Spotlight - "Sweet Victoria and a delayed honeymoon" the story of Nina Hedley.
Photo - Nina on her wedding day
Nina was born in Purcell Crescent, Fulham, London in 1922, she was the 7th of 8 children.
Her parents came from Ashford in Kent, her dad was a surgical instrument maker and her mother was the only daughter of Sir and Lady Lyle (Tate and Lyle).
Her mother was a housewife but really did very little as she employed maids and cooks. She did however know a great deal about knitting and embroidery which she passed down to Nina.
Her uncle. Arthur Lyle instigated the white lines which run down the centre of our roads and because of this he was given the freedom of the city of London. Her uncle Daniel was the Mayor of Maidstone and her grandfathers sister, Aunty Mary worked for Queen Victoria as a Lady in Waiting at Buckingham Palace.
Nina attended an elementary school, she was quite good in all the subjects but excelled in Scripture.
At 14 she left school and went to work in the offices of Derry and Toms in Kensington High Street until she married.
Nina met her husband through his sister with whom she worked. One day she introduced Nina to her brother John who at the time was 17. John used to call round and wait for Nina to finish work. Nina kept telling him not to come round all the time but his persistence paid off and on her 16th birthday she began dating him.
Photo - Nina with her son John
John joined the Territorial Army in August 1939 and when war broke out in September of that year he was called up and stationed in Sutton. He bunked off one night to ask Nina to marry him before he was shipped off to France, he did not want anyone else getting in first so they tied the knot the following Monday at 4.30pm. He had to go back to camp that evening and as all the family were at the wedding breakfast they could not spend any quality time together, the honey moon would have to wait! John had leave the following Christmas so they were able to enjoy some time together. After that Nina did not see her new husband until Dunkirk July 1940 and because he was a signal man in HQ he was the last to leave.
Photo - John in France
Nina was nearly 19 when her son John was born and the war was very much at home when a land mine was dropped on Purcell Crescent which wiped out half the street. She moved in with her father-in-law in Everington street (off Greyhound road) whilst her husband John was stationed at Tumbridge Wells (after Dunkirk). One day she went to visit John even though relatives were not allowed on the base. She met Field Marshal Montgomery who said to her “and who's little sweety are you?” she got away with it and could not believe the close shave.
After being bombed out two more times, Nina's mum and dad moved to Twynholm Mansions in Fulham Cross where they lived out their lives.
D-Day came and Nina went to live in Barnes where her brother was serving in the Norwegian Navy. (He had travelled the world on a Norwegian fishing boat and was able to speak the lingo.) So Nina was surrounded by sailors (lucky girl).
When her son was a year old she moved back to Everington Street and in 1945 her first daughter Christine was born.
Photo - Nina with her daughter Christine
Her husband John was demobbed in 1946 and they moved to a prefab in Edith Road, Olympia. Her second daughter Angela was born in 1953 and 4yrs later Diana was born.
When John was 39 he became ill and was diagnosed with cancer, however he recovered but by the time he was 46 it had returned with a vengeance. John died on Angela's 14th birthday (she was the first child John was able to be with at birth). Nina had found herself alone with 4 kids and no money coming in so after 28yrs of being a housewife it was time to go back to work.
John was working as an electrical engineer at the BBC and after his death his boss Mr Reddick helped Nina by offering her a job at the BBC. She ran the personnel and management registry and worked there for 17 years until she retired at the age of 60.
Nina's claim to fame, she danced with Hugh Weldon and she shared a taxi with David Attenborough who also very often travelled to work with her on the train.
While John was dying in the Fulham hospital (now Charing Cross) she met the chaplain Rev Thomas Hedley and they became good friends. Tom wooed Nina for 2 to 3 years, she eventually gave up and they got married in St Mary's, Kensington. Nina says “it was for company more than anything, I felt very lonely at the time”. Tom was 19 years older then her and was a staunch Christian living his life to the bible. Nina's life changed dramatically as Tom never gave God a rest and his bible was the last court of appeal. He would read passages from the bible to Nina every night before she went to sleep. Tom died in 1997 and Nina did not set foot inside a church for a very long time. Eventually she tried 3 or 4 churches before coming to St Andrew's in 2005 as it was her nearest church.
In 1982 Nina became a volunteer at the Charing Cross hospital she still works there 2 days a week.
She looks after Emerson, a member of St Andrew's who is blind. She helps with his laundry and gets his clothes ready every Sunday for Mass.
Nina says “I love St Andrew's and what joy to see so many young people coming to church now”. She feels very much at home at St Andrew's and values all her new friends from the church.