ON July 3 the Dorset Echo ran a story about 190 members of one family getting together for a reunion involving at least four generations.

The Rod family, who also spell their name Rodd, met up on Portland where the family originates for a fabulous day of togetherness during which some people met relatives they never even knew existed. Now Freda Robinson, one of the daughters of Harold and Linda Rod, who started the dynasty, has been in touch with further details of her parents.

Harold Bengiman Green Stone Rod (27/4/1900-20/6/1971) met Linda Violet Andrews (24/9/1905-19/3/1990) after the First World War and they married when they were 24 and 19 respectively before going on to have many children, of whom 10 are still alive today.

Harold – who was commonly known as Ben – was a quarryman at the time and Linda worked in service in Ivy House in the Grove.

When the Depression came in 1936, Ben left the quarries and started work as a boiler cleaner in the dockyard on Portland. He also fished, was in the Home Guard during the Second World War and after retiring from the docks aged 65 was employed as a storekeeper at A E Farr until he was 70.

Three of his sons, Leslie, John and David also worked there and they helped to build the Chesil promenade sea defences.

Although Ben and Linda enjoyed a long and happy marriage, they also knew sadness. The first baby girl they named Freda died at one day old and their son Colin Delano, named after the American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, died when he was six months old.

Another son Raymond, who was known as George, died at the age of 11 when the doorframe of a bombed-out house fell on him and broke his back while he was playing in the ruins.

They lived in several houses on the Isle – initially in Fortuneswell where Harold, Iris and George were born, then Wakeham where Pamela arrived and then Southwell where the first Freda was born.

Their fourth house was in the Grove, where Freddy, David and the second Freda were born and then they went to a new-build house in Tillycombe where John and Leslie were born, although they didn’t stay there long because of the Second World War bombings.

From there the family moved to Fortuneswell High Street, mermaid Cottage in Chiswell, Cements Lane where their still-born son Colin was born followed by their last child, Patricia.

Ben and Linda then moved to 29 Harbour View Road, which became a much-loved meeting place for all their children and grandchildren, followed by 49 Harbour View Road where Ben died in 1971. Following his death, Linda and her son Freddy went to Coronation Road where Freddy still lives and where Linda died in 1990.

Although the family was large and money was in short supply, especially during the Slump, everyone pulled together and they were a close-knit group.

Freda remembered: “We would get through four loaves of bread a day and would have eight on Saturday to last through Sunday, too.

“There was always a hot fire and we had at least one hot meal a day.

“The boys would be sent off to the gas works for a bag of coke which burned well and everything was used to keep the fire going – even potato peelings.

“Sundays were quiet and the boys weren’t even allowed to ride their go-karts in the streets. We all went to Sunday School in our best outfits, which were bought once a year.

“Dad would treat Mum to a bottle of Guinness or stout and he had a bottle of ale and they would watch the London palladium show or the Black and White Minstrel Show.

“We never argued, never fought and would always help each other.”