Family History

I’m not a great historian, and I haven’t gathered a lot of information about my mother’s family in Burma and her childhood there. But I do know a bit, and here are some salient points.

If I’ve got anything wrong, or left anything out, do please let me know! I’d love to extend my knowledge of this part of my family history. And if you have any photos please do send them to me and I’ll add them here.

My mother was born on 28th December 1914 in Bassein (now Pathein) in the south-east of the country. She spent her childhood in Burma, leaving at the age of 14 to come the UK, where she attended Cheltenham Ladies’ College. I’ve been told that all the children were educated there, even the boys; but that could well be apocryphal.
My grandfather (my mother’s father) was William Carr, the son of a Lancashire mill manager, born on 9th February 1872 in Slaidburn, Lancashire. He went to Lancaster Grammar school, where he is still commemorated on a board of “Old Lancastrians who have achieved distinction”.
After leaving school he went up to Cambridge, where he read for the Civil Service Exam. This was an extended and quite intensive course lasting 4 or 5 years for students who wished to join the Foreign and Commonwealth Office after graduating. Part of the course requirements was that students achieve a conversational fluency in I think 6 languages: Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Gujurati, Arabic and Urdu (?) My grandfather added Burmese to the list as he evidently knew evenat that early stage in his life that he wanted to work in the country. I have no idea where he got that idea from.
When he graduated he did join the FCO and worked for the India Service, receiving a posting to Burma as a Colonial Magistrate.
While working there he met and fell in love with a lady who was to become my grandmother, Ma Ma Kin Hnyaw, born in Moulmein (now Mawlamyine) on 11th October 1878. She was half Chinese.
The couple had two children our of wedlock, Alice, born 1896 and William, born 1900.
They then announced their intention to get married, which caused considerable consternation. I have seen copies of letters from the India Service referring to how this decision would harm my grandfather’s career prospects! According to my uncle Sam he was “sent away to the railhead for a couple of years to forget the woman”, but he remained true to her and they were duly married (?when and where?)
My mother always said they never spoke the same language as each other, but given that my grandfather spoke at least 7 languages (including English, of course) I find that hard to believe.
However they chose to communicate with one another, they proceeded to have a further six children together. My oldest aunt, the first-born Alice, was closer in age to her mother than she was to her youngest sibling, Robert. Their second son, William, died of blackwater fever in 1931.
My grandfather was in due course promoted, becoming a circuit judge, and was knighted sometime in the early 1940s.
As Sir William and Lady Carr they lived in Burma until the Japanese invasion during WWII in 1942, when they came to the UK.
My grandfather died in September 1949, the year I was born; my grandmother in August 1950.