​TRANSATLANTIC traveller Eileen Knight may have been living in Ramsgate since 1967, but her memories of meeting the rich and famous in the Hollywood date back to the 1950s.

For the pioneering travelling nanny, now 80 and a popular speaker at isle clubs, often dined with the then American First Family, the Kennedys, was a friend of Bob Hope and

Bing Crosby and worked for Bonanza star Lorne Green’s family.

Born in Barnett and brought up in Finchley, she was evacuated in 1940 to a farm in Lyme Regis where she cared for six younger children aged between three and seven, accompanying them to the village school two miles away.

Daughter Holly Jewell says: “My mother had a natural gift for caring. Her commitment to the children in her care, who were also lonely and unhappy, prevented her running away.  She felt responsible for cheering them up.  These years were foundation for a career in looking after others.”

Grandmother-of-one Eileen takes up the tale: “I left school at 14, and studied to be a nursery nurse.

“My first uniform was cause for excitement. I surrendered precious clothing coupons for it and my first wage was 19 shillings and sixpence.

“Among other things, I had to learn how to knit baby layettes, something unheard of today.

“Nappies were boiled in huge vats and rubber teats were sterilised daily. Woe betide anyone who allowed the teats to boil dry. It filled the building with a smell of burning rubber for days.” 

Eileen’s first work placement was with a Jewish family, looking after two young girls aged two and four.

Here she encountered a young lady with what she thought was an unusual tattoo.

“I later learnt that she was a survivor from a concentration camp,” recalled Eileen.

In 1951, using money from her 21st birthday present, she sailed from Liverpool on the

Empress of Scotland to Canada. For the next seven years she looked after three children in Hamilton, Ontario and experimented with sports such as cycling through the Rockies, mountain climbing and taking part in the Calgary Stampede.

Next she headed to Florida, then to Denver, then Texas where she encountered a tornado, and on to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Throughout her travels her trusty box Brownie camera was recording her adventures. And in California working for Lorne Green’s cousin and taking her charges to the same school as Judy Garland’s girls, Lorna and Liza, her autograph book was never far behind, especially as her English accent never failed to get her noticed.

Daughter Holly says, “From the day she sailed across the Atlantic in the early 50s, my mother has achieved so much, mostly on her own.  She has spent her life caring for others, in one way or another and is an inspiration to others.”