MRS (From Hampshire Chronicle)

MRS EVELYN ROSINA PETHERBRIDGE (nee PORTER)
1923 - 2007, aged 84
The funeral of Mrs Evelyn Petherbridge of Weeke, Winchester, was held at St Paul's Church a week last Wednesday, 2 January. Apart from a short spell in Chandler's Ford, Mrs Petherbridge had been a resident of Winchester for over 60 years. For those who can recall, Mrs Petherbridge will probably be best remembered for the 25 or so years she spent working behind the counter at Stoney Lane Post Office.  Mrs Petherbridge was born in Southampton in 1923 and was twin to a brother in the younger half of a family of nine children. She became an aunt at the age of nine. After leaving school in 1937, she worked first for the wholesalers Missellbrook and Weston's, earning seven shillings and six pence for a forty-eight hour week.  At the outbreak of the Second World War, Mrs Petherbridge worked on the Seaplane Tenders manufactured by The British Power Boat Company at Hythe. Meanwhile, several of her sisters and their families were evacuated to Winchester. On a particularly heavy night of bombing on Southampton on 30 November, 1940, the family home near Southampton Common received a direct hit and was completely destroyed. Fortunately, Mrs Petherbridge and her younger sister, Mary, had taken refuge in the Anderson shelter in the back garden. Come the next morning, just a few ornaments had survived intact. Mrs Petherbridge's possessions amounted, quite literally, to the clothes she was standing in. She was just 17 1/2 years of age, and would often say later that in such circumstances, you have little choice but to do the best you can. Somehow, you manage through. There weren't the social services to turn to as there are today.  To find a temporary home, Mrs Petherbridge moved to Gloucestershire to stay with an aunt. From there, the requirement for women to contribute to the war effort took Mrs Petherbridge to armaments factories in Worcester and Reading, where she played her part in the manufacture of shells and bullets. During these years, Mrs Petherbridge's mother had joined one of the evacuated sisters and had more or less settled in Winchester. When the war finished, Hampshire was an obvious place for Mrs Petherbridge to return to.  After the war, Mrs Petherbridge joined the Post Office as a telegraphist and counter clerk at its former site in Parchment Street. She married Sidney Petherbridge in 1949, also at St Paul's, and in time had a family of her own. In 1963, Mrs Petherbridge returned to post office work at Stoney Lane Post Office and continued to work there until she retired in 1988. During her retirement, Mrs Petherbridge acted for several years as Treasurer to the Women's Guild at St Barnabas Church, Weeke.  Unfortunately, Mrs Petherbridge lost her husband just two years ago after 56 years of marriage. Shortly before she died, Mrs Petherbridge became a great-great aunt for the first time. She is survived by her daughter Jane, son Richard, son-in-law John, and six grandchildren, Christopher, Sophie, Nola, Abbe-Gayle, Martyn and Helen.   

12:00am Thursday 10th January 2008