Julia Wybergh Sesemann (neé Bishop)  28th April 1936 – 4th January 2023
 
 
First years: Julia was born on the 28th April 1936 and lived with her parents, Frank and Ena and her elder brother Martin in a flat in Maida Vale, London.
 
1938: The family moved briefly to Wallington before another move to Red Cottage in Red Hill. The following year her sister Rosalind was born on the 2nd March.
 
1939: At the beginning of WWII, Frank, Ena, Martin, Julia and Rosalind drove to Northampton in an Austin 7 to visit Ena’s maternal grandparents en route to Feock in Cornwall where they would spend most of the war years.
 
“We were given iced biscuits in the car. I remember one with a pink pig on it!” – Martin Bishop
 
“Feock was an idyllic place situated on a creek that fed the Helston River. We liked to explore around the little beach at the bottom of the garden where our rowing boat was moored.” – Martin Bishop
 
“Julia was always immaculately dressed. There is a picture of the two of us: I am standing there with one sock halfway down my leg looking pretty unkempt. Next to me is Julia without a hair out of place and wearing beautiful clothes, perfectly clean! This is how she was and remained throughout our lives.” – Martin Bishop
 
1942: The family moved to Saltash, just across the River Tamar from Plymouth which was still being bombed. The move was something of a culture shock after the rural idyll of Feock. Saltash was an urban place by comparison, and a possible target for German bombers who were trying to knock out the Tamar railway bridge just down the road.
 
Julia remembered having to dress quickly and hurry down the lane at the back of the house to a public air-raid shelter when the siren sounded nearby. There she would seek solace in her Enid Blyton story books until the all-clear sounded.
 
Her primary school was a two mile walk away from home, and she would collect shrapnel from exploded bomb cases on her way.
 
“On one occasion, when Julia was 7 and I was 4, we were walking to school together and the siren suddenly went off. We were rapidly pulled into a nearby shelter together. Julia was scared but always seemed to be ‘in charge’. – Rosalind Gillard
 
Memorably, a barrage balloon that had broken away from its moorings landed on the roof of the house one day.
 
1943: Julia’s sister Loveday was born on the 9th February.
1945: The family moves to Plymouth.
Julia begins piano lessons with Miss Lang. A lifelong love of music was to follow.
Julia and Ros go to St Dunstan’s Abbey school where they are taught by nuns. One of them, the lively sister Cora, takes them out for a boat trip.
 
“Rationing was still in place. Julia found out that there were some oranges for sale down the road. So Ena told Julia and Ros to queue for them but not let on that they were from the same family. They returned home triumphantly with 6 oranges, not the 3 that rationing allowed.” – Rosalind Gillard
 
“There was a circular pool on the Hoe in Plymouth. I went there with Julia who pushed me in the deep end saying “You can do it!” – Rosalind Gillard
 
“There were regular family outings to the countryside including picking primroses in Devon.
Julia’s bunches were always beautifully arranged, with leaves appearing neatly around the edges!” – Rosalind Gillard
 
Julia seemed to like most subjects at school, with the exception of maths.
 
1948: The family moved to Bristol.
 
1949: Julia’s brother Simon is born on 19th February.
 
Julia and Ros, and later Loveday, go to Clifton High School, where Julia is picked for the tennis and hockey teams and excelled at domestic science. Her mince pies, cakes and apple crumbles would become favourites in the Bristol home. She listed a long list of hobbies that included sewing, knitting, ballroom dancing, cycling, finding and pressing wild flowers and collecting autographs and film stars’ pictures. She also liked film and theatre. She later joined the Old Vic where she went regularly. She particularly enjoyed musical productions, Salad Days being her favourite, for which she bought the sheet music to play at home.
 
She made friends with Julia Jones next door, who remembers playing piano duets with her. She continued to work her way through her piano grades with great determination.
 
“We used to play Dvojak’s Slavonic Dances together. Julia would always play the harder parts.” – Julia Jones
 
Family excursions to the countryside continued. Favourites included picking daffodils at Dymock Woods, and collecting primroses at Chew Valley before it was flooded to make way for a new reservoir. Swimming in the river at Limply Stoke near Bath was great fun.
Holidays at Polzeath were to follow.
 
A small pebbly beach near Polzeath, now named by the family ‘Cowrie shell beach’ became a firm favourite, and Julia passed the knowledge and love of this special place onto her children and grandchildren, who still go every year to look for Cowrie shells. It is where Julia wants some of her ashes to be scattered.
 
“Julia and I were hunting for Cowrie shells. We found a hole in some rocks where we spotted some whoppers! As we jumped in the hole a huge wave would come in and completely soak us. We just laughed and laughed.” – Rosalind Gillard
 
After school, Julia went to secretarial college but after only one term was told by her father there was no money for the whole year and she was to start working from Monday! He had arranged it all through a friend of his. It might have been the case that Julia could have gone to the Royal Academy like her mother, but now as part of a family of 7, there just wasn’t the money to pay for it. Julia gets a job as a filing clerk on £5 a week.
 
“Julia was very kind to me. Out of her wages, she used to buy me little glass animals for my collection. I used to love going to the shop with her to choose one.” – Loveday Hickey
 
I used to really enjoy Julia playing and singing me nursery rhymes on the piano. Then she’d play me the boogie woogie and we’d both end up just roaring with laughter. It left an indelible impression on me, and I have always wanted to play music ever since.” – Simon Bishop
 
“I liked her plaits and freckles. I once asked her why she didn’t wash off her freckles!” – Loveday Hickey
 
1955:  Julia met Michael Sesemann, her future husband at the Young Conservatives New Year’s Eve celebrations at Trafalgar Square.
 
