A reluctant Preston debutante

Here is the third instalment from an article by Shirley Smith based on the autobiography of Phoebe Hesketh, What Can the Matter Be? Phoebe Hesketh is today well known for the biography of her famous aunt, the Preston suffragette Edith Rigby but her autobiographical account of life in Edwardian Preston also makes interesting reading.

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On one occasion Phoebe was taken by her mother to visit the two Miss Horrocks who lived at No 3 Ribblesdale Place. These ladies were relatives of the cotton magnate and their house had the biggest garden on the street comprising of a sweeping lawn complete with a jewelled-tailed peacock.

She remembers that the two ladies wore lavender gowns and her mother an ostrich feathered hat. A tea “fit for royalty” was served in the drawing room which boasted brocade curtains and French windows that opened onto the garden.

The older Phoebe endured the discomfort of a coming out ball at the Bull & Royal in Preston where she wore a white taffeta dress with pink roses lovingly sewn on by her mother at whose insistence the whole event was organised.

Phoebe found the experience excruciating and remembers stationing herself by a pillar wishing for the 2am finish. It was her waltzing mother who attracted attention, radiant in her dress of gold lace over rose.

Phoebe’s mother Gertrude was a talented violinist with the Halle Orchestra but as was the custom amongst the well-to-do she stood aside from her career upon marriage so that her husband might devote himself to his.

A talented physician, Dr Arthur Rayner worked long hours and was director of the first X-Ray department in Britain which was located at the Royal Preston Infirmary. Later he received the OBE for his research work in the Middle East during the years of the First World War.

Phoebe wonders whether marriage to a “ne’er do well” would have allowed her mother’s musical talent to develop to its full potential.

During the war years Gertrude worked for the Red Cross and worked all night three times a week at the buffet on Preston railway station serving refreshments to servicemen.

These were the days before the NHS, its introduction meant doctors seemed to have less time for their patients and Phoebe recalls being asked by the doctor what she wanted from him on her first NHS consultation and not being able to supply a ready response had it explained to her that it was the doctors business “to get every patient in and out of this surgery in four minutes flat.”

Perhaps the ten minute appointments of today would have seemed generous.

Certainly, Dr Rayner never believed the NHS would work. He retired from the Infirmary in 1948 at the passing of the National Health Act although this meant he received no pension and had to live on his earnings and so was always busy.

He believed some people would always “take advantage” of a free service whilst others would be happy to pay for a more personalised approach and avoid over-crowded surgeries.

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Next: A domestic tyrant?