Bert The Publican

Herbert Arthur Hewitt was born on 20^th May 1872 at 26 Townsend Cottages, St John‘s Wood, London. His father was an organ builder and Bert’s older brothers; Charles, Thomas junior and Frederick were all involved in their father’s business. Bert was the youngest in the family. He was baptised on 1st November 1874 at St Stephens the Martyr, Avenue Road in St John's Wood.

Bert's birth certificate

Bert spent his childhood growing up at 26 Townsend Cottages and according to the census in 1881, was attending school. His older brothers, Thomas junior (24) and Frederick (22), helped their father build and repair pipe organs. His sister Emma (20) was a dressmaker and his other sister Mary (13), was at home with their mother. Bert’s eldest brother, Charles, had left home.

As Bert grew up he must have been surrounded by the tools of his father’s trade and their home probably had its own workshop. Despite this, there is no evidence that Bert ever took an interest in the family business. By 1891, at the age of 18, he had already left the family home to start his own life. Unfortunately Bert does not appear in the 1891 census, so it is impossible to determine what his life was like at this time, but he may have worked behind a bar.

Bert next appears in 1901. By then he was 28 years old and the joint manager of a pub called The Dreghorn Castle. The pub was situated at 157 Queen’s Crescent, Kentish Town, London. He ran the pub with a woman named Elizabeth Chillystone. Together they were in charge of three barmen (Ernest Smith, John Tomkin and Frederick Bouchien) and a cook named Louisa Butson.

Running a pub was hard work. Bert and his staff would have typically worked 12-13 hour shifts on weekdays and 9-10 hours on a Sunday. At the time, the majority of pubs opened at 7:30-8:00am and did not shut until 12:30am, although some pubs (those near markets) opened at 5am and shut earlier at around 10:30pm. An hour to an hour and a half was allowed for meals and occasional time off was granted at the discretion of the manager.

Just three years later, on 17^th April 1904, Bert married Ada Louisa Deacon at Christ Church on Albany Street, London.  The church was close to Regents Park and at the time of the wedding, both the bride and the groom were living at nearby Clarence Gardens. Ada at no.46 and Bert at no.48. There were numerous pubs in the area including two on Clarence Gardens itself and it is likely that Bert was working at one of the local pubs when he met Ada.

Soon after they were married, Bert and Ada moved into The Gosset Arms at 111 Gosset Road, Bethnal Green. Given his newly married status, Bert may have been the licencee rather than just the pub manager. Not long after they had moved in, Ada became pregnant. Ada gave birth to a son on 17^th July 1905 and they named him Herbert John Hewitt.

Excerpt from Electoral Roll for 1909

He next appears in the Electoral Roll in 1909. He's living at 73 White Lion Street in Pentonville which according to local directories from the period,  was the address for the Three Johns public house. The following year, Bert and Ada had moved back to the East End and were living at 21 Mare Street, Hackney. Bert was no longer a licensed victualler and was instead working as a grocer/beer retailer in the ground floor shop below their living quarters. Why had they left the pub and why had he ceased to be a publican? We will probably never know. One scenario is that there was some incident which resulted in him losing his license. He wasn’t to become a license holder again for several years. 

Lilly's birth certificate

On 5^th March 1910, Bert and Ada had a daughter whom they named Lillian Alice Hewitt. Within a year of her birth, they moved to 5 Sutherland Road, Bow. According to the 1911 census Bert’s parents, brother Frederick and sister Alice were also living at the address. By this time Bert was working behind the bar at a pub called Whittington Stone on Highgate Hill in North London.

Whittington Stone in 1911 (now demolished)

Highgate Hill is quite a distance from Bow, especially for someone who worked long hours behind the bar. The long commute probably spurred Bert and Ada to move closer to his place of employment and by the time their third child, Frederick Henry Hewitt, was born on 13^th March 1912, they were living at 4 Wedmore Gardens in Upper Holloway. Their new address was just a 10 minute walk from the Whittington Stone and this would have made life a lot easier. It seems that Bert and Ada remained at the same address for several years and their third son, William Arthur Hewitt was born on 10th April 1915.

