LOCAL lady Lillian Mabel Chartres (nee Speed) was born in 1903 and her family ran the Cosy Café and Speed’s Bakery in Pontypool’s Osbourne Road.
Affectionately known as Queenie, she left school at 14 and by the age of 15 had learnt to drive and became delivery driver for the family bakery.
However, times were hard and Queenie had to find alternative employment – becoming a chauffeuse.
Later during the 1930s she continued her work in a mostly male dominated world, becoming a sales person and delivery driver for Atlas Garages in Newport.
Queenie married Robert HR Chartres in 1940 and they purchased a small general shop in Cardiff before Robert was called up.
After the Second World War, Robert, Queenie and their third children started a new life in Kenya, later spending a couple of years in Aden before returning to Cardiff.
Queenie the trialblazer passed away in 1998 aged 93 and her son recently donated the photograph shown here and other memorabilia to the Torfaen Museum.
Nostalgia is provided by Torfaen Museum.
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