Kehilat Middlesbrough Newsletter No 24 February 2008 page 2 (of 6)
Letters
Thank you so much for publishing my late first husband's parents wedding photo - (Becky Silverston and Joel Intract). [Ed note: see below]. Joel died - very suddenly in 1938 aged 44 - after 5 years of marriage leaving Becky and a son, Dennis, aged 3. Becky and Dennis, shortly afterwards went to live with her brother Dr Joseph Silverston, a psychiatrist and a bachelor at that time who was superintendent of Lancaster Moor Asylum as it was known in those days. About 3 years later Becky married Dr Myer Cohen son of Rev Cohen of Hartlepool, whose wife Celia (Becky's friend from childhood) had also died unnaturally young. Myer had no children from his first marrage but he and Becky had 3 sons subsequently. Dennis also died relatively young and very suddenly - aged 46.
I am originally from Leeds and would also like to mention another of my Middlesborough connections. My mother's first cousins, Joss and Ray MYERS of Leeds - brother and sister, married brother and sister Golda and Colin CRASTER - 2 of the 9 children of Rachel and Harris Craster. I remember as a child going to many Myers' Simchot which were full of Craster and other North-East Jewish families. Names which spring to mind were BOOK and MAURICE.
Jos and Golda's son Howard Myers still lives in Leeds. His daughter Leila MOSS (married to Barry MOSS of Newcastle) lives in London. Ray Craster's daughter Lorna EISENBERG (Glasgow) died in her forties. Her other daughter Hazel STOLL lives in Stockport. Shirley Holton (formerly Intract, nee Adams) Leeds, England
This is the wedding of my late husband, Dennis Intract's parents. His mother was Rebecca (Becky) Silverston - daughter of Rev Silverston and his father was Joel Intract of Newcastle. The date is February 1933.
All Rev Silverston's 10 children are on the photo plus Edith's husband Myer Selig, also of Newcastle.
Persons are:
Back row l to R: Harry Silverston, Joseph Silverston, Abraham Silverston, Rev Silverston, Bernard Silverston, David Silverston and Myer Selig
Front row L to R: Frieda Silverston, Miriam Silverston, Mrs Silverston, Lena Silverston and Edith Silverston Selig.
Letters
Gwen Lamb's news in the previous issue of the Newsletter, of the threatened demolition of the Royal Infirmary in Newport Road - I take it that she means the North Riding Infirmary (NRI) - stirred memories.
My first job as a doctor, after qualifying at Newcastle in July 1947, was Casualty Officer at the NRI for six months. It was then a general hospital, with surgical and medical wards, and specialties including orthopaedics, paediatrics and ENT.
I remember being told to do a post-mortem examination - something quite beyond my capabilities - but the Mortuary Attendant did most of it, and located the cause of death - he'd worked there for many years. I also gave anaesthetics, using the "rag and bottle" method - chloroform dripped on a piece of muslin in a metal face mask - effective but very dangerous. Penicillin was increasingly being used, but it was before streptomycin for tuberculosis, and we had many young patients with this condition. The photo below shows me sitting between two such patients who were convalescing, on a flat part of the hospital roof. It must have been a nice, sunny Middlesbrough day.
The NHS hadn't yet begun, but the consultants frequently complained of patients turning up at Casualty instead of visiting their own GPs - they were doing the same fifty years later.
After six months I was called up for National Service in the Suez Canal zone. When the state of Israel was declared, fighting broke out, we could hear the distant sound of gunfire.
I don't think I noticed, when I was working at the NRI, what a splendid building the old Infirmary is; I only realised it when revisiting Middlesbrough some years ago. Fred Levy Liverpool, England
How nice to see the web site up and running again!
Would you please note that the reference in the list of graves to "Marta" Fishburn buried 18 January 1955 is wrong. This refers to my mother and her name is (was) Berta. Could you please arrange to have this corrected.
I noticed also reference to the Craster family. They were well acquainted with my parents and lively (though not "frum)) members of the Kehilla. Hazel Craster who was a little younger than myself was a most beautiful girl. In fact the community had a number of good looking lasses, the Rabbi Miller's own daughters among them and Shirley Goldstein, Eleanor and Judith Israel, Anne and Rita Goldstein and others.
My own youngest daughter Simone made Aliyah and married a Sabra but like so many they are now in California with heir three children, for the very practical reason that she having obtained and starred Ph.D at the Weizman Institute was unable to obtain work suitable to her status.