Betty Primrose OPENSHAW (later ALDRIDGE) (1902-1969)

Betty Primrose Openshaw (1902-1969) was the daughter of James and Mary Openshaw who were friends of the Sladden family.

Betty Openshaw was born at Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire on 31st March 1902, the seventh of nine children of James Algernon de Radclyffe Openshaw, a private secretary, and his wife, Mary Alice (née Serman).  The family moved to Bowers Hill, Badsey, when Betty was a few years old, when her father decided to take up farming and market gardening; they moved to Bengeworth before the war.  Betty attended May Sladden’s school at Greenhill, Evesham (where Betty’s older sister was working).

Betty married John Steel Aldridge in 1931 in the Hendon district of London.  Their home address was 14 Sherwood Road, Hendon, and they had two sons.  Shipping records reveal that on at least four occasions in the 1930s and 1940s, Betty set sail for Port Sudan (the latter three occasions accompanied by her young son), where presumably her husband was working.

At the time of the 1939 register, Betty was living at Rivers Meet, Banstaple, Devon.

Betty died on 24th June 1969 in the Sheppey district of Kent.