Forest Gate's role, in WW1 The Hammers battalion (1)

 As part of our on-going series examining Forest Gate's role in World War 1 (see footnote for links to other articles), we are running a two-part blog on Forest Gate residents' participation in the West Ham Battalion ("The Hammers") during that war. 

We are entirely indebted to the tremendous work done by authors Elliott Taylor and Barney Alston in their recently published book Up The Hammers, available from the Newham Bookshop, Barking Road, and through their publishers, Amazon - see footnotes for details.

Cover of Up The Hammers - upon
 which much of this blog is based

This, the first episode, traces the story from the establishment of the battalion in December 1914, until the outbreak of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916.

Wherever possible, we have tried to track the addresses of local volunteers and added details (including some contemporary photographs) to the authors' accounts, from censuses etc. We cannot recommend their book highly enough to anyone touched by the events described within these articles, as it gives a much lengthier and fuller account of an important part of West Ham's history.


Following outbreak of WW1 a number of "Pals" Battalions were formed, groups of mates, who joined up together in localities, throughout Britain. The West Ham Battalion was one of them, and established on 29 Dec 1914. Forest Gate skating rink, Woodgrange Road, was temporarily secured as a drill hall. The battalion was given the name "The Hammers" and 120 men were recruited within a fortnight.

Skating rink on Woodgrange Road -
where the rail air shaft is today
 - used as a drill hall for "The Hammers"

An early volunteer was William Walter Busby of 14 Sherrard Road. He was 24, worked as a chemical analyst and was studying for a BSc. He had been a member of the Officer Training Corps, as a student, and was a founding member of the 2nd West Ham Scouts, eventually to become the borough's district commissioner (see here for details). 

He and his family were well established members of Sebert Road Congregationalist church.  Members of his family continued their association with the church and authored its official history in the 1950's. 

The Hammers Battalion book's authors have been fortunate in obtaining fairly detailed diaries of William Busby's movements, at home and abroad during World War 1, and we are grateful to them for being able to quote so extensively from these, in what gives a full picture of both the man, himself, his friends and the conditions they and his comrades endured during the war.

Lt William Walter Busby. Photo
- courtesy of Newham Scouts

14 Sherrard Road today
 - Busby's home then

Battalion recruits were housed on hastily constructed wooden huts in the grounds of the 'Old House' in Wanstead Park, which today is part of the golf club. 

By the end of February they had over 1,000 volunteers and two weeks later they held a recruiting parade and march, around St James' church, Forest Gate, which lead to another influx of local recruits. 

St James church, Forest Lane,
 now demolished, then hosted
 a recruiting parade

Local venues provided entertainment to the volunteers. The staff at the Queens cinema on Romford Road, according to the authors, opened their doors and 850 of the filed in to watch the latest films.

Queen's Cinema, Romford Road,
 bombed in WW2, in 1915 offered 850 soldiers
 free film shows, now flats and shops,
 next to Barclays Bank

Among the Forest Gate volunteers were friends of William Busby - who was soon elevated to become 2nd Lieutenant - like 17-year old Bernard Page and Leonard Holthusen. Page's father, Robert Henry, was proprietor of a successful chain of florists throughout the area (including 2 Woodgrange Road - see here for further details), and lived at 143 Earlham Grove.

143 Earlham Grove today,
 then home to Bernard Page,
 and his father, the florist,
 Robert

Advert for Page, the Florists, of
 Woodgrange Road. Proprietor
 Robert was  the father of
Hammers' recruit Bernard

Twenty nine year old Leonard Holthusen was an engineering surveyor, living at 102 Claremont Road. He became the battalion's first signals officer. His older brother, Alan, of the same address, was a local GP, with a surgery a few doors from the Sebert Road Congregational church. He was quickly appointed the battalion's first medical officer. Their father, also of Claremont Road, was an "ornamental confectioner and Christmas cracker manufacturer".

102 Hampton Road today, then
 the home of Hammers' signals officer
 Leonard Holthusen, medical officer, 
Dr Alan,  and their father, an
 "ornamental confectioner"

On 23 March 1915 1,300 of the battalion mustered on Wanstead Flats and were inspected by Major General CL Woollcombe of Eastern Command. 

A month later a route march was undertaken, after some physical drill on the Flats. The journey took them to Manor Park, via High Street North, to Barking.
They then marched along Green Street, past West Ham's Boleyn ground and back to Wanstead Flats (via Stratford).

Some of the 1,300 Hammers
 mustering on Wanstead Flats in 1915

The following month there were anti-German riots in Forest Gate (see previous blog), and one magistrate commented in court that: "A West Ham Juvenile Battalion of thieves should be raised", owing to the number of children that defendants claimed had been responsible for the looting.

