The West Women Hall of Fame

My newly found 3rd Cousin Peter Edwards just recently sent me 3 books from Guernsey as follows:

• I Beg to Report . . . by William M. Bell - This book is about policing in Guernsey during the Nazi Occupation.  It tells about how Jews who lived there were sent to Auschwitz and the local population was dominated and treated horribly.  Police who helped people received harsh prison terms.
• Memories of a Misspent Childhood, by Peter Edwards - This is a hilarious and also heartbreaking account of my cousin Peter's childhood in Guernsey.  To say his family was dirt poor would be an understatement! 
• Family History - A detailed history in both pictures and stories about Peter's Paternal and Maternal ancestors.

I am still looking through everything that he sent me. Although I am quite touched by all of it, there are a few things that have really jumped out at me.  The biggest thing that has garnered my attention is cousin Peter's Grandmother and my 1st cousin 2x removed, Linda Mary West. Linda was quite a woman, and is now in my "West Women Hall of Fame".

Linda was one of ten children born to my Great Grand Uncle William West and Selina Harriet Thoumine on Roland Road in Guernsey, Channel Islands on 4 August 1874.  Linda married William Henry Harper on 3 July 1894.  According to family oral history, William Harper certainly met his match when he married Linda. 

William was a gunner in the Royal Artillery and in 1897, he and the family moved to Plymouth, Devonshire, England, which was a Garrison town where drinking and fighting was the norm on weekends.  According to family oral history,  William and Linda took great pleasure from these weekend activities and would hit the town after wagering who could knock out the most roughnecks, and Linda invariably always won!  There ain't nothing like a kick-ass woman, especially a West Woman!

Here is a picture of Linda circa 1923 :

Linda Mary West circa 1923

Sadly, she ended up dying at the age of 58 at 7:30 PM on Sunday, 21 May 1933.  Apparently, she had stuck her foot into a boiling tub and it ended up becoming "septic".  She underwent an operation at Country Hospital two days previous but it was too late to help her.  It is said that right after this operation she was getting off of a bus to go home and had to pass a couple of roughnecks fighting.  Her son ran off of the bus to make sure that she wouldn't get hurt, but by the time he got there, both of the roughnecks were unconscious on the ground.  Apparently, Linda had knocked their heads together. Lord have mercy!   It is a shame that such a healthy and physically powerful woman ended up dying for such a strange reason!

Long live the West Women!