosh, William Lynch, William Under whose benevolent and active escertions together with the aid of the Directors of The Distressed Female Copy of Board erected in building at time of purchase.” A very, very interesting revelation, and an extremely hard fact for me to find, and I had known about this, through the information provided by Dr. Susan Lowes and David Cranstoun’s sister, Ann, was head of this organization in 1872! This verfied to me...Pearl knew an awful lot about the family! In 1908 Langford graduated from the Antigua Grammar School what follows is what appeared on his diploma. University of Cambridge All this information was taken and hidden by my father's sister, Pearl and I would later find out she had hidden a lot more of the family history. As this is a web site and the family history begins to become very, very ugly due to internal family turmoil, we shall stop here, although there is much, much more to this story. There is more on Pearl Ruth Craanstoun in the section on Eric William Cranstoun.
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Pearl Ruth Cranstoun was born on May 8, 1921 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the second daughter of 
Pearl passed away at her daughter's home in 1998 and John passed away in 1989, they are both buried at Pine Hills Cemetary in the military section in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
