Emily Jane Kempster was born in 1872 in a village near Aylesbury. One of eighteen children in the family. She never knew her younger brothers and sisters; they were born after she left home to go into service.

She eventually came to marry a man from a village near Oxford and, for what reason I don't know, came to live in Teddington. His name was Fred Holder. They had three children of whom my father was one. When Fred was 39, he died in Teddington Hospital of pneumonia contracted on his coal cart. Emily Jane Kempster was 42 and went back into service in a large house in Hampton (It is still there and carries the same name). Yes, Emily Jane Kempster was my grandmother.

What right have I to introduce my grandmother into consideration as a Great Christian? When she retired she lived with us in Teddington. What do I remember of her?

1. As a boy, she took me all over the place with her, and I never heard her complain or criticise. A very gracious lady;
2. She came down stairs in the morning singing a hymn (as a young teeenager, I found that impressive);
3. When, as a 16 year old, I went into her room (when she was very ill) to tell her the old church had gone - it had been fire bombed in the war - she burst into tears;
4. She would occasionally quote scripture, but never Bible bashed;
5. Had she been asked to state her faith, I'm sure it would have been - Jesus is my Lord and Saviour; but she didn't have to state it, she lived it;
6. As a teenager, I used to pull her leg, and she took it.