Percy Nunn, his daughter Beverly and her husband Philip Richardson at Wickhambrook in 2004.
Both Percy and Beverly have since passed on.
When I first went to Suffolk, England, in 1998, I met a distant cousin named Percy Nunn.
I was just starting to trace my Suffolk connections and, when I reached Chevington and started asking after anyone with the Nunn surname, I was directed to Percy’s place in Nunnery Green, Wickhambrook.
Initially I did not accurately calculate our family relationship but, after more research, it was established we in fact had three common ancestors and were fifth half-cousins, seventh cousins and eighth cousins. To see how that looks in our family tree, visit this link and scroll down the page.
Not a close connection by any stretch but we both had deep roots in the villages of Chevington and Hargrave, as many with the Nunn surname do. Percy struck me as a gentle, generous man and we became instant friends and kept in contact over the next several years.
Percy wrote many letters and, several times, I telephoned him from Australia for a chat. When I again visited Suffolk in 2004, Percy was one of the first people I went to see and I enjoyed a wonderful day out together with his daughter Beverly and her husband Philip.
Percy, Beverly and Warren Nunn at Wickhambrook in 2004.
I think I last spoke with him about six months before his passing in 2012 and, by his own admission, he was slowing down at 93.
He retained his good humour and talked about life growing up in Suffolk and his time in WW2 as a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps.
I suspect every person who does family research will talk about making friendships across the world with distant cousins.
I can speak to many of these and Percy’s friendship will always remain special because it was one of the first I made outside Australia.
I shared a common faith with Percy and we talked of meeting again after this life.
It was a privilege to have made Percy’s acquaintance in this realm.
NOTE: Percy shares a relationship (as I do a well) to former Queensland Parliamentarian Bill Nunn. This link displays how they are third half-cousins, two times removed; fourth cousins, twice removed; and eighth cousins, twice removed.
Beverly’s brave approach to her situation
Percy’s daughter Beverly passed away aged 77 in March 2020 after having been ill for some time.
A few weeks after her father died early in 2012, Beverly was seriously injured in a car accident. She was turning into her home driveway when an ambulance on a emergency call slammed into her vehicle.
Her husband, Philip, has written a wonderful account of her life and her struggles. It can be read here or at my website.