War broke out in August 1914. At 42 years old, Bert would have been too old to join the army and he probably continued working at the same pub. The outbreak of war had a profound affect on pubs in the UK. The government, concerned about troops getting drunk when on leave, decided to drastically reduce the number of hours a pub was allowed to open. Under the new legislation, pubs opened between midday and 2:30pm and then between 6:30pm and 9:30pm. These opening hours remained unchanged for many decades after the war had ended.

Bert’s next big break arrived on 10^th March 1917 when he became the joint license holder of The Plough in Ilford Lane, Ilford, Essex. The pub was huge and Bert would have needed to employ a team of staff to help run it. Later that year, on 18th October, Bert and Ada had another daughter, Winnifred Hewitt and on 25^th May 1919, Daisy Eveline Hewitt was born. Both daughters were born at the pub.

Bert continued to run The Plough until 8^th November 1924 when ill health forced him to give up the license. At this stage he had been suffering from a stomach ulcer for over a year and his condition had worsened to the extent that he was unable to continue. By this stage, Bert (junior) had left home to join the merchant navy and Bill, Win and Daisy were all boarding at the licensed victualler’s school in Slough. Bert, Ada, Lily and Fred moved to a nearby flat at 10 Harts Parade on Ilford Lane.

The Plough, Ilford Lane (now demolished)

Bert’s health took a serious turn for the worse on 17th March 1925 and he was rushed to hospital. He died three days later on 20^th March of a perforated stomach ulcer. He was just 52 years old. The cause of his death suggests he may have been a heavy drinker, which isn't surprising given his chosen profession. Sadly, I don't have any photos of Bert and I don't know what he looked like.

Bert wouldn't recognise Ilford Lane now. The Plough was demolished in 2007 to make way for a health centre. According to Ben Judah's new book This Is London, the surrounding area has just a 10% white British population and Ilford Lane itself has become a red light district.

Bill the Clerk

William Pedro Hand was born on 25^th September 1877 at 14 Woollacott Street in Oldham, Lancashire. Though he was born in the North of England he was not a northerner. Indeed, by April 1881 his family comprising his parents and older sister Marian Eliza Jane (known as "Jinnie"), had moved south to East Dulwich and were living 34 Constance Road. During the summer of that year, the family grew with the addition of a baby girl named Alice. This was followed by the arrival of two more sisters - Daisy in the autumn of 1883 and finally Mary in the spring of 1890. The family were catholic, yet his parents saw fit to have young Bill baptised on 12^th November 1882 in St John the Evangelist, East Dulwich, which was Church of England . In the years following his baptism the family moved and by the time of the next census on 5^th April 1891, they were living at 1 Lansdowne Place in Peckham and he was attending a local school. 

If the early years of his life seemed fairly uneventful, the years that followed were difficult and upsetting. It is likely that family life was adversely affected by the deterioration of his father’s mental health. As the only son, the onus would have been on him to earn as much money as possible once he left school in the summer of 1892. His older sister Jinnie was working as a domestic servant and would have also contributed to the family’s income. It is possible that with this money the family could have survived with only a minimum of financial help from the Poor Law authorities, however it would have been impossible for them to work and care for their father, especially as his illness worsened. 

Bill's father was admitted to the workhouse in the spring of 1899. Whilst there it would still have been possible for Bill and the rest of the family to visit him. However, it would not have been so easy once he had been transferred to Banstead Asylum for treatment. It was quite a distance to travel in those days. His father’s death from pneumonia on 31^st May 1899 would have been a terrible shock and at the age of just twenty one Bill became the man of the house.

The following year, the electoral records show the family had moved to 133 Peckham Park Road. They did not remain there for long and by the census on 31^st March 1901, Bill was living with his mother and three younger sisters at 53 Barkworth Road in South Bermondsey. The family were sharing the house with a second family which suggests they were struggling to make ends meet even though Bill, Alice and Daisy were working. At this time Bill was employed as a shorthand clerk, although it isn’t clear what industry he was working in. Both Alice and Daisy were employed as packers at a local baking powder factory which may have been Pearce Duff and Company located in Spa Road. The family had moved again by the following year and were residing at 21 Drummond Road, Bermondsey. They remained at this address until 1904. His youngest sister Mary died in August of that year and was laid to rest in Nunhead Cemetery in south east London.

