My grandparents Daisy & Harry Smith and my parents, George & Daisy Brooks (by Brenda Brooks Skof)
/My grandfather, Harry Smith, emigrated to Canada in 1911, and settled in Deloro to work at Deloro Stellite. My grandmother, Daisy Reay Smith followed shortly thereafter with their three children, Harry, Daisy (my mother) and Norman. Harry Smith Jr eventually became a member of the Deloro Stellite Quarter Century Club. Harry Smith Sr. worked as foreman at Deloro Stellite until his death in 1940. Harry and Daisy Smith operated a small boarding house in Deloro shown in the photo below. They had ten children in all: Harry, Daisy and Norman (all born in the U.K.) and the remaining seven children born in Deloro being Simeon, Richard, Iris, William Maye, Betty and Marjorie.
Harry and Daisy Smith are buried in the Smith Plot, Marmora Protestant Cemetery, with William and Iris, and Richard Cyril Smith buried in Legion Section of Marmora Protestant Cemetery
Harry and Daisy Smith, in front of their boarding house in Deloro
George & Daisy Brooks with their 13 children on the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary, 1950
Daisy Smith Brooks and George Charles Brooks, parents, sitting on the couch.....Left side of Daisy, listing the youngest girl to the oldest as: Sylvia, Brenda, Jean, Evelyn and Winifred.
Right side of George, listing the youngest boy to the oldest: Kenneth, Victor, Harry, Jim, Tom, Stan, Sid and Bob.
My father, George Brooks, emigrated to Canada in 1922 from Bognor Regis, Sussex, U.K. and ended up working at Deloro Stellite in Deloro. He lived at my grandparent's boarding house and there met my mother Daisy Smith. (born West Hartepool, U.K., born July 26, 1907) They were married in 1925, settling in Deloro. There were 13 children born and raised in Deloro, - Winnie, Bob, Sid, Stan, Evelyn, Tom, Jean, Jim, Harry, Brenda, Vic, Ken and Sylvia
George and Daisy moved to Belleville at the closing of the plant in Deloro and after my father's death in 1968, my mother Daisy Brooks returned to Marmora, where she lived in the apartment over the library until her death in 1986. George and Daisy are buried at Marmora Protestant Cemetery with Harry and Sylvia in the Brooks Plot, Winnie (Nobes) buried in Legion Section of Marmora Protestant Cemetery and Stan is buried in Beaver Creek Cemetery.
George managed almost every sports team in Deloro, and played on some as well, including the Deloro Lawn Bowlers League, winning the Silver Trophy.. He also played for “The Bognor Rocks”, West Sussex Soccer League on the Championship Team in the U.K. in 1921-22. He was a shoemaker by trade in the U.K. and he repaired his children’s footwear, made football cleats for his sons, and baseball bats and hockey sticks for his sons and daughters but when playing ball his children did so bare-handed. Geoge was bugle player, drummer, spoons, bones, piano, and harmonica player.
