Ian Handford: The Story of Alberta Vickridge

The eldest of three daughters of Albert and Edith Vickridge, Alberta, was born in 1890. Her father was the son of a Methodist Minister and his wife Edith came from a wealthy family which saw them inherit a fortune in 1902. 

Alberta’s sisters were Marian born in 1891 and the youngest Hilda born in 1892. The family moved from No.3 Ashfield Terrace, Frizinghall, in Bradford suburbs to a larger house named “Bearnsley House” after receiving the inheritance.

The family employed two live-in servants - a gardener and a resident Governess called Hilda Dixon. Hilda was employed to tutor all three girls until the time came for them to attend the Bradford Girls’ Grammar School.

When Albert and Edith married they chose to reside at Ashfield Terrace knowing that ultimately they would be moving from the Terrace house to a far more substantial property in the same locality. 

All three sisters were brought up as strict Methodists and all regularly attended the Methodist Church on Toiler Lane. 

Edith was always quite strict at home whereas Albert was always viewed as having an easy going manner. 

At play in the house or when outside it was  always Alberta that was the adventurous child as she invented the games the sisters would play. 

However like her mother she was stern and self assured although later when away from home was quite shy as will be seen later in life.  Shyness may have been the reason the girls chose to always keep themselves to themselves or in the words of the era “they drew in on themselves”. away from home. 

All went for regular walks with their Governess while at home Hilda would particularly encourage Alberta’s obvious love of writing and reading. 

From an early age Alberta would write poetry and yet by age 12 at the Grammar School she actually chose to study art and drama.  

But to her teachers it was soon obvious her true love was writing and reading which eventually would dominate her life. 

On her 14th birthday Albert paid for his daughter's first book “The Luck of the Youngest & other Pieces” which was formally printed. 

This book is mainly about plays, the main play concerning four characters while it includes poetry and dealing with ideas. The open section that is important in the book is where Alberta emphasises how to develop firm views on nature and what she saw as the spiritual dimension of nature. 

This even included her thoughts on myths and romantic legends where for example she could make parallels between loyalty and fidelity and even the darker forces of deceit and betrayal. The book in this way was quite astonishing for a girl still in her early teenage years.  

In spite of having started to write seriously Alberta continued to create poetry and many associated works some of which were then published in the local newspaper and local magazines. 

The famous Yorkshire Observer now regularly used her poetry and this led to her being picked up by other local literary journals including Poetry Review, Saturday Westminster Gazette and even the Bookman. 

This acceptance saw many local journals using her work and this led to national publishers wanting to feature her work including august magazines and journals like “Country Life” and “The Woman at Home”. Ultimately this led to her being seen as a serious local writer and now “The Wayfarer” a literary giant of the region started to feature her work.  

But then the Great War became impending and this would change Alberta’s thinking totally as she assessed what she now wanted to do with her life. 

Her thoughts even considered whether she would keep writing poetry which was prophetic as will be seen. 

Having always been on good terms with the editor of “Wayfarer” she now found he was being called up in the  First World War, alongside thousands of others to do his National Service. 

By 1916 Alberta was actually the appointed editor of this prestigious local publication, in spite of having to inform her employer, she could only accept the position providing they allowed her to work from home. 

She had to be permanently at home as she was the oldest daughter and sister that was needed to care for her frail mother. Edith had been ill for sometime but now in a very frail condition and almost needed constant attention. (To be continued next week)

IAN COMMENTS; An amazing story about a name that few of us locally knew anything about at all until now. .   

NEXT WEEK;  Part 2 of 3 of Alberta VICKRIDGE biography.