Ellen Florence Miller

• General Notes
  • From Hellen Dudley:
    As a child Ellen lived at 45 Rodney Street off the Pentonville Road, near Kings Cross Station. She went to Rising Hill St. School, nearby. Together with her younger sister Lillian she was sent to an orphanage in Mitcham South London on the death of her mother in 1927. Her father was not around to care for them. The older brothers were all over working age. She was taken out of the orphanage when she reached working age by her step-mother who sent her to work in a factory. She hated it and eventually ran away from home abd went to live with her Aunt Lillian, older sister of her mother. She worked for a while for De La Rue inspecting bank notes from all over the world. She lived with her Aunt until she married Stanley Vanner on 7th September 1940, the first night of the 'blitz' of London's docks and East End. Ellen stayed in London for most of the war and for a time drove Royal Navy Captains and Officers in an Armstrong Siddley Limousine to their ships in the docks. Her brother Roderick gave her away at her wedding, in the East End and her sister Lillian and sister-in-law, Vera, were bridesmaids. Her wedding night was spent in an air-raid shelter because of the severe bombing. Their new home was 13, Marlborough Road, Forest Gate, London E 7, the first floor of a terraced house. In 1959 they moved to a new house at 247, Cross Road, Collier Row Romford, Essex, where Ellen still lives.