Pat marries and moves to Forres
Pat married Dorothy “Dot” Garrard on 29 June 1914. It was a marriage made in heaven you could say, with her brother, Oswald Garrard, also being a minister in the Church of England!
This picture is a photograph they sent out to friends and family after their wedding.
Shortly after their wedding, in January 1915, Pat took a position in Forres - 20 miles northeast of Inverness - so very isolated from the rest of the world, and the war raging all around. The following are sections from a newsletter dated February 1915 from St John’s Church, Forres.
Whilst living and working in Scotland, Pat’s wife Dot, gave birth to their first son - Norman Peter George O’Neal (known as Peter) on 23 April 1915.
Many years later, in September 1960, Dot took a trip back to Forres with her youngest son, Tony, and sent Peter a card, showing the High Street in Forres. Note the 'X' Dot marked the card with, showing Peter where he was born.
Transcript of card:
Here is a photograph of your birthplace
It is a dear little place, & T&I are enjoying our jaunt very much indeed
Much love will write when I sit down for a day or so!! Mother
Below is a family picture with Pat, his parents Bob and Selina, and his sister, Daisy. I’m not sure of the date, but definitely before 1919, as this was the year Bob died.
By 1920, we know that Pat and his family have moved back from Forres to Birstall near Leicester. In a letter from himself (see below, on both pages 1 & 2), to his brother Claud, in amongst the usual family updates, Pat refers to meeting up with the Bishop of Columbia (Vancouver Island). Pat said that he wished he could get a post in his diocese - but that the Bishop advised against it, unless “Dot is perfectly willing to come voluntarily”, and that “so far she is not”! So there but for the grace of God (if I can use that saying in this context!) this branch of the O’Neal family would also have ended up in the New World! How different life would have been - with the whole of the O’Neal family having moved away from England.
