Elsie Dorothy Dengate

1895-1992

www.dengates.com

Elsie Dorothy Dengate

Elsie Dorothy Dengate was born 13th October 1895 to Ernest Alfred and Agnes Lucy Dengate. At the time of her birth, the family were residing at 69 Manor Road, Hastings.

Elsie's parents were among the first (the first according to family legend) on the roll of the new Salvation Army Iron Fort in Hastings. Consequently, Elsie and her siblings grew up attending this church and it was here that she met Arthur 'Jack' Glazier, a keen brass band player who had fought on the Western Front in the First World War. He had served with the Royal Sussex Regiment, for which he received the 1914-15 Star. Whilst Jack was serving in the West Indies on military service, he was bandmaster of the Jamaica Salvation Army Band. Below is a lovely postcard, which Jack sent to Elsie in 1916.

Elsie and Jack became engaged and married at the Iron Fort on the 6th September 1922, surrounded by their friends and family.

After the wedding, the couple made their home in Hastings, continuing to serve at the Salvation Army and in 1925, Elsie gave birth to a boy, Clifford Arthur Glazier.

Sadly, Elsie and Jack's only child, Clifford was killed during WW2. On the 30th September 1940 Clifford had been waiting for a bus in Robertson Street to take him to a new job in a solicitor's office in Silverhill when three high explosive bombs were dropped on the town centre in the worst raid the town had seen to that point. Eight people, including Clifford were killed outright with a further twelve suffering serious injury. The Air Raid Precautions officer on duty at the time and the person to discover fourteen year-old Clifford's body was his uncle, Alfred Glazier. It became his sad duty to tell Elsie and Jack that their only child had been killed.

Narrowly avoiding serious injury that day was Clifford's cousin, Norman Stanley Dengate and their uncle, Cecil Dengate, who were on their way from Queen's Road in the town centre to the Bexhill branch of the Dengates shop when the bomb struck.

Clifford was buried among other locals killed in the conflict, his headstone being provided by the town corporation. He was also remembered on a plaque, which continues (2020) to hang in the Hastings Citadel Salvation Army.

Elsie and Jack lived for most of their lives in a modest house in Hughenden Road, Hastings, which they named 'Liszt' after the composer, such was music an influence in their lives. Jack was the Young People's bandmaster at the Hastings Salvation Army Citadel for over 30 years. He ran his own antiques business from two shops in Hastings, one in Bohemia and the other in Mount Pleasant.

Jack Glazier died 1st March 1983 and, following a service at the Salvation Army Citadel, was cremated at Hastings Crematorium.

For the last years of her life, Elsie lived in the Lindens Care Home, run by the Salvation Army. She died there at the grand age of 96 on the 2nd March 1992. Her funeral took place at the Salvation Army Citadel, followed by cremation.