Gill Early Years

Gill was born in Chester in January 1944, the second daughter of Donald Rogers, a lawyer who was town clerk of Chester. Don's parents lived in Newcastle-under-Lyme. His father, George Albert, owned the Phoenix tile company which made fireplaces in Stoke-on-Trent.

Gill's mother, Beatrice Mitchell, was a primary teacher whose family came from near Newcastle, which is where she met Don: they were head boy and head girl at the local grammar school. Bea's father, Albert George, had been invalided out of the airforce and worked as a chauffeur-handyman on an estate, while Bea's mother, Margaret's, family had connections to MacFisheries.

The photo shows Albert and Margaret (left) with a young Bea.

This is the first photo we have of Gill, taken in early 1945 when she was just one. At the time the family was still living in Chester.

This picture, also dated 1945, shows Pauline, left, and Gill with their grandmother Margaret Mitchell. The horse and carriage were rather special: Gill can remember it from a visit to one of the family's Chester houses some years later.