Meeting Nellie Elizabeth Harris was the next big milestone in Bill’s life. Nellie, a domestic servant, was three years his junior and lived just around the corner from him. Just prior to their wedding, Nellie was living at 369 Rotherhithe New Road whereas Bill was at 42 Ilderton Road. They were married in a Roman Catholic ceremony at the Church of Our Lady of Seven Dolours, Lower Park Road, Peckham on 17^th June 1905. At the time of the wedding Bill was still employed as a clerk.

Our Lady of Sorrows formally the Capuchin Franciscan Church of Our Lady of Seven Dolours. Photo taken in 2014.

Two years after they were married their first child was born. Doris Ethel Hand was born on 23rd March 1907. This was followed by the birth of a son three year’s later. William Phillip Hand was born on 13^th June 1910. Having a family of his own would have eased the pain when his mother died at St Thomas's Hospital on 19^th February 1910. She was interred with his sister in Nunhead Cemetery on 24th February.

As 1910 became 1911 it seems that Bill’s career improved and by 2^nd April he was living with his wife and young family in the more prosperous environs of Twickenham. According to the census they were living at 14 Mary’s Terrace close to the railway station. He was still working as a clerk/shorthand typist and the proximity to the station suggests he was commuting to his workplace somewhere in central London. By 1913 the noise of the railway had become too much and they moved to a new address at 11 Prospect Crescent in the nearby village of Whitton. During Bill and Nellie’s time living in Whitton they had more children. Frederick was born during the hot summer of 1914, but sadly died in early 1917 of meningitis. Their youngest child, Charles, was born on 21^st August 1918.

War broke out in August 1914 and the following spring Bill enlisted with the army. His army medical took place in nearby Hounslow on 26th March 1915 and perhaps due to his age (he was 37 years old) and his diminutive stature (he was just over 5 foot tall), he was not given front line duties. Instead, he served in the Army Pay Corps and spent the duration of the war working as a clerk eventually attaining the rank of Lance Corporal. He was discharged shortly after the armistice on medical grounds due to chronic asthma.

Bill was a member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes. Known colloquially as "the Buffs", they are an organisation that raises money for charitable causes including, at this time, to supply ambulances to bring back wounded soldiers from the front. Bill was a Primo at the Whitton lodge and at a meeting held at the South Western Hotel on the evening of Tuesday 14th November 1916, he was awarded the Buffalo Knighthood for his long service with the lodge. The event was covered by the Middlesex Chronicle newspaper which was published the following Saturday.

Several years after the war ended Bill’s career took him north of the border and by 1924 he  and his family were living in Edinburgh at 41a Northfield Broadway close to Portobello and the beach. At the time of his daughter’s wedding to George Highley on 15th June 1932, they had moved the short distance to 9 Northfield Road and by the mid-thirties they had moved on to 35a Mountcastle Crescent on the same estate. He worked in Scotland right up until his retirement in 1937 when the family took the decision to move back down south. 

By 1938 the family were back in Whitton and were living at 38 Evelyn Road. He would have been present at the wedding when William married Constance Upson at St Peter & St Paul church in Ilford on 3^rd June 1939. Sadly, by 29th September 1939 his life had taken a turn for the worse. Bill's wife, Nellie, had been admitted to Springfield Mental Hospital in Wandsworth, perhaps bringing to the surface painful memories of his own father. He moved in with his sister Alice and her husband Jasper at 14 Sheridan Road in Bexleyheath, Kent along with his older sister Jinnie, who would have provided him with much-needed support.

The outbreak of war caused further ramifications for Bill and his family. His son Charles was called up and was posted to the Far East in 1941/42. Bill remained with his sister at at the same address implying that his wife was still undergoing treatment for her mental illness  In February 1942 Bill would have heard of Singapore’s surrender to the Japanese on the wireless and the news must have filled him with concern for his son. In May he received a postcard from him confirming the dreadful news that he had been taken as a prisoner of war.

