Elvira (Hutchings) Culbert (1915-1977): A Memoir by Phil Culbert

The Culbert Family History blog presents a memoir of Elvira (Hutchings) Culbert, written by her son, Phillip Myron "Phil" Culbert. Elvira was a war bride who married the great-grandson of John Culbert and Mary Ward: Ivan Hector Culbert.

Elvira Hutchings in her early 20s, during the mid-to-late 1930s.

ELVIRA (HUTCHINGS) CULBERT by Phil Culbert

My mother was born in the small Welsh industrial village of Ystalyfera, Glamorgan, Wales on February 3, 1915, the 7^th and youngest child of Elizabeth Myfanwy Hutchings (1880-1930.) 

Elvira was born at 9 Panteg Road on February 3rd, 1915 in Ystalyfera. This photo was taken c1900.

Ystalyfera is a Welsh word meaning tall, berran (meaning land sharing) island.  It is located in the upper Swansea Valley on the River Tawe about 21 kilometers north-east of Swansea. 

Ystalyfera, c1915.

The village grew due to the advent of coal mining and iron tinplate works where the majority of its resident men would have worked although both industries were declining rapidly by the time Mom was born, and would eventually all shut down, leaving this small town to redefine itself throughout the 20^th century.

Ystalyfera today

My grandmother, Elizabeth Myfanwy Hutchings had been widowed 7 years prior to my mother’s birth, having been married since 1898 to Arthur Hutchings who was the father of all my mother’s 6 siblings, and who tragically died in a coal mining accident at the age of 33 in 1908.

Elvira's mother, Elizabeth Myfanwy Hutchings

Being left a widow at such a young age, my grandmother was forced to work full time despite having 6 young children to feed and care for at home. She secured a position as a housekeeper for a wealthy widower in her small town, and it is thought that this man might in fact be my mother’s father. However, we have no definitive proof to verify it nor do we know his name.  My mother kept this a secret from all of us kids growing up including my Dad, and took this secret to her grave. It was only through researching Welsh birth and death records that I was able to confirm that the man who we thought was her father, Arthur Hutchings, had actually died 7 years before Mom was born. 

Fortunately, my mother had older siblings who were able to help my grandmother with raising my mother while she worked to provide for her large, young family. Unfortunately, my grandmother, Elizabeth Hutchings passed away at the young age of only 50 when my mother was only 15.

Mom was educated at the Pantteg Council School. It was built in 1877 and operated right up until its closure in 1974. All 6 of my mother’s brothers and sisters would also have attended this school until the age of 14.  If they wished to continue their education, they would then have all gone to the Ystalyfera Intermediate School.  

Pantteg School. Source: Ystalyfera History and Heritage.

 

Elvira Hutchings school concert at Pantteg School, age 8 in Grade 3. Elvira is second from the left in the top row.

Many children back then quit school at age 14 or even before to seek employment to help their families out. I’m sure this was the case with most of my mother’s siblings as the eldest child, Tom Idris Hutchings was only 12 years old, and the youngest child only 2 years old when my grandmother was widowed.

Mom and her brothers and sisters regularly attended church at the Chapel of Pantteg.    

Pantteg Chapel. Source: Ystalyfera History and Heritage.

It is written in the book by Bernant Hughes called Ystalyfera Memories that the minister of the Chapel was a man named Rev. Ben Davies. His salary was based on whatever monies were given that week in the collection plate on the last Sunday of each month. Apparently, there were not too many silver coins in that plate as it was a very poor community so he basically lived on the copper coin contributions once a month.

Elvira Hutchings (standing, far right) age 19 at her sister Lal's wedding in Bognor Regis, England in 1934. Her eldest brother, Idris Hutchings is in the back row, second from the left.

Not much is known about my mother’s activities after she left school other then she moved to England at some point where she became a secretary for a few years in a real estate office until WWll broke out. She later joined the British Royal Navy in the WRNS. (Women’s Royal Navy Service.)

Elvira Hutchings when she was a member of the British Royal Navy's Wrens from 1941-1945.

Women joining this part of the Royal Navy were referred to as Wrens. Wrens responsibilities included driving, cooking, clerical work, operating radar and communications equipment, and providing weather forecasts. Many Wrens were involved in planning naval operations including the D-Day landings in June 1944. 

Elvira Hutchings (seated, right) at her housing unit with the British Royal Navy's Wrens, 1941-1945.

Elvira in her Wrens uniform.

It was during this time that she met my father, Ivan Culbert from Lucan, Ontario; a Canadian soldier stationed in Aldershot, England which is 30 miles outside London near where my mother lived, and where all the Canadian soldiers were stationed during the war. 

Ivan Culbert in uniform, WWII.

They would marry on September 8, 1945 in Chichester, England. 

 

Ivan Culbert & Elvira Hutchings, wedding day, September 8th, 1945 in Chichester, England. Photo courtesy of Vicky (Culbert) Schloendorf.

Ivan and Elvira's wedding day.

 

The Ministry of Food issued ration books to every British citizen. This one belonged to Elvira.

Dad returned home in January 1946 on a troop ship and my mother who was now pregnant with my sister Vicky, joined hundreds of other British war brides setting sail on the Queen Mary to this new country called Canada, eventually settling with my Dad in Lucan, Ontario.

Other than a trip back to England in 1948 shortly after Ian was born, my mother would never again see her homeland; spending the rest of her life in her new chosen home of Canada. My sister Vicky and brother Ian accompanied my mother on that trip to visit Mom’s sisters and brothers.

