John Harrison married Jane Liddell and, in 1874, they welcomed a baby boy, also named John. Like his father before him, John Jr’s life was destined to be spent down the mines.
It wasn’t until years later that the Harrison family was able to break the mould.
Having married a local girl, John Jr welcomed his son Thomas in 1904. He was apprenticed to his maternal grandfather, a carpenter, and thus was able to forge his own career away from a life in the mines.
Thomas was also the first to leave Hetton-le-Hole. After marrying Elizabeth Temple, the couple moved to Sunderland and eventually settled in Ealing, west London.
By that point, they had welcomed a daughter, Dorothy, born in 1935, who subsequently met and married Ronald Goldsmith, a builder from Norwood.
Dorothy and Ronald welcomed their only daughter Carole in 1955. The family lived in a tiny pebble-dashed terraced house in Southall which, in the early Sixties, was a staunchly working-class area with many residents working in nearby factories.