1957: The family moves to Purley – a difficult move as many good friends were left behind.
 
Julia joins her father and elder brother Martin at Aims of Industry, an independent free enterprise lobby group based in central London.
 
“I met Mike for the first time when he drove me up the steep incline of Burcott Road in his old blue vintage car nicknamed Willy (as in Will He / Won’t He?) as there was no guarantee the car would make it up the gradient. I sat in a little seat that was let down behind the boot at the rear. I remember Julia shrieking “Will he, or won’t he?” all the way up the hill!” – Simon Bishop
 
“I also remember Mike entering our sitting room to ask Frank for Julia’s hand.” Simon Bishop
 
April 1957: Julia and Mike get married at St Andrew’s church, Old Coulsdon.
Their first home together was in a flat in Putney, before a move later to a Semi detached  house at 89 Forster Road, in Beckenham.
 
“I was wearing stockings for the first time at Julia’s wedding. I was embarrassed when someone pointed out that I had a ladder. I felt sad when they got married as I realised she was leaving home.” – Loveday Hickey
 
“One afternoon at Purley we heard the sound of a small aeroplane flying low over the garden. We looked up to see Julia and Mike in a Tiger Moth waving furiously. We waved back just as furiously!” – Simon Bishop
 
“I have Julia to thank for my being able to read! When my parents moved to Purley they put me in the nearest local, but as it turned out dysfunctional, school. It was Julia who sent out an alarm to my parents who thankfully moved me to another school which gave me the attention I needed.” – Simon Bishop
 
1959: Julia’s son David born on the 20th March.
 
1961: Julia’s son Andrew born on the 11th April
 
“I used to cycle over from Purley to see Julia when she had the boys. She always made me feel very welcome.” – Loveday Hickey
 
1969: Julia’s daughter Caroline born on the 7th January.  The family (now 5) move to 10 Kemerton Road, Beckenham.  
 
1970’s and beyond: Julia begins visiting local markets with Tim Sesemann’s then wife Jennie, with whom she becomes very close. Jennie and Julia start buying and selling bric-a brac at the markets in Purley, Bromley and Croydon. There was some opposition from the husbands. But Julia wasn’t having it.
 
“Julia became frustrated. ‘Blow those men!’ she said, ‘Let’s do it!’”. – Jennie (Sesemann)
 
Julia becomes passionate about collecting and selling vintage children’s illustrated books, which carry important memories from her own childhood. The number of books expands rapidly and will include one of the largest collections of Enid Blyton books in the country. Julia even supplied books to the young Princes William and Harry! Each year she produced her own book catalogue to sell some of the books she no longer wanted.  Julia’s own collection will eventually reach 10,000 titles.
 
Julia’s family embark on a series of Spanish holidays for which Julia learns conversational Spanish. She meets Maureen and her husband Jimmy who invited her to join them in Antibes on holiday in later years.
 
Boxing Day lunches at Kemerton Road become the biggest family annual occasion.
Julia’s apple crumble still reigns supreme. Everyone enjoys Julia’s welcoming style.
1980s: Julia enjoyed many holidays in Spain with Caroline, with trips to Menorca and Majorca being their favourite.
 
 
 
1981: Sadly, David was diagnosed with a brain tumour when he was 22. Julia and Mike very much devoted themselves to helping David’s wife, Eileen, care for David throughout his illness and helping with Robert and Philip. David died in April 1995.
Julia could be extremely kind, always to family and friends but sometimes to complete strangers.
“I was in a long queue at the post office with Julia one time. We spoke with a woman in the queue who was frantically worried because her mixer had broken and she needed one urgently to do her Christmas cooking. Julia said straight away… “Have mine.” And then arranged for her to pick it up. This poor woman was so relieved and delighted.” – Jennie Sesemann
Grandchildren:
Julia’s family meant everything to her and she adored all her grandchildren: Robert, born in August 1991; Philip, October 1992; James, February 1993; Jennifer, October 1995; Clara, December 1996 and Olivia, December 2002.
2009: Mike died in April.
Final years: Julia’s garden meant such a lot to her. When she became too infirm to maintain it, Caroline and Andrew did much to keep it in good condition. Her grandchildren also helped (and received an excellent hourly rate in return!). As well as her beloved cosmos, her primroses, her fritillaries and her incredible swathe of crocus in the front garden, pride of place was an enormous and beautiful oak tree that she had sown from an acorn. She had a real love of wildlife. She loved to ‘reveal’ the frogs living under various flowerpots and she loved seeing the woodpecker arriving at her birdfeeder.
2020-2023: Julia went into the West Hall care home in October 2020, when COVID restrictions were strong and only 30 minute supervised visits were permitted. She got COVID before having any vaccination, but was thankfully not badly affected by it.
She died peacefully on January 4th. 2023. She had had the best care possible thanks to Caroline and Andrew looking out for her needs throughout a difficult period when she became increasingly infirm, having done everything possible to extend her time at Kemerton Road, which she loved so much.
We will all miss her exuberant personality, her friendship, love and generosity, her wonderful laugh and sense of humour which she often aimed at herself. Julia could be playful company, always stylishly dressed, she looked for the sunny, fun side of life. She always looked her best and was proud of her appearance. She was a devoted mum, auntie  and grandmother, and a dear sister. She coped with tragedy and adversity with tremendous bravery, poise and determination and never lost her sense of humour right to the end.