If that wasn’t bad enough, his other son, who had been suffering from Crohn's disease, died on 10^th November leaving Connie a widow and a single mother of her 2 year old daughter, Maureen. Just 6 weeks later, on 28th December, his sister Alice died. Bill now found himself homeless, and with one son now dead and the other in captivity on the other side of the world, 1942 was a truly dreadful year.

Bill must have felt low. The loss of William was a cruel blow and he could do nothing to help Charles. He didn’t know where he was or even whether he was still alive. His catholic faith must have helped him through those dark days and given him the strength to carry on. He channelled his energies into helping his daughter-in-law and granddaughter and in 1943 Bill moved in with them at 40 Belmont Road, Ilford.

39-45 Belmont Road, Ilford taken in 1973

When his surviving son returned from the Far East in the autumn of 1945 it must have been an enormous relief. Charles’s return to England was to provide a neat solution to Connie and Maureen’s situation. It isn’t clear whether it was Bill’s, Charles’s or Connie’s idea for them to get together or whether Charles and Connie simply fell in love. What is certain is that on 29th March 1947 they were married in St Peter and St Paul church in Ilford and Charles became Maureen’s step father as well as her uncle.

After the wedding he moved in with Charles and Connie at their new address, 57 Benhurst Gardens, Selsden, Surrey. The electoral register shows he remained there for around 2 years. The most likely explanation for this extended stay is that his wife was still in Springfield Mental Hospital. She does not appear in the records again until 1951 when the electoral register shows them living together at 67 Hackford Road in Stockwell. 

By this time Bill was suffering from high blood pressure, which was no surprise given the stress the war years had brought and in early 1951 Bill suffered a brain haemorrhage and was rushed to St Thomas’s Hospital. Sadly he died on 19^th February. Probate was granted a month later and Charles received £327 14s from his late father's estate equating to roughly £10,500 in today's money.

Photo of my mum's baptism in 1948. Bill is second from the right.

 

John Robert Melton - Escaping the East End

John Robert Melton was born on the 16th June 1879 at 11 Ann Street, Ratcliff in London's East End. Known by the name Bob, his father worked a cook in a restaurant at the time of his birth. The census taken on the night of the 3rd April 1881 shows the young Bob still living at 11 Ann Street with his parents, older siblings Sarah Frances and George Frederick and his young aunt Eliza.

Bob was baptised on at St Paul’s church in Shadwell on 19^th January 1883. At the time, he and his family were living nearby at 25J Juniper Street, a newly-built tenement block for the “respectable” working class. This was home for the next five years. By 20^th November 1888, Bob had moved with his family to 263 Cable Street and was attending Lower Chapman Street school. The building still stands today and is being used as a mosque.

St Paul's church, Shadwell

Darul Ummah Mosque formally Lower Chapman Street school

Bythe time of the next census on 5th April 1891, Bob and his family were living at 245 Cable Street. His father is listed as a coffee tavern house keeper. Given the nature of local business in the area at the time, it seems likely that the house doubled up as the business premises with the front room providing a place for customers to sit. Bob's mother may have assisted by serving customers in between looking after Bob and his siblings. At this time Bob had an older brother (George) and four sisters. His older sister Sarah was aged sixteen and may have helped out by serving customers. George aged fourteen was working as a clerk at the council. Younger sisters Lily and Edith were at school and the youngest, Emily, was just two years old.

At the turn of the century Bob met a local girl named Charlotte Sherwood, who was the daughter of a dock labourer. Once it became apparent that she was pregnant, they had to get married. The wedding took place on 14th October 1900 at St Paul’s in Shadwell. At that time, the twenty-one year old Bob was working as a 'commercial clerk' and had moved from the family home in Tillman Street and was living in accommodation at 15 Drew's Buildings, 147-151 High Street, Shadwell. As the time of the birth drew closer the couple needed to find more suitable accommodation. In early 1901, they were able to move to 29 Belgrave Street, Stepney. Their son, Robert George Melton, was born shortly afterwards on 22^nd February 1901. Their new baby boy was baptised at St Dunstan and All Saints church in Stepney on 19^th March 1901.

