My
parents were Rose and Morris Saville. Father came to Middlesbrough
aged 18. with his parents, from Lithuania via South Shields, in
1922 and mother, originally from Leeds, joined him at Newport Road
after their marriage in 1934.
I
was born on December 10th 1941 at the Ardencaple nursing home at
Park Road North. Apparently I was delivered by the Jewish midwife,
Bertha Smith, with whom we became very close friends years later,
in Jerusalem.
My
earliest memory was having my tonsils taken out at Carter Bequest
Hospital at the age of two, where we were taken by Bob the taxi
driver. There must have been something wrong with our Ford 10, XG
6145. I remember having ice cream after the operation.
No
one remembers his Brit Mila but my mother always told me the story
of how she got a permanent scar on her hand when she cut it on a
milk bottle the day of Tony Glass's Brit at Emerson Avenue. Tony,
a life long friend, tells me he also has a permanent scar from the
same day.
Education
At
the Archibald nursery, next to the Cemetery, my first "Ganenet"
was Naomi Miller.
My
first day at Cheder was with Rev Kahn who like the next Chazan,
Rev Norden, lived in Lambeth road. Sweets and nuts were dropped on
my head and only years later when my father told me this was his
doing, did I realize it was not a "Malach", in
accordance with the tradition.
Thereafter
Rev Norden taught us and then, Rev Kersh, assisted by Sam Solomon.
On Shabbat afternoons Michael, Ruth and I would go to Zeida
Saville at 19 Berner Street for supplemental lessons.
The
only Jewish classmate at Miss Bedford's Linthorpe Primary School
was Judith Norden, whom I still call up every August 30 to wish
her happy birthday. My only Jewish classmate at Linthorpe Junior
and Middlesbrough High School was Bernard Vyner with whom I have
lost touch, otherwise I would call him up every 29th April.
There
is a photo on the website of a 1953 Linthorpe Junior Presentation
of classical composers. I still remember my lines as Bach and the
names of all the other eight actors taking part playing: Handel,
Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelsohn, Tchaikovsky, Brahms..
We
used to live in Ayresome Park Rd., opposite "The Rec"
and I remember the shelters from the war. Of course the football
ground was down the road. From there we moved to Orchard Rd. and
our last address was Rochester Rd. When we lived at Orchard Rd.,
my sister's Kirby School class teacher wrote, We do not understand
how someone who lives so near can come so late. One day, Mr Cox
used to deliver us milk and the next day he became Mayor of
Middlesbrough - such democracy!
Michael
and I used to play cricket in the back garden at Orchard Road. He
was Australia, and I was England, both with the respective 1948
teams Ah, such glorious names of yore, Hasset, Miller, Lindwall,
and Hutton, Washbrook and Compton.
More Memories
My
father, serving in the RAF phones mother from the Hebrides,
"Good News, Rosie, Italy has capitulated." She answers
"I never knew Italy was in the war".
Evacuated
to Maynards Farm at the end of the war - it wasn't quite like
being at home.
Rabbi
Miller's funeral, with Rev Drucker from Newcastle giving the
Hesped in the presence of the Bishop and Mayor of Middlesbrough
with former Chazan Rev Wulwick officiating. The coffin was placed
in the middle of the Shul between the Bima and the Pulpit. I can
still see Rev Norden in the Committee Room writing in the Register
Book, "No Cheder, Rabbi Miller's funeral". It was the
end of an era and I was reminded of it at the 1998 Closure.
The
1952 Presidential Election between Sam Doberman and Nat Marks.
There were more people in Shul than on Yom Kippur.
Michael
and I leaving MHS in winter on Fridays at 3.00 p.m. cycling up
Linthorpe Rd. and emptying our pockets to be in Shul for Mincha at
3:30 p.m. I still use the Bharier Memorial Prize Chanukia I was
awarded in 1949. We once had a choir when my Dad davened Shacharit
on Yom Kippur, with our Michael, Michael Bharier and myself. With
his Nigunim I conducted the last Shabbat Service at the Closure.
There
used to be Greyhound Racing in Thornaby and one day Michael went
with Dad for a flutter. When he returned, Mother asked him
"Well, did your Daddy win, and he replied
"My father is not a dog".
At
the 1974 Centenary Dinner, Michael, the only Saville member who
still lives in England, signed up twenty well-wishers on Phillip
Niman's book, so that my parents in Jerusalem could feel part of
the occasion. Similarly I signed up people at the Closure who
wished my Mother a happy 90th birthday.
My
parents ran a Kosher Grocery Shop for 30 years. In 1964, Canon
Wareham, of next-door St Barnabas Church, wrote warm wishes on
their move to Sunderland in the
Parish magazine.
We
kids helped in the shop and did the errands like taking one "Gebeigelte"
to the Lazaruses at 345 Ackam Road on the bike, six large Challot
to Goldsteins every Thursday at 63 The Avenue and then a brown
bread occasionally to Rev Turtledove at 26 Ayresome Street, who
for some reason always called me Sydney. Dad used to say to the
customers, "Thou shall not live on bread alone" but it
didn't seem to help.
After
two years in Middlesbrough High School I won a scholarship to
Carmel College where ten other Boro' boys attended, the largest
number from any small Kehilla. Nationwide, Middlesbrough Jewry
were not so assimilated, but those who went to Carmel had a better
chance. Jewish education was the name of the game.
Specific Childhood Events
Geoffrey
Hyman's Bar Mitzva, so many Aliyot! At the Closure I recited to
Max Richman his Bar Mitzva Parsha, Shemini.
Swapping
stamps with Philip Simon in Claude Avenue - we weren't in his
league.
Ferdie
Josephs and Jack Adler in "Hamlet" at the Little Theatre
.
E.
Macdonald Bailey running a hundred yards in 9.8 seconds at Acklam
Park.
T.V.
for the first time, the King's funeral, the Coronation and
Little Red Monkey. We heard Mr Starling announce news of
the King's death on the school radio.
My cousin Hilda Saville's Wedding at Dormans Hall. Ronnie and
Sheila Niman's wedding at Stockton shul - we were related on the
Garbutt side. Dad used to say of Stockton: they haven't had a
minyan on Tisha B'Av since the destruction of the Temple.
To
Sunderland to see our maternal family almost every Sunday
afternoon. That's why I had my Bar Mitzvah there.
To
Harrogate and Southport with Dad and Michael - Hebrew weekend
seminars.
Tashlich
on Rosh Hashana by the Lake in Albert Park.
Mother playing bridge
with Pauline Breckner, Belle Niman and Joe Blakey.
Spending
a month as a labourer at Thomas Mouget at Lazenby from 6 till 6.
Julius Englander took me and Mr Schalk brought me back.
Working
with Sol Kossick at North Ormesby market.
Joe
Breckner: he helped
with the orders from the shop when Dad had jaundice. We delivered
groceries to Mrs Lamb and he couldn't read the street sign,
Ravenscroft Avenue. I suppose that's why he made so much money.
Naty
Baum - just before I left Middlesbrough I bought a jerkin for 30
shillings at his shop in North Ormesby - for years I used it in
Israel for my Civil Guard Duty.
More
sundry car registrations:
LHN 222 - Sam Hyman - Ford V8
ADC 182 - Louis
Bharier - Morris 10.
BDC 3 - Sam Doberman, Humber Super Snipe
RBB 294 - Ray Brody, Morris Oxford - that's why Ruth Cohen used
to call her Ray B-Brody.
And
how do I remember all this - I took the address list from
Newsletter No. 7, stopped at each name I recognized, closed my
eyes for a few seconds and it all came flooding back.
David Saville
Jerusalem,
Israel
