#2 Mother Rose GARBER
- derek4440
- Mar 16, 2024
- 9 min read
Updated: Jun 17, 2025
But before then
Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes Originally written & recorded in 1974, however this version was recorded in 1981 & became a huge hit & is totally different from the original & was recorded in one take. Featured in the Movie, Top Gun, with Tom Cruise
GARBER, ROSE
Let’s now look at the Maternal side of my Family,
My Mum Rose GARBER Studio Portrait
Rose GARBER was Born in LAGOW, RUSSIA the 2nd of 6 Children on 26/DEC/1898, Died 22/SEP/1989 LEEDS Age 90 years old
Rose GARBER
Rose Married my Father Cecil GINSBERG 10/JUN/1936 at Belgrave Synagogue, LEEDS, with the Reception at the Victory Hotel, Briggate, LEEDS.
To say my Mother Rose was a mystery, is an understatement. I will give you this example, which I believe illustrates the point, more than adequately. When my Father Cecil GINSBERG Died, I was round at my Parents house. I was 27 years old at the time, & I had asked my Mother for her Birth Certificate to prove who she was & she informed me that she didn’t have one, which I initially took as vanity in not letting me see her age. When I told her everybody had a Birth Certificate, she finally told me she wasn’t Born in LEEDS, but in RUSSIA, which was a complete shock to me. Then I found out her name wasn’t Renee, but Rose, & then finally over time, that she had given many different dates of Birth, depending who she was speaking to. For arguments sake she told me she was 4 years younger than my Father when in fact she was at least 6 years older!!!!
Photo My Mum
My Mother was an extraordinary woman & was definitely “Born before her time”.When she was in her twenties & thirties, she was the “Silk Buyer” (note not Fabric, but Silk!) at Zuckers a family business, & then at Marshall & Snelgrove on Bond Street, LEEDS. Whilst most people reading this won’t think of the significance of this statement, until I inform them that Marshall & Snelgrove, which was second only to Harrod’s, didn’t employee Jews at any level, let alone at such a senior level.
During this time my Mother was known as Renee, & mixed with the “horsey crowd”, & obviously hid her Jewish roots. I have photos of my Mother “riding to hounds” & mixing with Gentile Nobility, of which one was her “companion”. What her exact relationship was, & what she expected in the future, I’ve no idea, however I believe her relationship with Captain Roland Dudley KITSON DSO MC ended when both his first Wife (Sheila Grace VANDELEUR) & his Father (1st Lord AIREDALE) both Died suddenly, & his elder half brother Albert KITSON inherited the title, (2nd Baron Airedale. This meant he was unexpectantly next in line for the title & his Family convinced him he couldn’t have a Jewish girlfriend. He Married his second wife Dorothy Christabel Rowland PELLY, the Widow of Captain H H ROWLAND on 16/SEP/1937. He succeeded to the titles of 3rd Baron Airedale, of Gledhow, and 3rd Baronet on the death of his elder half-brother, 11 March 1944.
CAPT. HON. ROLAND KITSON
Our Family is riddled with mysteries, as I suppose most families are if you dig deep enough, but here is another one of ours.
Many years ago, according to Joan. Michael THOMSON, Sean’s closest friend saw a book for sale on Leeds Pottery, & knowing our interest in this subject, told Sean, who in turn bought this book & gave it as a present to us, his parents.
Many years later we decided to have the book rebound & took it to a specialist book binder, who did a first-class job. When we had the book back & were examining it, a newspaper cutting dropped out of the book.
Now it’s important you appreciate how the book came to us, & secondly that after many years in our possession it was repaired, & it was after this that the press cutting was found.
As you can see the press cutting is about the KITSON Family & is the obituary of the Second Lord Airedale, & also mentions his successor Captain the Hon. Roland Dudley KITSON, who became the Third Lord Airedale, which is commented on above.
Now this is the unexplained part, to find that press cutting in a book about Leeds Pottery can be explained as the Second Lord Airedale was a collector, but what can’t be explained is my Mothers writing of the date on the top of the page, 13/3/44. There is absolutely no doubt that this is my Mothers handwriting, & it is in line with her habit of always writing the date on photos etc. Also, to my knowledge my Mother had no interest in Leeds Pottery.
It is a complete mystery to me how this press cutting with my Mothers handwriting came to be in this book.
Obituary the Second Lord AIREDALE
Photo of Blue Plaque at GLEDHOW HALL
Co-incidentally with this event happening in the mid 1930’s my Mother had a riding accident & “broke her back”. The Consultant that she was under was Mr. Reginald BROMFIELD, the eminent orthopaedic Surgeon who many years later when I was wanting to avoid doing my National Service on Medical Grounds I was sent to for a medical evaluation, I passed 4F & didn’t go into the forces. After her Medical treatment my Mother went to BLACKPOOL to convalesce & staid at a Jewish Hotel, (possibly The Brereton Hotel) where as I previously recounted my Father was staying for the summer. Six weeks later they were Married. To say my parents were ill matched is a statement of fact, however despite this, divorce was not an option that I ever heard mentioned. My Father worked on Saturday, so the only time he went to Shul was on the High Holidays, even though he & my Mother were members of the Moortown Synagogue, though I cant remember my Mother ever going to Shul.
Photo Mum Riding Horse
Despite this my Mother kept a 100% Kosher home, & whenever we ate out, we only went to Kosher Restaurants. Our favourite was Addlemans Hotel 16-18 Brunswick Place where we went for Sunday Lunch, this was the first time I’d seen anybody other than my Zaide drink his lemon tea through a sugar cube held between his teeth, an affectation I soon emulated!
