WßD ~ Chapter 23 : All In A Name (Revised Edition)

Windsor Street Days

Chapter Twenty-Three

All In A Name

WRITERS often find themselves in something of a quandary.

The same haappens with actors and models, and artists on stage and screen.

They end up being known by the name in which they work, in my case, as a writer, and their birth name.

Pseudonyms are important, as a means of concealing one’s true identity, especially if the writing is risqué. As a copy-editor, I have, sometimes, blushed and decided that the author is indeed right to use a different name. This is no way detracts from the standard and quality of the work.

The banner image shows a very happy family on holiday, and we only came across it recently in the family archive. Uncle Harry, Uncle Tom in the middle, and Nancy Webb nee Marshall, MUM!

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Webb is the paternal family name.

Marshall is the maternal family name.

I am born Kenneth Thomas Webb, named after two uncles whom I never met.

Ken Webb was killed-in-action over Germany in 1943, coming down in Lachen Speyerdorf, south of Mannheim and just east of Kaiserslautern; and with Lachen Speyerdorf, I and my family have a very close relationship with the families, and with the town. There is plenty of information on this website if one is interested. Head to the Royal Air Force Tab.

Thomas Marshall was drowned, aged 12, in 1939 near Wainlodes on the River Severn in Gloucestershire, and his elder brother Harry was also killed-in-action over Germany in 1945.

And it is to remember him, my third uncle, Harry, that I asked Mum if I could use the maternal family name. That was no simple task, a point my last surviving Uncle, Frank, (also ex RAF and Mum’s younger brother) made in 2018 … you were lucky there, our kid! Nano wouldn’t have given that privilege out lightly. Yer Mam’s a gud un. Well done!

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So, there we have it. Many, who know me only by the one name, prefer to keep with that. And this is a fairly important point because, candidly put, and it’s nowt to do with split personalities or whatever; rather, each persona develops differently.

Put it this way. There are things that this chap Ian Bradley Marshall can write about and tackle and get away with, that Kenneth Thomas Webb junior wouldn’t dare do in a million years! He’d have a heart attack!!

Such is life.

The banner image shows a very happy family on holiday, and we only came across it recently in the family archive. Uncle Harry, Uncle Tom in the middle, and Nancy Marshall, MUM!

I do, however, sense a change approaching.

All Rights Reserved


LIVERPOOL


© 2024 Kenneth Thomas Webb

First written 30 September 2021
Last published 8 May 2022