Mum, Betty, Nan, Nana was born on the 14th September 1921 in Caldicott Monmouthshire which is now Gwent in South East Wales to George and Edith Liddiard.  She had three siblings, Eileen, Ron and Marion.
Mum had quite an uneventful childhood attending the local primary school. Her dad George, a WW1 war hero, together with the school headmaster organised many local community events such as summer fares and school fetes.  Mum often spoke of the fun they had at these events and even in her later years she could name most of her classmates on old school photographs.
As we know our mum was very intelligent and won a place at the grammar school which was quite something in those days.  Unfortunately, her school days were cut short when she contracted a disabling disease then known as St Vitus Dance or Sydenham Chorea.  This disease can be brought on by stress and she always thought it was because she almost fell out of a train on her way home from school.  She was bed bound for about a year, and during that time the only medicine she received was ARSENIC! Although she did eventually return to school for a short while she had missed out on a great deal of her studies and there weren’t systems for catching up in those days.
So Mum had to leave school in her mid teens and went into service firstly in a nearby village and then joining her older sister Eileen in the big city London. 
War loomed in in the late 1930s and soon as she could, at the age of 19 she joined the Women’s Royal Air Force.  She was initially based at Bristol which was good as she could make the short journey by train through the Seven Tunnel to her home when on leave. Her Dad George was a keen grower of vegetables and also kept chickens, so the family was well cared for, food-wise during those dark days. And of course, her mum Edith was a fantastic cook. They also received food packages from her aunt in Canada, and mum remembered her mother making pastry from the fat which came in with the tinned sausages.  The war years probably helped to shape her careful attitude to food, a determination that nothing should go to waste.
Mums duties in the air force was as a projectionist displaying training films to the air force troops and occasionally air recognisance footage in preparation for operations. (She also managed to fall off her bike a couple of times, once getting knocked unconscious and came around in a padded cell in the military hospital!  It was the only accommodation they thought was suitable for a lone woman in a hospital full of men!)
The war ended in 1945 and mum was demobbed from the air force. 
Mum was then about 24 years old and, like so many young people catching up on what they had been missing out on, went to a local dance one evening with her sister Marion. There she caught the eye of a young soldier- Staff sergeant Jack Hilless, who had recently returned from the war in north Africa and was now based at a local army training camp as an instructor.  
Obviously, Mum had made a good impression on Jack as he soon afterwards proposed to her at Chepstow Castle.
Our dad left the army soon after they were married and returned to his pre-war job at Robinsons paper mills in Kings Langley.
Dad progressed in his chosen career and mum supported him in the home and the family blossomed with the arrival of first three children, Janet in 1947, Robert 1949, Marion 1951 and then a fourth, Christopher lagging behind in 1965. In 1956, before Chris was born, the family moved from Hertfordshire to Bexleyheath in Kent as dad had a new position as the chief castings buyer for Molins Machine Company in Deptford.
However, mum was not going to be the little housewife stuck at home. She pursued and excelled at many activities which included dressmaking, pottery, cooking (to a very high standard) and gardening.
Mum was in general quite fearless and one incident to demonstrate this fact happened when we were still living in Hertfordshire. Mum spotted a suspicious looking character entering a neighbour’s home. The occupants of the house were out, either at work or school. When this character emerged from house mum sprang out in front of him demanding that he should not move as the police had been called. She restrained him against a wall until the police arrived. He was arrested, and mum gave evidence at his trial where he found guilty of burglary.
Sadly, dad passed away from a heart attack in 1980 and mum was left alone with her youngest son Chris who was then only a teenager.
Was mum going to be the stay-at-home widow. No way.
By that time, Janet was living in Canada, Marion was in Australia and Mum’s little sister also named Marion was living in South Africa. What an opportunity this was for mum, as she became an overnight globe trotter travelling between continents of North America, Africa and Australia with occasional holidays to countries around Europe.  Many of these holidays she shared with her sister Marion.  They were such good friends as well as sisters and could always make each other laugh.  Apart from exotic holidays to faraway places they also loved to take day trips out on the buses.  Sometimes thy had a plan, sometimes they didn’t.   But they had a lot of fun, and some nice pub lunches.
Mum definitely enjoyed her social life and joined the local conservative club (I must add not for political reasons). 
Not being one to just sit around and natter she wanted something more challenging. Mum had a very competitive side to her, and she loved nothing better than the challenge of a game of skill.
When her own dad was alive they would play cribbage together, a game that mum became very good at. The conservative club had a cribbage team which was predominantly male but being short of players they let mum join them. The team played at many venues around about SE London. Mum told of one occasion when they had a cribbage match at a dodgy looking pub in the backstreets of Woolwich with some equally dodgy looking customers. Mum sat down to play her first opponent who was about 6’ 3” tall 25 stone, tattooed from head to toe and with an imaginary scar diagonally across his face. Was she scared? By NO means, this monster of a man turned out to be the complete gentleman, treating her like a real lady and plying her with refreshments and polite conversation. Did she win that game? I don’t know as she just couldn’t remember!
Mum also joined the conservative darts team where again she toured around local venues competing with her new found skills.
But by far her favourite game was scrabble. She would often go away for short break scrabble tournaments held in seaside hotels and returning home with a prize or trophy of sorts.  She would also go to friends’ homes or they would come to hers in order that she could continue to enjoy what was to her the ultimate challenging game. However even this did not satisfy her thirst for the game, so she started to play internet scrabble with opponents from all around the world soon gaining a high rating. I often wondered what the reaction would be from her opponents if they had known that they had just been beaten by a frail little old lady in her late nineties.
She joined the 3G club on 9th. April 2018.  No, the 3g’s club has nothing to do with GG’s it’s an acronym for Great Great Grandmother that is when her first Great Great Grandson Teddy was born to her great granddaughter Bethany. 
Unfortunately, this wretched Covid put an end to any contact that she might have had with her loving family, but she was always eager to hear any bits of news about each and all of them, and she was proud of them all.
Our Dearest Mummy was the proud matriarch of our large family.  Four children, ten grandchildren, thirteen great grandchildren children and two great great grandchildren. We were so lucky to have her in our lives for such a long time. We lost our Dad suddenly of a heart attack 41 years ago.  But Mum soldiered on with great strength of spirit which we, her children and her family, share through our own challenges. We all carry part of her and Dad within us and that is our heritage.

Mum will be remembered for her strength of character, her resilience her stoicism and her sometimes exasperating stubbornness. But most of all she will be remembered for her absolutely unconditional love for all her family. 

Although her body was failing the last couple of years, her brain was still 100% and she was still playing internet scrabble and solving Countdown puzzles until she had to go to hospital that final time. She won many battles but had not been vaccinated for Covid and caught it in hospital just before she was to be released.  This was the final battle she could not win. We were so blessed to have such a smart and brave Mummy who served her country in the Second World War in the Women's Royal Air Force.  We, your children, salute you and will always love you.

What else can we say about you mum without writing a book about your life. We could talk about the wonderful roast dinners, sharing a late-night whisky or Baily’s, your love of the bluebells in the spring and the autumn leaves. Knowing you would always be there for us in good times but also in bad. 
But we can say mum is that you were, are the best mum that anyone could have had.  We, your children, salute you and will always love and remember you with a smile.