Extraordinary Lives
IRIS was adopted at the age of 18 months by Walter and Frances Ansell as a playmate for their daughter Doris. She lived in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, attended the Alameda school and worked in service, at a mushroom factory, waitressing at the Luton Vauxhall factory and as a tram driver for the London Brick Company. During World War II, the teenage Iris enjoyed dances in the village hall. There was no shortage of young men in uniform: some were billeted in Ampthill Park before going off to fight, while others were American soldiers. After a fun evening of dancing and the odd gin and orange, she would do a runner before her date became too amorous. She would squeeze through the window in the Ladies and cycle off in trousers, while smoking a Player’s Weights cigarette to give the impression of a man rather than a young girl alone at night. Iris was popular and cheeky, a ray of sunshine for the men working in the brickyard, though she did play tricks on them. Steering the tram with one hand, she’d use the other to chuck a brick in the barrel of pugwash, knowing full well the dirty liquid would
splash all over an unsuspecting workman. One day, she got a bit over-confident and knocked over a pile of stacked bricks. She was summoned to see the foreman, who ticked her off. That was the end of her high jinks. She met my Dad, George Francis Dudley, in Stewartby Club after he had been demobbed following seven years in the Royal Navy. He went on to work at the brick company for 50 years. Aged 25, married to George and raising their son Alan, Iris contracted polio. She was in isolation at a fever hospital, before being transferred to Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, Berkshire, for treatment. She was paralysed in both legs — and pregnant. Fortunately, Linda was born unharmed. But Iris had to learn to walk again with heavy metal callipers and crutches. Relatives looked after her children for a year while Iris built up her strength, physically and psychologically. Nine years later, the family was complete when I was born. While pregnant, Iris told an inquiring neighbour she had chilblains when asked why she was attending the doctor’s surgery in her wheelchair. Her fierce determination and fighting spirit never left her. She thoroughly enjoyed attending race meetings with her family at Royal Ascot and Newmarket, where she was well-known by the stewards because of her radiant smile and cheerful disposition. With five grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, Iris loved life and was a lady who triumphed over adversity.
IRIS DUDLEY (nee Ansell), born November 14, 1924; died September 26, 2018, aged 93.