Photo taken circa 1911. Back row: Robert George, William Stanley.
Front row: Edith Dorothy Florence, Charles Bernard,
Winifred Edith Lily

During the course of the following years, Bob and Charlotte moved between a number of addresses in the East End. Their second son, William Stanley, was born on 29^th October 1902. Baby William was baptised at St George-in-the-East on 19^th November 1902. At the time, John and his growing family were lodging with his sister, Sarah and her husbandAlbert at 53 Anthony Street, a street that ran south from Commercial Road just to the west of Watney Street. This was followed by the birth of Winnifred Edith Lily in Limehouse on 15^th January 1905. Little Win was baptised at St James’s church, Butcher Row, Ratcliff on 1^st February 1905. Between Win’s birth and her baptism, the family had moved to 220 Boundary Road, Barking. As the family was growing, Bob must have decided it would be better for them to move to Essex where the air was purer and the quality and size of the housing stock was better. On 4^th December 1907 their second daughter Edith Dorothy Florence was born. Two years later on 19^th March 1910 they had another baby boy named Bernard Charles. The census of 2nd April 1911 reveals that the family had moved to 59 Saxon Road, Ilford which was close to boundary with Barking. By this time Bob was working as a 'shipping clerk'.

Growing tensions overseas culminated in the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. At the age of thirty-five, Bob would have been too old to volunteer for the regular army. Instead, he joined the 14th Battalion London Regiment which was a unit in the Territorial Army. It seems that while the younger men went to fight on the Western Front or other locations, Bob remained at home and was able to continue his civilian life working as a 'shipping clerk'. The family expanded further with the arrival of Kathleen Agnes Melton on 20^th July 1914 and another son, Arthur Sidney Melton, the following year. As stories of life in the trenches filtered through, he must have been nervous about the prospect of going overseas to fight one day.

That day arrived on 2^nd August 1917. He was summoned to Whitehall and enlisted with the Army’s 56^th (London) Division before being posted to the Western Front. He first saw action two weeks later at the Battle of Langemarck  (Inverness Copse and Glencourse Wood). This battle formed part of the more well-known Battle of Passchendaele which was also known as the Third Battle of Ypres. The battle’s objectives were reached, but a strong German counter-attack threw the London Division back to its original start line. Casualties were 111 officers and 2,794 men over a five day period in the line, most of them as a result of the attack on 16^th August. Following these operations the division withdrew from the line, and moved south to the Cambrai area, taking over trenches at Lagnicourt in early September. 

On the opening day of the Battle of Cambrai, 20^th November 1917, the division was involved in diversionary operations opposite Moeuvres, and two days later they attacked and captured Tadpole Copse and the Hindenburg Line near Moeuvres itself. Here they remained in reserve while the fighting for Bourlon Wood continued. During the German counter-attack, the positions held near Tadpole Copse were overrun and the division forced back towards the old British front line. Casualties at Cambrai were 211 killed, 1,046 wounded and 369 missing. 

After Cambrai the London Division moved to Arras, and took over the line between the Oppy and Gavrelle sectors.

In February 1918 Bob fell ill. His symptoms included headaches, skin rashes, inflamed eyes and leg pains. On 21^st February he was admitted to 42 Casualty Clearing Station, which at this time was situated close to the village of Aubigny in the Somme valley to the east of Amiens. He was diagnosed with ‘Trench Fever’ and his condition was considered serious enough for him to be transferred back to England on 6^th March, where he was admitted to the Birmingham War Hospital.

Bob spent almost three months in hospital. Though ‘Trench Fever’ was not life-threatening its symptoms could be unpleasant as well as debilitating. The patient would seem to recover only to relapse several days later. By 1917 it was one of the more common causes of illness in the trenches. The cause of the condition was not understood until 1918 and this could explain Bob’s extended stay in hospital. In 1918 the cause of ‘Trench Fever’ was identified as excretions from lice, affecting all trenches.  The disease was transmitted via the bites of body lice and was chiefly prevalent on the somewhat warmer Western and Italian Fronts. Lice were rife in the crowded and dirty conditions of the trenches.

