Sheelagh Leslie Churton, 1925-2017: Tribute to an Extraordinary Woman

We lost Myles' Aunt Sheelagh (Auntie Tealy) a few weeks ago. She was precious to us and to everyone who ever knew her. A highly unusual example of a completely selfless person––tolerant, kind, nurturing, hard working, capable, and fun! Here is the tribute I read at her funeral last week, on June 8th at the Chester Crematorium. Sadly, her church, St. Mary Without the Walls in Handbridge, was closed for repairs. 

There is so much more to her than I was allowed to delve into in the precious six minutes I was alloted, but you get the gist. The majority of it was written by Teals herself. I just interjected here and there. I didn't mention her sense of humor. She had her feet planted firmly in the world of fun and enjoyment, so she was just a great person to hang around with. The vicar pointed out that another thing I missed was her incredible stillness. She NEVER got flustered, ever. Never got angry. She was never gossipy or hateful or jealous. She just existed to please others and in doing that, pleased herself and her God. 

Sheelagh once said “I can’t imagine a world without me.” Well, Teals, neither can we!…

Anyone who knew Sheelagh knew she was highly efficient. So it won’t surprise you to know she provided me with her obituary over 25 years ago! It’s how she wanted to be remembered and I am honored to be the one to present it, with a few tweaks, on this solemn occasion.

Sheila Leslie Churton, born July 9, 1925, premature and weighing just under 5 pounds, was teeny. When big sister Rosemary tried to say teeny, it came out Tealy. And the nickname stuck—for 91 years. It seemed everyone had a pet name for her—Churt was another big one. Professionally she was known as Sister Churton. And to everyone else she was just Sheelagh. But despite what it says on her birth certificate she did not spell it in the conventional way. Instead she adopted the Irish spelling of Sheelagh, as a nod to her mother’s Irish heritage.

She was the youngest daughter of Harry Leslie Churton and Elizabeth Mary Stephens Drapes. And she was so proud of her parents: Leslie was a Cestrian with deep roots here [Chester, England], son and brother of two mayors of Chester. He was an electrical engineer and met Elsie when he was sent to work in Ireland at the Asylum in Enniscorthy. In World War I he served in the Cheshire Regiment and lost an arm in battle. He adapted by taking a degree in law and joined the family firm of W. H. Churton and Sons.

In the days before dyxlexia was understood, Sheelagh suffered through her early school years and had sad memories of being shamed, forced to wear a dunce cap and ridiculed. She worked extra hard to compensate for her dyxlexia and took a domestic science degree.

But since the age of four she had always wanted to nurse, so she pursued her SRN at the QE Hospital. She took her first part midwifery at the City Hospital, Chester, and her second part in the slums of Birmingham, delivering 99 babies without losing a-one! Just as they do on Call the Midwife she rode her bike everywhere, but she said the show is a highly sanitized version of conditions at the time. She donated many a cardigan to families that had not even a rag in which to wrap their babies.

By 1950 she was appointed Ward Sister of the Medical Professional Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and at 25 was one of the youngest ward sisters ever to be appointed.

Sheelagh never married, but that was not for want of proposals! She was tops in her field, and the demands of her profession precluded marriage. Eventually she decided marriage would have limited her ability to help so many people, and she was happy with her single life.

In 1960 she was sent to the US and Canada to gain experience in the care of patients undergoing open heart surgery.

Also in 1960, her nephew, Myles, was born in Africa. At eight he was sent to school in England while his parents remained in Kenya, surely a jarring experience for any child. It was then that Auntie Tealy became his surrogate mother. She came to see him on his sports days, brought him home for school holidays, nursed him when he had a relapses of tropical illnesses, and drove him to the airport, reassuring him that at 8 years old he could make that flight to Africa on his own!

In 1967, Glaxo Pharmaceuticals awarded her a scholarship to study nursing in the Far East, at one point even working with lepers. In Australia she served with the Flying Doctors Service. She had a great urge to travel, and felt privileged to have visited so many countries.

Before retiring, she worked in a hospice in Sheffield, studying the effect on children of a death in the family.

Once retired, she greatly increased her volunteer work, including

• cooking for the luncheon club at St. Mary’s Church,
• doing the Housebound Library, 
• helping with the homeless Soup Kitchen for 18 years, 
• helping with the Parkinson’s Society, 
• leading foreign visitors on tours of Chester, 
• and visiting families through the church’s Pastoral Link.

She had many interests, one of which was shell collecting, chiefly from the coral reef in North Africa and the southwest coast of America.

She was an avid travel photographer and her sensitive shots reveal the deep empathy she felt for all of humanity.

