ISLANDER REUNITEDFrom Martin Carpenter, 14 Down End Road, Drayton, Portsmouth PO6 1HT, e-mail martin.carpenter@talktalk.net
I AM the grandson of Dr Hayward Carpenter, assistant county medical officer, who died on May 7, 1946, having worked for about 20 years on the Island.
I am in the process of collating family history and although I am now retired and was only 13 months old at the time of his death.
I feel there may still be the chance that someone will remember him (or other members of the family) particularly as his speciality was chest diseases of school children in East Wight.
He had two sons, John (my father who died around 2000) and Michael, who was also a doctor in the Aldershot area until his retirement.
The family home was Meadowcroft, Salisbury Road, Ryde, where I spent my first year before moving off the Island to Bedfordshire where my father was farming.
My childhood memories were of visits to my grandmother, Dorothy, who after being widowed moved to The Strand in Ryde where she continued to live until her death in 1973.
John and Michael attended Ryde School as children and I still have memories of family friends the Landers (Hugh and Maud and their children John and Mary) who lived at The Firs, Alexandra Road.
Kit Egremont was another school friend of my father’s and they eventually ended up in a business partnership in the early 1960s.
During the process of my research I have managed to obtain a copy of my grandfather’s obituary published in the County Press on May 11,1946 and also a book, A History of the Isle of Wight Hospitals, by E. F. Laidlaw, which contains a number of references to him. Consequently, I have already managed to obtain quite a bit of information.
I lost contact with my father over the last 25 years of his life thereby losing the opportunity to glean more information. I remember being told as a teenager that Hayward Avenue, Ryde, was named after my grandfather and wonder why. Did he own the land originally or buy it for development or was this simply a family myth?
I would be interested in hearing from anyone able to assist me to fill the gaps with information on either of my grandparents or indeed their sons. I’ve heard from a number of sources that my father was a difficult child so will not be particularly surprised by anything I might hear!
Please reply by either e-mail (marked Hayward Carpenter, so that it doesn’t get deleted) or by post if more convenient.
Thank you.