Dora Lillian Danks was born 26 August 1890 and married Ernest Rutherford on 23 March 1917. She had two children, Betty, born in 1919, and Stuart James, born in 1921.
She lived in Montreal, Que for most of her life from the family’s arrival in 1931 to the early 1980s when she moved to Waterloo, Ontario to be close to her son Jim. Betty was living in Calgary, Alberta at that time and Dora deemed that to be too big a move for her at that time.
Dora outlived Ernest by 31 years, dying in 1986. She was 96 years old.
Dora came from a rather large family, three brothers and two sisters (that I know of).
Apparently some family feud had sundered relationships, because when I went to England and looked up Uncle Tom (that is. Mum’s uncle) he would have nothing to do with me, he had no interests in Dora’s grandchildren. I had better luck with Uncle Byl (C.L. Danks) in Bexhill, and stayed with him both when I was 19 and wandering around Europe and much later when I took Marie and kids back. Uncle Teddy lived in San Francisco and I visited him once (perhaps twice). He was the youngest, I think, and had a particularly jaundiced view of Dull Dora and Ernest Ernest.
Her sisters were Maud and Kathleen, who I saw both when I was in England before I got married and twice later on visits with Marie and the kids. Maud was much older, and was being cared for by Kathleen, the youngest girl, until Maud’s death. At that time, Kathleen made plans to come to Canada to visit Dora and us in Calgary, but was struck by a car and died just weeks before leaving.