She was a keen sportswoman! In Birmingham she belonged to a hockey and tennis team and studied dance. Skiing, water-skiing, swimming and walking were also activities she enjoyed. She was in great shape her whole life, and at 90 could spring up from a low sofa better than most 40-year olds!

In her "auto-obituary," Sheelagh wrote: “Sheelagh attended the births of her three grand-nephews in America, supplying love, support and stamina to the family. She visited every year and enjoyed watching them grow up.”

What an understatement! What Sheelagh couldn’t describe was how much she was loved by those around her, especially our little family. I know each one of you has a story about her: how she came to care for a shut-in, to give the caregiver several days of relief—sometimes difficult patients, with the violent type of Alzheimers, sometimes, heartbreakingly, her own friends who were ill. Or children. And, as in my case, new mothers. She came to us as an aunt but transformed into a nurse when we really needed her. She was a phenomenal help, taking babies to change and “wind” them just when we were on the verge of collapse. She once pulled an all-nighter the day she arrived from England!

Of course our boys adored Aunty Tealy. She played endless imaginative games with them and spurred them on to be sensitive and creative fellows. I will always be grateful to her for the gentle love and nurturing she brought to us and to everyone with whom she came in contact.

Aunty Tealy, your favorite saying was “A place for everything and everything in its place.” Surely, there is a shining place for you in heaven today.

Elsie's Receipt Book--The Heart of the Home

Good cooks have always collected recipes, or receipts as they were sometimes called. My mother-in-law's mother, Elizabeth Mary Stephens (Drapes) Churton, aka Elsie, was no exception. We recently uncovered a little journal, begun on 16 June 1918, eight months after she married, and about the time her husband was to return home from World War I, minus an arm and in need of much nurturing.

Elsie was born 12 July 1885 in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland. She met her future husband Harry Leslie Churton when he was working at the Asylum there as an electrician.

Cooking being at the heart of what we consider home and family life, this little book gives us insight into Elsie's world. Maybe because Elsie was born and raised in Ireland she didn't know some of the recipes that the English ladies already had ingrained in them, but for whatever reason we find some classic English foods, along with little hints. The page below has a very simple recipe for that most cherished dish, Yorkshire Pudding.

Beneath that is a key to which sauces must be served with which meats. Critical that the sauce changes depending on cooking method, so a roast chicken demands bread sauce, while boiled chicken wants a parsley or egg sauce. I remember my mother-in-law still holding to these hard and fast rules and wish I had known at the time that she had it all written down! Entertaining the in-laws might have been a little less stressful had I been able to anticipate the proper sauces!

Initially I thought it would be fun to work through each recipe in order, as an homage to ancestors, cooking and love, but mayonnaise sauce and many of the other treats don't really fit into our current dietary regime. What else, what else might Elsie have a receipe for?

We learn that Elsie was an orderly sort, for she created an index at the back of her little book. Oh, I like this lady!

Now this would all be quite wondrous enough, but upon further examination I found that Elsie and I have a few other things in common. First, she was a singer! While techniques may have changed a bit, I love that she recorded these warm-up exercises.

As if that weren't enough to put me into a swoon, I then discovered we have a pastime in common--knitting! Here are directions for making socks for her new husband. Now there's something I could try. You can see that she has squeezed in a receipt at the bottom, sideways, just as my mother-in-law Rosemary used to do on aerogrammes when she wrote to us and had one last message!

Finally, in anticipation of having children, Elsie also had some instructions for knitting baby garments.

Did mother-in-law Rosemary and Auntie Tealy (Sheelagh) end up wearing these woolly pants? Probably!

If we are lucky our genealogical research turns up documents, and many of those are dry--full of facts, and lacking in warmth, but helping us link together the generations with proof. Most are transactions between men concerning war, purchases, migration, and death and probate, in sum, the harsher side of life. This pleasing little journal, on the other hand, gives us a peek into the softer side of our family history and we will cherish it always.

Week #4 of 52 Ancestors: Emily (Churton) Churton (1847-1918)

Emily Churton was the granddaughter of William Churton, daughter of William Churton, wife of William Churton, sister of William Churton, and mother of William Churton.

She was born 21 November 1847 in Whitchurch, Shropshire, England, the daughter of William Parker Churton and Jane Weaver. (1) She was my husband Myles's great-grandmother: his mother's father's mother. So he will not have inherited any Y-DNA (male), or mitochondrial DNA (straight female line)--just autosomal, and not too much of it at that distance. This is his only English line, the other three grandparents being of Irish descent.