On 1^st June 1918 Bob was considered well enough to be discharged from hospital. The army then sent him to Shoreham Camp on the south coast for training. He remained at the camp until October 1918 when he returned to duty with the Army Pay Corps. By this time the Allied forces had broken through the German lines and the First World War ended on 11^th November 1918 at 11am.

Fortunately for Bob, the ‘Trench Fever’ did not leave him with any serious health problems when he was demobilised from the army in 1919. However, he was still granted a disability pension on the grounds that he suffered from occasional rheumatism.

At the end of the war, Charlotte was pregnant again and on 19^th April 1919, Alan Douglas Melton was born. After the armistice life returned to normal and Bob returned to work as a ‘shipping clerk’. It is likely that he would have commuted into the city using the railway which passed through nearby Barking. At weekends he would have occasionally used Barking Station to take his family on outings to Southend. Bob and Charlotte's youngest son, Kenneth, was born on 10th January 1921.

Bob was keen on football and became the club trainer at Barking Town FC. He took on this role when the club was reformed after the war and remained there until at least 1938. During his period with the club they won plenty of silverware including the London League Premier Division (1920/21), London Senior Cup (1926/27) and President’s Cup (1937/38). The club played their home games at Vicarage Field which is now buried under the shopping centre that bears the same name.

1921 Barking Town FC London League Winners Div 1 also Ilford Hospital Shield beat Custom House FC 5-0 at West Ham
John Robert Melton is standing 3rd from the right with a scarf draped over his shoulder

In the twenties and thirties London County Council bought land to the east of Barking and at Becontree near Dagenham. London’s population was increasing and the people needed new places to live, away from the squalor and overcrowding of the East End slums. The area of land at Becontree was developed into the largest council estate in Europe. This massive public spending probably helped to soften the impact of the depression of 1929-1933. The development of the Becontree estate also resulted in the District Line being extended east to Upminster.

In 1934/35 Bob and his family moved to 136 Stratton Drive on Barking’s newly-built Leftley Estate. House prices started from £670 freehold with a £50 deposit. They were built with Crittall windows, roofs were boarded and tiled, and they had a bathroom with a separate lavatory – a luxury in those days. The house also had a relatively large garden which enabled Bob indulge his passion for gardening. By this time Bob had risen through the ranks of the shipping company where he worked and was now a departmental office manager.

Bob and Charlotte "Old Love"

The late thirties once again saw a rise in tensions overseas. Hitler became the chancellor of Germany and despite Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s peace summit with Hitler in 1938, Britain found herself at war in September 1939 when Germany reneged on her promise not to invade Poland.

The government immediately put in place measures such as the evacuation of children and the issue of gas masks, however very little actually happened following the declaration of war. This period became known as ’The Phoney War’.

‘The Phoney War’ came to an abrupt end in spring 1940 when Germany invaded the Low Countries and France. The British Expeditionary Force and the French Army were outflanked. Disaster was averted by the miraculous evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk, but with France under Nazi control, Britain was alone. It was only matter of time before Germany would attempt to invade England.

The Battle of Britain had now begun. German fighters attempted to gain control of the skies over South East England, but against the odds the Hurricanes and Spitfires of the Royal Air Force proved to be more than a match for the German aircraft.

On Saturday 7^th September 1940 West Ham United were playing Tottenham Hotspur at the Boleyn Ground. The Hammers were 4-1 up and on course for a famous victory. As the match drew to a close, the skies were darkened by hundreds of enemy aircraft approaching from the east. This day, which came to be known as ’Black Saturday’, was the first air raid that targeted London. The damage and loss of life was immense. The Luftwaffe had changed their tactics.

From ’Black Saturday’ until the 20^th November there were daily and nightly air raids. Bob and his family would have retreated to the Anderson Shelter in the back garden while the bombs fell around them. Though the majority of the bombs fell on the East End neighbourhoods closest to the docks, many fell in the Barking area.

As autumn turned to winter the air raids decreased in frequency and the worst appeared to be over. The air raids did not intensify again until early 1943 with the onset of the ‘Little Blitz’.