Addlemans Hotel & Restaurant
Extract from Murray FREEDMAN'S Leeds Jewish Heritage Trail
Proceeding along North Street back to City Centre: on the right is the North Street Recreation Ground (originally the site of the Leeds cattle market) - the 'green lung' of the Leylands. Just beyond were streets (the Brunswicks) of quite large terrace houses where some of the better-off Jews lived. Often they housed tailoring workshops as well as living accommodation. One of the houses was transformed into a popular Jewish hotel, Addlemans, which lasted until the 1960's. Opposite, in North Street at the corner with Trafalgar Street in the 1920's, was a kosher restaurant, Bloomfields.
We also went to Simon’s on Chapeltown Road, & later to the Corner House at Moortown, when they opened a Kosher Restaurant there. A regular haunt was Harris’s Fish & Chip Restaurant on Chapeltown Road. I always remember Mr HARRIS who was the owner & chief “Fish Fryer” wearing his immaculate white coat, with his silver-grey hair, always looking perfectly groomed, & the shop & the restaurant being so clean it shined. I can never remember going with my Parents to Cantor’s which was just further up the road, though I made up for this when I used to go to the Judean Club & B’nei Akivah & buy a bag of chips. Later when I was going out with Joan, I’d take her home on a Saturday Night & then walk from her parents’ house through to Cantor’s, where Harold CANTOR used to open his back room up & served Wurst Egg & Chips from midnight to the early hours of Sunday morning & we could play cards.
During the early part of the war, my Father was away in the Army, & because we lived in a large detached house
Derek Falkland Mount 1938/08
we had an Evacuee family billeted on us. We had a Jewish Family from the East End of LONDON & though I can’t remember their name I do remember they were a Husband, Wife & two young teenage sons. They had the 3 Bedrooms upstairs, & my Mother & I slept in the lounge, & we kept the dining room for us all to sit in at night & listen to the radio. Though I was too young to take in the danger, the radio was everybody’s lifeline, as the BBC was trusted in those days to give you the official news, rather than listening to rumours, or what is today called “fake news” today. By the time my Father was released from the Army the Evacuees moved elsewhere & the house became ours for the time being. However later in the war we had a Canadian Airman Harry LEBOVITZ billeted on us who was a distant relative, & I was put out as I had to move into the third bedroom, which was very small, just big enough for a single bed & nothing else.
When I was about 12 years old my Mother was taken ill, & my parents tried to keep the seriousness of it away from me, but of course like most children I was well aware what was going on & realised that my Mother had Bowel Cancer. I even remember the name of her Surgeon was Mr LATCHMORE, & she was a patient in LEEDS GENERAL INFIRMARY (LGI) & I went to see her often. Fortunately, my Mother survived this & lived for a further 39 years, which shows how strong she was, & also how good a Surgeon Mr LATCHMORE was.
I remember going on holiday with my Mother to SOUTHPORT in MAY/1951, & we staid at Mrs KRAVITZ’S Jewish Boarding House just a street back from the sea. If I remember correctly my Mother took me because I’d had pneumonia. She eventually went home & I stayed on for a few more days to recuperate.
After lunch the residents went into the lounge, & this day I decided to go with them. They all sat round in armchairs & within a few minutes they were all asleep, & it didn’t take me much longer before I was driving them home as well. We woke up when afternoon tea arrived!
I remember going by myself to see Helen REDDY performing at the Floral Hall, quite adventurous for a 13-year-old, I also went to see Paul ROBESON on my own when I was in BLACKPOOL which I think it was the next year.
Rose in SOUTHPORT MAY/1951
After my Father Died my Mother went to live temporarily in a flat on Shepherds Lane, before moving to a Flat at the other end of Falkland Mount where she lived for many years. We went there one day to find my Mother well into her eighties making tea for a group of plain clothes police officers who were using her flat to stake out the one above her where there was an escaped criminal with a gun. He eventually jumped out of the upstairs window & ran off with the police in hot pursuit. My Mother was very disappointed to see them leave!
Photo Flat Falkland Mount
Because my Mother hadn’t eaten meat for many years, she became very anaemic & was discovered unconscious on the floor by the daily help. She was taken to hospital & amongst other things she was given a blood transfusion. The hospital wanted her to go to a convalescent home, but she insisted she wanted to go home, Fortunately Dani was able to convince her to go into a convalescent home. We found GOLDSBOROUGH HALL at Oakwood & she agreed to stay for a couple of weeks. We were then able to convince her to stay longer & eventually she sold her flat & stayed there for the rest of her life.
Many children with elderly relatives are quite concerned about “putting their elderly parents into a home”, well I can tell you that my Mother was the happiest I ever knew her in the time she was living in GOLDSBOROUGH HALL. She was probably the first Jewish resident they’d ever had, but within a few years probably half the residents were Jewish. They looked after her night & day, made sure she ate the right food, & had the correct medical care. Bear in mind my Mother rarely confided anything in me or anybody else, one day whilst visiting her at the home, she grabbed my hand & said “I’ve never been happier in my life”.
Rose in GOLDSBOROUGH HALL JUNE 1974
Rose & Derek & Family 2/JUN/1979 Pool Court Restaurant
Those of you who have read my blog “Voyage of Discovery” know Joan & I visited the area of present-day POLAND where my Mother & her Family came from. I think it gave me an additional perspective of what my Mother, her Siblings & particularly Parents had to go through. Even today POLAND is a very anti-Semitic country, take for instance all the new moves by their government. Just remember that ALL the Death Camps were in POLAND, the GERMANS knew what they were doing.
MOTHER END
Finally a couple of twins making music
The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) recorded by twin brothers Craig & Charlie REID, good pub song
********************************************************************************************
Comments