Those Who Came Before Us

Roy Frederick Renals (1936–2024)

Roy Frederick Renals was born on 5 June 1936 at Bazeley's Barn, Lanhydrock, Bodmin, Cornwall. His father, Robert (Bob) Renals, was 43, and his mother, Charlotte (nÊe Orchard), was 34, at the time of his birth. Birth registered at Bodmin, 2Q 1936.

Roy died on 30 November 2024, aged 88, in Truro, Cornwall. Death registered at St Austell, Cornwall district, 3Q 2024. He is buried at Egloshayle Cemetery, Wadebridge, with Sheila, who predeceased him.

Family

Roy married Sheila Lavinia Bewes in 1955 at St Conan's Church, Washaway, Cornwall. Marriage registered at Bodmin, 3Q 1955. They had two children, Andrew James and Lorraine Grace.

Roy had one elder brother, Edwin John Renals.

A doctor's bill, kept and rediscovered

Bill from Drs Salmon, Cleveland and Chillingworth, The Friaries, Bodmin, 1936 Bill for "professional attendance and medicine," April to June 1936, addressed to "Mr Renals, Bazeley's Barn"

Among papers kept by Roy was a bill from a three-doctor Bodmin practice — Drs Norman G. H. Salmon, Francis H. Cleveland and Hugh F. Chillingworth of The Friaries, Bodmin — for "professional attendance and medicine" from April to June 1936, at a cost of ÂŖ3 5s 0d, receipted on 11 July 1936. Given Roy's birth on 5 June 1936, this almost certainly records the medical care Charlotte received through her final trimester and confinement.

The bill appears to have been kept by Charlotte herself, and passed, unremarked, through Bob and Charlotte's effects to Roy and Edwin after their parents' deaths. Neither Andrew nor his sister Lorraine had seen it until they, in turn, went through Roy and Sheila's effects following Roy's death in 2024 — a small, quietly moving object that has now passed through four generations of the family before finding its place here.

The Renals of Cornwall

I have the photograph of Roy and Sheila standing in the doorway of St Conan's Church, Washaway, Cornwall — for those who don't know it, a small church in the countryside almost midway between Wadebridge and Bodmin. It is September 1955. Dad, nineteen years young, is dressed in a suit, his hair styled — he retained beautiful curly hair throughout his life. Mum is wearing a beautiful white wedding dress; she is eighteen. Radiant beauty. Teenage marriage. Will it last? They made it through as a married and devoted couple until Mum passed in 2023.

posted 26 Mar 2025 (Andy Renals)

Further Reading