By 1944 there was a new menace: flying bombs known as ‘Doodlebugs’ or ‘Buzz Bombs’. These were V1 rockets launched from the Belgian or Dutch coast. Like other East Enders, Bob and Charlotte made the best of it and carried on with their lives. They knew they would be alright as long as they could hear the rocket’s engine as it passed overhead. If the buzzing noise stopped it meant that the rocket had expended its fuel supply and it was only a matter of time before it fell to earth and exploded.

As 1944 became 1945, London was subjected to an even more terrifying threat: the V2 rocket. This new weapon was silent and the first anybody knew about it was when they hit and devastated entire streets. Initially the Churchill government tried to cover up these attacks and would issue heavily censored photographs labelled by the caption ‘gas explosion’. Later, as London was subjected to more attacks, the restrictions were lifted. It is alleged that the government fed false information back to the Germans stating that the rockets were hitting to the west of their intended target, presumably as a means of protecting parliament and the royal family. Consequently it was the areas to the east and south-east that bore the brunt of both the V1 and V2 attacks.  At the time there was a large explosion over Mayesbrook Park  close to Bob and Charlotte’s house. This was attributed to a V2 rocket.

The war finally ended in August 1945 and once the celebrations were over, the enormous task of rebuilding London and re-housing the homeless began. By this time Bob had retired and could spend more time in the garden. In the post war years, he would have enjoyed relaxing and spending time with his wife and children who by now had their own children. They were a close family and his children and grandchildren all lived nearby.

In 1957 Bob became ill with stomach cancer and passed away on 21^st September. Bob’s son, Arthur, was present at his death. He lived through a period of enormous change and elevated the family from the privation of the Victorian East-End to the relative comfort of the middle-class Essex suburbs. Quite an achievement.

Emile Curmi - from Egypt to England

The following account of Emile's life draws heavily upon an email account written by Donald Curmi on 9th June 2003. Where applicable, I have added my own text which is based upon memories passed on from Antonia's mum, Gio and research conducted by me and by Antonia's cousin, John Auld.

Emile was born in Zagazig, Egypt on 31st May 1894. He was British by birth and never held any other nationality. His birth certificate below shows his name was actually registered as Emiglio. His father, Joseph Curmi, who was a jeweller by profession, had applied for and acquired British nationality. His mother, Teresa Widmar, was from Trieste, which at the time, was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. She was the daughter of a merchant and family legend has it that he was also an aide to Emperor Franz Josef and himself had an aristocratic background. She was a veritable polyglot who could read and write nine languages and merely speak another three. Emile had an older brother Adolph (born in 1892) and a younger brother William (born on 26th October 1896), but most regrettably, later lost touch with the both of them.

William, Adolph and Emile 1907

His mother taught him to read and write Italian instead of German. This was apparently because his father so disliked Germans as to forbid his mother from teaching him German. Emile studied the Koran and thus Classical Arabic at the renowned Al Azhar mosque school in Cairo. Where English was concerned, no comparable centre of learning existed, so he studied the language to a high level through correspondence courses from Oxford University. While still a youngster, his father asked him to review a petition written by a local man that was to be presented to the British Authorities who governed Egypt at the time. Seeing room for improvement, he reworded it. When Lord Kitchener read it, he was struck with its literary quality and wanted to meet the writer whom he presumed to be a learned gentleman. But when presented with Emile, he was astonished at the figure standing before him, who would have been little more than a boy. He was so charmed, that he invited Emile to be a guest for a week on board his yacht.

Emile volunteered into the British Army and saw action as a gunner in the First World War. This took him all over the Middle East in the campaign to end the Ottoman domination of it. He also served as an interpreter, coming into contact with monarchs and many people in high places. Many years later, Emile related a tale of a battle involving the crossing of a river where he saw the river turn red with all the blood spilled.

The Ottoman Empire was defeated and the British occupied Mesopotamia. After the war, Emile was employed by the Political Department of the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force. The department were charged with the post war division of the region between Britain and France. The French Mandate took over governance of Syria and Lebanon and the British governed what is now Iraq and Jordan. Emile must have been highly regarded as he was mentioned in dispatches twice in 1919: once on 18th February and again on 3rd June.

