Evelyn Manning

Evelyn (known as Eva) was born in Forest Gate, London on 2/10/1892. She was the eldest of five daughters born to her parents, William and Ada Manning. Her father was a civil servant. Her family moved to Severn Kings, Ilford in 1901. Although Eva would have liked a more creative job, she trained at Clarks College, Ilford in business, and found that she enjoyed the work; finding employment in a temporary office.

A friend made through her church, New Baptist, in Seven Kings, took her to visit Warner & Sons. Eva was thrilled with the beautiful fabrics made by the firm, and was later offered a job in the London office, and after around a year of working there, was interviewed by Frank Warner and became his secretary until his death in 1930. When Ernest Goodale took over from Frank Warner, he asked Eva to continue to work for Warner & Sons.

In 1929, her parents had moved to Thorpe Bay, Southend-on-Sea. She travelled to work from there via steam train. At the outbreak of war in 1939, her parents decided to move to Swanage, Dorset, and Eva decided to go with them. She resigned from Warner & Sons, and began working for the Ministry of Food in Swanage.

Enjoying her life in Swanage, she was asked to be Hon. Secretary of the Girls Training Corps, and initiated a new branch of the WI in Swanage. 

Eva met Thomas Quarrill, who was an ARP warden in Swanage, and they married in 1944 when Eva was 51. They bought a bungalow in Swanage, and travelled a great deal abroad to Italy, France, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, usually by sea.

Tom died in 1957 at the age of 72, and by this time her parents had also passed, so she decided to move back to Thorpe Bay where her sister and samily lived. She moved to a hotel on the seafront, and then onto a home for elderly ladies until her death at age 96, in 1989.

Warner & Sons kept in touch with Eva over the years, inviting her to special events. She fondly remembered her time at Warner & Sons, working with Frank Warner.