Janet Baines had a surprise gift on her 90th birthday – a hardback, professionally published 125-page book about her eventful life compiled by her daughter.
Although she knew that her daughter was looking into the family history, it was a shock to be presented with a copy of “Diary of a Shropshire Lass.”
“She didn’t realise it would be a book. I think she has come round to the fact that it’s quite nice to have it now. She is embarrassed about having her name on the front,” said Rachel Cunynghame.
“My mother turned 90 last March and I’ve been collecting the family history and she was the last of her litter, as it were. I thought that it could all go in a book.
“All the family have been Shropshire farmers, on both sides, and have been massively Shropshire-orientated.
“She did have amazing war years. She grew up in a family that would have been expected to marry some farmer somewhere in Shropshire, but she went off and had all these wonderful happenings all round Europe. War is nasty, but it changed her life considerably. She did see some ghastly things.
“It was a case of getting one person’s history down before it’s forgotten. I had to do it in the first person – I could not do it in the third person for her. They are all her own words. I sort of wrote it, as it were, for her.”
In researching the family, Rachel would often stay up into the early hours.
“It became a bit of a mission for me.”
The book records the vast changes which have taken place in Janet Douglas Baines’ life, which began in March 1918 in the last year of the First World War.
She was born at Shushions Manor, near Wheaton Aston, and was given the middle name of Douglas as her parents, Richard Pedley Ward and Gertrude (nee James), had hoped she would be a boy.
Although Wheaton Aston is actually just over the border in Staffordshire, Janet has always considered herself as being from Shropshire, a county with which there are many family links.
During the war she qualified as a physiotherapist, and served in the Overseas Physiotherapy Service under the auspices of the Red Cross.
She was to see service treating war wounded in Africa, Italy, and Belgium, and after the end of the European war she continued to serve in Germany and Austria.
One of her saddest tasks was to treat Belsen victims who were on their way to Sweden for rehabilitation and recovery.
Getting her fascinating story down on paper began when Rachel’s son interviewed her for a school project.
“Then we got her speaking into an audio tape whenever she thought of anything, and then I ferreted around and found diaries up in the attic and photographs.
“I thought ‘right, this is going to be a book,’” said Rachel, who has her own publishing outfit and has already published several books.
“She lives in Gloucestershire now, which is where we live, in Chipping Campden. She lives just down the road and is looking after herself at 90, and nearly 91.
“It’s absolutely amazing. She plays bridge four or five times a week. It keeps the Alzheimer’s away.”
Diary of a Shropshire Lass is hardback and 125 pages. It costs £8.50 and is available post-free from Loose Chippings books, The Paddocks, Back Ends, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire GL55 6AU.
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