Extraordinary LIVES
MY HUSBAND TED
AS YOUNGSTERS in the 1940s, Ted and I lived next door to each other in West Ham, East London. I fell in love with him when I was 12. He was witty and made me laugh. At 14, he’d just started working as an apprentice electrician, so I thought he must have money, which made him an even better catch! We grew close over the following years and married in February 1949, when I was 18 and he was just a month short of 20. We started married life in two rooms of my parents’ house. Ted did National Service in Egypt from 1951 to 1952, and our son Keith was born the day after the Coronation. After Ted became a fully qualified electrician, he worked for British Railways at Stratford station and the London Electricity Board. He applied for a job as an electrical technician at Hammersmith Hospital, advertised
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by the Medical Research Council. It involved operating a cyclotron machine, a particle accelerator used for medical research. The aim was to find an effective treatment for cancer. Among the many patients he met at the hospital was the actor Alastair Sim. After Ted retired at 58, we left London and settled at a mobile homes park near Maldon, Essex. Ted loved DIY and was always doing something to improve our home. And because he was so good with electrics, he’d often help out our neighbours. Not surprisingly, he was very popular. He also loved fishing and he’d take me off on trips to the Norfolk Broads.
In 2019, we celebrated our 70th wedding anniversary and were delighted to receive a card from the Queen. A month later, Ted celebrated his 90th birthday with our friends and neighbours. We had no idea of the pandemic that would come the following year and that Ted would end up catching coronavirus while being treated in hospital for another condition. I’ve loved Ted for most of my life and will always miss him.
EDWARD ARTHUR CHARLES WATSON, born March 15, 1929; died December 23, 2020, aged 91.