Little is known about Emily. On 25 August 1868, she married her first cousin William Henry Churton in Whitchurch.  Their fathers were brothers, sons of William Churton and Anne Parker. (2)

"Births, Marriages, and Deaths," Churton-Churton, 25 August 1868, Whitchurch, Shropshire, England
Solicitors' Journal and Reporter, 5 September 1868, 915; Google Books (http://www.books.google.com).

This was really not a great idea, especially since the family lore depicts Emily as already being high-strung. At least that's the story my mother-in-law used to tell. (3) And it will mess up the DNA measurements, giving undue weight to Churton ancestor relationships.

When our youngest son was christened he was presented with Emily's Bible. It does not contain any genealogical information, just two inscriptions on the inside cover as shown below. William Henry, aka Harry, originally gave this Bible to Emily on 21 November 1869.

Apparently they had consulted the Table of Kindred and Affinity and found nothing to discourage them from marrying, though I will say that number 6 comes pretty close: "Wherein whosoever are related are forbidden in scripture and our laws to marry together: Father's Brother's Wife." Just one more step and it would have been forbidden. I really can't believe there are no cousins on there.

Margaret's work tells this story: "According to a diary kept by Emily, the wedding was at 11 o'clock in the morning (Rev. W. H. Egerton and Rev. John Gorman officiating) and after the wedding breakfast they left for London. The next day they crossed the channel from Folkestone to Boulogne and spent their honeymoon touring on the continent -- for four weeks." (4)

Emily and William Henry Churton went on to have four children, all born in Chester, Cheshire:

• Ida Helen, 18 September 1869–23 May 1937
• Jessie Lillian, 3 March 1873–28 August 1946
• William Arthur Vere, 16 December 1876–26 July 1949
• Harry Leslie, 4 August 1879–17 February 1964 (5)

Because I've known Margaret Churton is researching Churtons I haven't delved into them. But when reading through Margaret's great summary of the family documents she inherited I realize hers is not a traditional genealogical study--many record groups were omitted. With 2015's ease of internet searching it will be a much simpler chore than it would have been in 1983 when her work was created. And it gives me a goal for next trips to the UK.

I have only dabbled, but Emily appears in the UK censuses consistent with where family stories and documents say she should be. Most of these Churtons are listed in the Birth, Marriage, and Death indices on Ancestry. I have plenty of work ahead documenting the facts, that's for sure.

Emily died on 21 August 1918, after "deterioration of her mental health necessitated a move into a 'home' of some sort... at Gan-y-Don, Colwyn Bay. She is buried in Chester. (6) This cries out for investigation!

A quick visit to the website of The National Archives (http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk) brings up reference to "Deeds and papers relating to the estates of the Churton family, auctioneers and solicitors, in Cheshire, Shropshire, Wales etc", deposited in the Cheshire Archives (not NA) by none other than Margaret!

Reference: DBC 3233
Date: [1635]-1947
Held by: Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Extent: 44 docs., 18 bdls.
Custodial history: Acc. 3233
Immediate Source Of Acquisition:  Summary list of records deposited by Mr H T V Churton in Apr. 1983.

I can't wait to really dig in to those Churtons. They have a noble and interesting history.

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Notes

1. A. M. G. ["Margaret"] Churton,  "A Churton Story from Heirlooms and Archives," (hereinafter called "A Churton Story"), typescript, "mostly written in 1983, with some later revisions," photocopy sent to author in 2011, pedigree chart. Margaret is the keeper of the Churton family papers and has inherited much original documentation, along with very old pedigree charts, photographs, and business papers. She is thorough but does not use many of the more common genealogical records groups like census and vital records, nor does she cite her sources. Also, “England and Wales, Free BMD Birth Marriage and Death Indexes, 1837-1915, and 1916-2005” (hereinafter called Free BMD) digital image of index register pages, birth of Emily Churton, 21 November 1847, Wem Registration District; Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : ), 18:179. Wem was originally called Wem and Whitchurch, and after 1935 known only as Whitchurch.

2. Free BMD, marriage of Emily Churton and William Henry Churton, 25 August 1868, Wem; 6a:1192. Also Margaret Churton, "A Churton Story," pedigree chart.

3. Ida R. (Churton) Kimmitt, conversation relating family history to author, 10 September 1988. Also Margaret Churton, "A Churton Story," 14.

4. Margaret Churton, "A Churton Story," 14.

5. Margaret Churton, "A Churton Story," pedigree chart, and throughout.

6. Margaret Churton, "A Churton Story," 14 and pedigree chart. Also, Free BMD, deaths, 1918, 11b:542.