Elvira (Hutchings) Culbert and daughter, Vicky.

That would be the last time that my mother would ever see her brothers and sisters although she did talk on the phone to a few of them each Christmas, and write many letters back and forth. This was at a time in the 1950’s and 60’s when a single phone call to England cost a lot of money so the calls were usually kept very short.

Soon after returning to Canada, my Dad opened Culbert’s Bakery and Grocery Store in Lucan, moving upstairs into an apartment above the store on Main Street. Mom gave birth to her first child, Victoria (Vicky) born August 18, 1946.  My brother Ian would follow 17 months later, arriving on January 16, 1948; and then I was born on April 1, 1950.  

 

Elvira with son, Phil Culbert.

Mom now had 3 children under the age of 5 to care for while Dad ran the store.

 

Left to right: Vicky, Ian, and Phil. 1951.

When Dad sold his store in 1955, he was working for Singer Sewing Machine and was transferred to their branch store in Owen Sound, Ontario as Store Manager. Mom was pregnant with her youngest and 4^th child Christine when we moved, and Chris was born on Sept. 17, 1955 in Owen Sound. Our family spent 2 years in Owen Sound and Mom and Dad decided they wanted to move back to Southwestern Ontario somewhere near Lucan. So they purchased a home in London where us 4 kids basically grew up in the late 50’s and 60’s living at 605 Colborne Street; our family home until we all moved over the years to get married and create our own homes.  

 

The Culbert Family home at 605 Colborne Street in London, Ontario.

My mother always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and besides raising us four kids she took in boarders, did some babysitting, and her real passion was selling Avon products in the local neighbourhood.  Mom would dress up in her finest clothes; always looking like a million dollars, applying her makeup perfectly, and setting out onto the streets in our surrounding neighbourhood, knocking on doors and selling her product.  She became very good at it and had a lot of repeat customers who bought from her regularly. It was very tough to say no to my mother!!!! Believe me, us kids tried many times without success. (LOL)

Like the woman in this 1960 Avon advertisement, Elvira was an Avon Representative, known as an "Avon Lady."

Mom never drove much when she came to Canada despite driving huge supply trucks during the war in England for the British Royal Navy as a Wren.  Apparently, as the story goes, my Dad had bought her a small sports car when they first arrived in Lucan and Mom got into a single vehicle accident, destroying the car and deciding never to drive again.

Mom was the family disciplinarian and she didn’t hold back if we had done something wrong. Like many parents from that era, sparing the rod to spoil the child was not an option in our house as far as Mom was concerned.  As my brother and I got older, we would make a game out of it as she tried to grab us to enforce her discipline but she couldn’t catch us and would always say, “Just wait until your father gets home.” We would chuckle, knowing all Dad would do would be to talk to us and tell us not to upset Mom. 

Left to right: Ivan Culbert, Phil, Vicky, Christine, Elvira, and Ian. Summer, 1960.

Mom would often come to events we had at our school, Lord Roberts, and I will never forget my Grade 8 graduation when we all had to individually perform some form of skit or entertainment for all the parents and siblings in the audience. One of my classmates, Mike Vanbaardwick decided to do a piano recital. Everything was going well until he forgot his place halfway through, and just sat there staring blankly down at the piano keys. You could hear a pin drop! All of a sudden, this booming voice from the audience starts singing the rest of the song he was performing. It was MY mother!!!!  I was so embarrassed I started to slide under my chair on the stage as all my classmates watched my descent into oblivion. Soon, Mike picked up where she was singing in the song and started playing on the keys of his piano again. My mother received a standing ovation!!!

I did not appreciate what she had done until years later. That was Mom. Never shy about doing or saying anything! This trait of Mom’s of which I was so embarrassed about as a child, I would later proudly emulate as an adult myself, and continue to do so today. Mom always stood up for what she believed in, and was never shy about letting other people know as she had little to no filter at all when it came to expressing her feelings.

Elvira makes the news! London Free Press article, 1960s.

At the age of 52, my mother had a major brain hemorrhage that almost killed her, leaving her unable to care for herself, with permanent brain damage. She remained in Victoria Hospital in London for almost 7 months, recovering. She was later transferred to London Psychiatric Hospital where she would remain for 7 years, eventually being transferred to a nursing home until she died after contracting pneumonia. 

My father suffered a major stroke a year after Mom was hospitalized, and was unable to look after Mom himself as he also needed care. So it became the duty of her children to fill that role, especially my sister Vicky and her husband Earl who became the main caregivers, picking her up on weekends to visit my Dad, and entertaining her at their home until it was time to go back to the hospital.

My brother Ian and his wife Nancy were also very helpful, shuttling Mom back and forth from the hospital, and taking my Dad grocery shopping and helping out however they could. I never owned a car until 1971 so had to rely on my siblings to do all the driving back and forth to the hospital.

As I had moved to B.C. in late 1971, I was never able to help out with Mom or Dad’s care so I am forever grateful to my siblings for filling the roll of caregivers of my parents for all those years before they passed.

After 10 years of institutionalized care, Mom passed away at the very young age of 62 on March 7, 1977 and is buried in St. James Cemetery in Clandeboye near Lucan with her husband, Ivan.

Elvira and Ivan with their son Phil, and their grandchild, Brad Culbert (Phil's son.)