Later, when Dorothy moved to her Thames riverside house in Bray, the celebrity visits continued. “I remember one day the singer Jack Jones’ father Allan Jones, who was a famous film actor in the Forties (singing The Donkey Serenade), arrived in a rowing boat! Hylda Baker also came to stay for quite a while recuperating from an accident. Other visitors included Terry Wogan and Marian Montgomery, both of whom were near neighbours. And there was another occasion when we all met up in the village pub, and George Best came along with Michael Parkinson. I asked him he had never played for England, and was really embarrassed when he replied, ‘Maybe it’s because I’m Irish’!”
Dorothy usually did all the catering herself for the famous parties, and her sister Rene helped out with the cooking. Roger Moore’s mother Billie was often on hand too to help out, and Emily says that it wasn’t unusual for Dorothy and Roger to invite up to 16 people for Sunday lunch.
Roger made a big impression on Emily as a young girl. “He became my hero when I had chicken pox and he carried me out of the convent school where I boarded. I started at the school after my father died and I recall one occasion when Dorothy sweet-talked the Mother Superior into letting me and about two dozen other girls from my class visit Bexley and swim in the pool there. I remember Roger went out and got us all ice cream.”
Having a famous aunt – and in particular a famous young uncle who was then, back in the Fifties, making a big impression in TV’s Ivanoe series – had its drawbacks however. One day Dorothy and Roger took young Emily to a fair at Blackheath. “We’d only been there a few minutes and people started recognising Roger and asking for his autograph. He was literally mobbed by the crowd so we ended up going home after only 15 minutes! I wasn’t very happy about that.”© 2004 www.dorothysquires.co.uk
