How my grandmother welcomed Basque child refugees

A group of Basque children, refugees from the Spanish civil war, are pictured on the seafront at a holiday camp in St Mary's Bay, Kent, in 1937. Photograph: Reg Speller/Getty Images

Peter Howarth refers to local support for Basque children in Shipley in 1937, including in a letter to a local newspaper (Letters, 14 July). I write on behalf of my mother Ruth Hill, aged 94, whose own mother, Constance Hill, wrote that letter. She went on to become a town councillor representing Shipley, and welcomed some of the Basque children into her own home. My mother clearly recalls this time – how they sat together eating boiled eggs, and how the children enjoyed playing with her doll.
Rachel Williams
Coventry

• Congratulations to Lois Toulson and Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix on winning their historic silver diving medal at the World Championships (Toulson and Spendolini-Sirieix win landmark world championships silver, 16 July). And apologies that it was considered necessary to include a reference to the TV-famous father of one of them. Women still being defined by their male relatives, I see.
Sue Ball
Brighton