Vic's own dad died when he was only 5 (after his brother Freddie died he became the youngest child) and his mother died when he was 14. He then had to leave school and get a job and live with his older sister Gladys, they didn't have much themselves. He apprenticed as a diamond setter, probably due to the quarter being walking distance from where he lived. During WWII he served in the 8th Army- N. Africa, Italy and Palestine. I do not know his rank.
When they went to Vyse St they took up the floorboards and hired a vacuum to take up years and years of dust and from that they recovered some gold to get started. Likely they borrowed some diamonds (literally, it was a high trust business then). Fred made the rings and Vic set the diamonds. "Uncle" Tommy was a retailer. When I was a small child we used to visit "the old Jew" (Tommy being Jewish himself always got a laugh from saying this) a Hassidic diamond dealer. Vic said he drove a hard bargain but always kept his word. One time I was frightened by the loud haggling and cried which resulted in a small win for them, a story retold many times over the years.
I am unaware of a dispute between Fred and Vic, Vic wanted to move into selling appliances so Fred bought him out. Vic opened a large retail space in Smethwick and that is the business that went bust. I don't think anyone lost much (borrowing was near impossible then) but they couldn't pay the overheads (he had a business partner, Phil Peters?) After that he used the large garage at Silvercroft Ave as his warehouse and sold twin-tub washing machines and vacuum cleaners using ads in the newspapers. Later he founded Allhome Extensions, building small conservatory type additions for residential houses.
Diamond hated that name and always introduced herself as Diane. Jacqueline begged her parents to help both physically and financially when she and her husband went bankrupt. He did buy the business and turned it around to profitability and worth a lot of money but his own daughter cheated them out of their share of the business and it created a huge split in the family, leading to Vic committing suicide and breaking Diane's heart, it was very, very sad and completely unnecessary, greed will do that. Diane cut Jacqueline out of her will saying she'd had more than her share from the business but she sued he mother's estate and extracted many thousands more. I don't know of anyone in the immediate family who has spoken to Jacqueline in over 30 years since.
