My mother, Violet Bell, who has died aged 93, led a dutiful and unobtrusive life. She was born in Lambeth, south London, to Harry Couchman, a bargeman who worked in the Everard boatyard in Kent, and his wife Edith (nee Anderson). At five years old, Violet, along with her two younger brothers, was abandoned by her mother while her father was at sea. Neighbours found the children, cold, dirty and hungry, and took pity on them. Eventually, they were taken to children's home and much to Violet's horror separated. When Harry returned home he took Violet and her brothers to live with his mother in Raynham, Kent. He later found a new partner, Lydia, and the children went to live with them. They never saw their mother again.
As children of a bargeman, Violet and her brothers sailed the east coast with their father during school holidays. Violet learned to swim in the Norfolk Broads with a rope around her waist, over the side of the barge. She often recounted when, in 1932, Harry was shipwrecked and rescued off Cromer by Henry Blogg, the lifeboatman who became a national hero. He had tied Violet's brother, his cabin boy, to the mast to prevent him being washed overboard.
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