Erna "Erny" Maria Walk

Zivilgeburt 1893 Quelle GenTeam

cf. mainly family sources:

ERNA "Erny" MARIA WALK [WENGRAF] was born on 22 August 1893, in Wien, to Edmund WENGRAF and Marianne WENGRAF [HIRSCHLER].

cf. her daughter Lisl, née WALK's mini-memoir completed 2004 (in Family archives): " ... My Mother’s birthday came in August, the month of dahlias. I always went to a big dahlia nursery in the village to buy her an extra big bunch. The magnificent dahlias, in all colours, towered above me as I stood there. I still adore dahlias so much..."

Before 1896, when younger than 2, she resided at Wien Stadt 379, Salvatorgasse 6. Between 1896 and 1938, from the age of about 2, she resided at Wien IX, Grünetorgasse 16. Between 1920 and 1938, from the age of about 26, she was a secretary with foreign language skills (French, English) in Wien.

Leonhard Tobias WALK, aged 33, married Erna Maria WALK [WENGRAF], aged 28, on 10 September 1921 in Wien. They had one daughter: Lisl WALK in 1924. In 1938 Erny fled Vienna with her daughter to go to England. Leo remained in the family home at the Grünetorgasse. Divorce - on an amicable basis, she did not wish to return to Vienna and abandon her hard-won, new-found independence - on 17 October 1949, aged 56, in Wien.

She spent the last years of her life in the Muswell Hill area of London with a lodger who became a cherished partner, Leslie Rowson. Their deaths were only a few months apart.

Erny died on 4th. September 1977, aged 84, in London. She is buried in a pretty little churchyard on the outskirts of Oxford.

The following information is also recorded for Erny. Religion: A declared Protestant from birth..

Later addresses: Between about 1938 and February 1939, from the age of about 44, Erny resided at Great Dixter, Sussex, England, where she was employed as a cook at the stately home, Great Dixter House, renowned for beautiful historical building and wonderful gardens. In 1939, aged about 45, she was a "Cook General" in Hampstead, England. After February 1939, when older than 45, Erny was a cook/housekeeper in several other positions and then took on various jobs including secretarial work and own business ventures in London. In October 1940, aged 47, she resided at 9 Fellows Road, London NW3. In September 1941, aged 48, she resided at 49 Eton Place, London NW3. After October 1941, when older than 48, Erny resided at 11A Eton Place, Haverstock Hill, London NW3. After 1960, when older than 67, she resided at 139 Muswell Hill Rd., London N10.

• cf. Lisl Walk's mini-memoir, completed 2004: "Mother played the piano very well. It was wonderful to hear her play, which she did sometimes. She was particularly fond of Schumann, rather sad, melancholy, beautiful music, often in a minor key." " She (Erny) was a great sewing person, had a treadle Singer in her flat at Muswell Hill, and also enjoyed hand-sewing." "At one time, already in her eighties (!) she had three or four jobs, one was with a Jewish textile firm as book-keeper and there she got cast-off scraps which she promptly made into nice soft dusters and such-like, still well-used by me now thirty or forty or so years later." "Mother was an intrepid shopper and never minded carrying - schlepping - heavy bags, one on each side.".

"Mother smoked like a chimney stack"

Notes: • N.B. MÜHLING HOLIDAYS of WALK FAMILY ... cf. Lisl Walk's recollections (and quite well shown in the posted photo, dated 1929, of the Walks, Edmund Wengraf and other unknowns): This huddle of holiday huts was formerly a prison-of-war camp for Russian officers in World War I. Interestingly, research has turned up the fact that the renowned artist Egon Schiele did military service here in 1916/1917. He was assigned to a clerical post at the camp and, according to several sources, was neither particularly happy nor very creative there. Nevertheless a few of his sketches and especially a painting of the "Zerfallende Mühle" (the Dilapidated Old Mill) stem from this time and may be found via the internet. (He also, apparently, did sketches of Russian POW officers and some of his superiors.

cf.extracts from Lisl Walk's mini-memoir, completed 2004: "... sort of holiday village ...Mühling ...It was a delightful place where we met with many friends year after year. The food was nice, we had musical and social evenings and the countryside was wonderful for walks. There was a nearby river for swimming, in the woods one found wild cyclamen and by the riverside grew many fascinating wild flowers. The summers were hot, hot and sunny ... Mother and I used to pass the time looking for four-leaved clovers outside our rooms. It got me going. I still have an eye for four-leaved clovers! ... There was a long skittle alley for guests. I loved being the person who shunts back the ball and sets straight the skittles for the next turn. I still remember the woody smell of the place and how the sunlight came through the slats. But best I loved the secret places with the wild flowers."

GREAT DIXTER: • cf. extracts from Lisl Walk's mini-memoir, completed 2004: ""When Mother and I came to England in 1938, we first landed in a cook's job in Sussex. As a refugee from Nazi oppression you could bring no money except one or two pounds and you had to have a domestic job to go to. Mother had studied cake-making and had taken extra lessons and brought with her a "batterie de cuisine" ... a collection of specialist knives and cake tins etc. ... ... Great Dixter ... Mother used to have to make great vast fruit cakes for their tea, which was new to her ... You could hardly stir the mixture - but that's what was wanted." The job was in a Tudor mansion of gigantic proportions. They had five gardeners and several domestic staff ... The house had a Great Hall and a Solar, which was a lovely parlour upstairs with a window down into the hall. The place smelled of old oak beams and wood smoke."

HAMPSTEAD: • cf. Lisl Walk's mini-memoir, completed 2004: " That meant one was a cook but had other duties as well. The "rough" was done by a char lady. The house was in "the best" old part of Hampstead, called Frognal. It belonged to a retired legal person ... C.C. QC. It was run by his daughter who was incredibly Englishy beautiful, like a painting by Romney. I was very good at making mayonnaise, which needed a lot of patience - adding the oil drop by drop - and my pay was one shilling a week. I think my mother's was two pounds fifty - old money, of course." (Occupation in 1939). ETON PLACE: cf. Lisl Walk's eldest daughter: " ...I well remember going to the Eton Place flat. It stank of cigarettes. I would say it remained Granny's home well into the late 50s but more probably the early 60s ..."

cf. Lisl Walk's youngest daughter: " ... I don’t ever recall going to Eton Place. Think they must have left that in the 50s or before end of 60s anyway...". • cf. Lisl Walk's mini-memoir, completed 2004: "... During the Blitz everything was really in confusion ... a wonder how we managed to survive and how clever Mother was to keep us going. At one stage when food was rationed and very scarce, Mother made little pies to sell in the corner shop - mostly rabbit but called "chicken" pies. They went like anything." ... " ... Mother, meanwhile, got herself a job with a Birmingham company selling light bulbs in large quantities to factories and getting orders as a sideline to do electro-plating of metal articles for various customers. She was then what one might call a commercial traveller..." (Occupation in 1939). ... " ... When I had left home to get married there was, of course, my room left vacant. One day she (Erny) put up an advert in the corner shop window for “Room to Let to single gentleman, evening meal provided” and presently Mr. Rowson applied. He had been through a stressful divorce and needed just such a thing. They were together for twenty-five years. Sometimes he would cook but usually it was Mother. He made beautiful salt beef, which is a Jewish delicacy, well, dish, really. ..."