The British Mandate came into existence in 1921 and its first High Commisioner was a former officer of the British Indian Army by the name of Sir Percy Cox. Cox hand-picked Emile to be his personal secretary. The British installed King Feisal as a puppet monarch. It is said that Emile was acquainted with T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and he certainly did know Gertrude Bell. Indeed he is mentioned in one her letters dated 29th September 1921.

After his work in the British Army, Emile engaged in various professions. At one time he was editor of the English language paper The Baghdad Times. At another, he was a merchant and in partnership with a man called Ibrahim Ayyeeb. They had a contract to supply the British Army with potatoes. They were prohibited from selling any on the open market. A third partner, a Kurd by the name of Jassim Nariman secretly broke this   agreement and a never-ending court case ensued. Thanks to old fashioned corruption it apparently dragged on endlessly without ever being resolved.

Emile and Asma wedding circa 1928

In around 1928 Emile married a young Lebanese teacher by the name of Asma Kanawaty. The couple had five children together: Giovanna (b. 1930), Eileen (b. 1932), Mafalda (b. 1939), Joseph Donald (b. 1943) and Richard Alexander (b. 1945). The family lived in a large house on Alamein Street in the Battaween district of Baghdad. As his children grew up, they remembered how Emile would entertain guests with many fascinating tales from his earlier life. These included such personages as the "Nakeeb" of the holy city of Najaf, an Islamic cleric and religious leader. He was a apparently very fond of Mafalda, or "Mafilda" as he used to pronounce it and would always ask to see her when he visited. Another guest was the Church of England minister, Reverend Roberts, at whose church the family attended Sunday morning service. On one occasion, Emile apparently shocked the family by asking the reverend whether he believed in God.

During the summer months temperatures in Baghdad frequently exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Even at night, the heat was stifling and the family slept on frame beds erected on the flat roof of the house. The sky was crystal clear and it was possible to see meteors against an incredible panorama of countless stars. Sometimes the family used to visit an island in the Euphrates river and eat delicious fish cooked over an open fire. They would occasionally travel across the desert to visit Asma's family back in Lebanon.

Family life was interrupted by a pro-Nazi coup which took place in 1941. A group led by Rasheed Ali seized power for a while. The family took refuge in the US Embassy until it was safe to return home. Emile had returned to the house to pick up a few badly needed things and whilst there, foolishly decided to take a bath. He was betrayed by a long known servant who had promised his loyalty to him as well as having seemed to be trustworthy. Emile was arrested and had to spend a short period of time in a concentration camp until the coup was overthrown. It was a worrying time for his wife Asma and the children as they didn't find out what had happened to him until many days later.

Curmi family c1956. Back row left to right:
Donald, Mafalda, Eileen, Alex;
Front row: Asma and Emile

Emile found himself in difficulties again after he reported a theft by a servant to the police. The prejudiced judge who was handling the case mistook the name Curmi with the common Jewish name Gouri and somehow twisted things around in order to have Emile thrown into prison. Emile resorted to contacting King Feisal's uncle, whom he knew well enough and was soon out of difficulty. The corrupt judge later exclaimed to Emile "how was I to know you had such a strong back?"

The revolution of 14th July 1958 overthrowing the pro-western regime came as a terrible shock to Emile and the family. All of a sudden they awoke to military music and strident voices on the radio and their lives were turned upside down. All of the royal family members were immediately murdered. A large storage depot near the family home blazed away for many many days and would frequently flare up and light up the entire city with every gust of wind at night. Emile and his family stayed indoors and one day, all of a sudden, they heard a sustained burst of machine gun fire. They had all been sitting around their Philco short wave radio when Emile told everyone to get down on the floor of the living room. They couldn't tell where the gunfire as coming from but knew it was not far away. Later, they learned that the ousted Prime Minister Nouri Assaid had been discovered disguised as an old woman and put to death, his body was subsequently dragged through the streets. The family remained at home throughout the revolution and did not seek shelter in any foreign embassy.

Sensing danger, Emile packed his family off to England in the autumn of 1958. Emile remained behind in Baghdad with his sister-in-law Mary Kanawaty. The family were reunited in Barnet, North London five years later but by this time he was dying of cancer. Emile died on 30th January 1963 and was laid to rest at New Southgate Cemetery.