Happy Birthday Great-Grandma!

On Wednesday, 9th December 1891, Dorothy Hawley was born in Codnor, Derbyshire. She was the fifth of the six children of John James Hawley and Elizabeth Waterfall. 

She was the youngest daughter to survive and the youngest child to survive overall after her baby brother Fred was run over by a bus in the blackout during World War II. 

This is the earliest photo I have of her. I suspect that it was taken around the time of her marriage to Robert William Dawson, which happened in September of 1918. 

He would later tell his granddaughter "She had jet black hair".

Just over 15 months after their wedding, on 1st Jan 1920, she gave birth to identical Twins.

Olive was the elder twin and weighed two and a half pounds, then came Edna weighing two pounds. The two tiny newborns slept together, nested in a drawer.

May Queens' Handover 1936
Incoming Queen Appleblossom (Edna) left
Outgoing Queen Anemone (Olive) Right

In January of 1948, aged 57 she became a Grandmother for the first time. She would have three more Granddaughters before the end of 1952.

Seven Great-Grandchildren followed (5 girls and 2 boys) between 1973 and 1986.

I am the sixth of seven Great-Grandchildren and the last that she would meet personally.

This was the day we first met at Edna and Douglas' house 22nd Jan 1983.

She was 91.

She died on Wednesday 1st May 1985
in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire (where Olive lived), at the age of 93.

Edna passed away that Friday, aged 65.

Her descendants today include 

one more Great-Grand-daughter,

9 Great-Great-Grandsons

and 6 Great-Great-Granddaughters.

Happy 126th Birthday Grandma Hawley