"The Hammers" paraded beneath their home-made colours on Wanstead Flats for the last time on 16 May 1915. Many turned out to hear the service from the Bishop of Barking and a lesson by the Mayor, Henry Dyer - who, ironically, as time was to tell -  had a very successful undertakers' business at 54 Woodgrange Road (see here).

The battalion left the district for the last time on 19 May, and the Stratford Express reported: "They appeared more like a joyous crowd of excursionists than that of a battalion of fighting men with such stern work ahead of them".

"The Hammers" parading along, The Grove,
 Stratford, spring 1915. Photo courtesy
 of Newham Archives

They were seen off by Henry Dyer, who was honorary Colonel of the West Ham Battalion. They marched to Brentwood, for further training. In mid July they were sent to Mansfield, for additional preparation, then to Salisbury Plain.

On 17 November they were on their way to France. One of the officers in the advanced party and responsible for the onward transport and accommodation arrangements was Lt Gilbert Simpson, of Osborne Road. He would appear to have been a 23 year old civil servant, previously of 3 Knighton Road, Forest Gate.

3 Knighton Road, today
 - previously home to
Lt Gilbert Simpson

"The Hammers" were, formally, the 13th Battalion of the Essex Regiment, and once in France they became part of the 2nd Division of the 6th Brigade of the British Army.

On arriving in France, the battalion made its way, by train, to St Omer then on to Bethune, on foot, where they were billeted in an old tobacco factory.

Reality of life in and around the trenches soon hit - cold, over-run by vermin, sleepless nights, constant artillery bombardment, boredom.

A truce, of sorts, provided some relief over Christmas, although that day's dinner didn't live up to hopes. William Busby noted in his diary that it: "was not altogether a success ... the cooks were drunk", on the rum meant for the soldiers!  

Len Holthusen was able to provide some relief, when he brought news that West Ham had massacred Arsenal at the Boleyn Ground, 8-2, on Christmas Day, with Syd Puddefoot banging in five.

Using surviving official battalion diaries, Taylor and Alston are able to describe the movements of "The Hammers" and the suffering inflicted on them in quite a detailed way. So, the diaries and authors are able to tell us that casualties were relatively light during their first couple of months in France, until 20 January 1916, when they suffered a heavy bombardment at the front, which included the wounding, in a barrage of artillery, of Walter Charman, a 39 year old carman (barrow trader), with previous experience in the Boer War. 

Walter who had enlisted in April 1915, recovered after his injury, survived and returned home to his wife, Ethel and their five children at 78 St James Road, off Forest Lane.

78 St James Road today -
then home to Walter Charman

The Hammers Battalion was on the move in mid-February, a little further down the trenches, and on the 16th Arthur Ley Davies was "accidentally shot by a comrade". He lived at 105 Dames Road, with his parents and had enlisted in Stratford in January 1915 - as one of the first 300 volunteers to the Hammers Brigade. 

He was badly wounded, as a result of the shooting, and was shipped home, to recover slowly. Fifteen months later, however, he was to die at sea, while still in military service.

105 Dames Road, today - then
home to Arthur Ley Davies
"accidentally shot by a comrade"
Died, in uniform, at sea in 1916

The following day, Pte Frank Cowell, a 34 year old "enamel writer and glass divider" of 68 Gwendoline Avenue, Upton Park was carefully sandbagging his bit of trench, when he was spotted and shot in the stomach, by a German sniper. Dragged down the trench, he was quickly given morphine by Busby and was evacuated to the casualty clearing station at Bethune, but died two days later.

Later that day Private Alfred Sekles, at 35 one of the oldest volunteers in the battalion, originally from Forest Gate, but by now married and living in Church Road, Manor Park, was hit. He was still breathing when he was taken to the same clearing station, but died of his wounds a week later. He is buried in the Bethune Town Cemetery.

The battalion was soon on the move again, to the area around Verdun, marching in appalling weather, to relieve French troops and face the Germans at Vimy Ridge.

Towards the end of April William Busby was granted some very welcome home leave, and his diary recalls the experience. Arriving home at Sherrard Road, in the early hours, according to his diaries and Taylor and Alston, he woke the family and: "showed souvenirs and then to bed". 

Popular souvenirs would have been bits of captured German uniforms and equipment, like the distinctive spiked helmet, belts, buckles, bayonets and sometimes handguns or grenades.

Back in England, he spent time with some of his former West Ham scout colleagues and caught up with the families of comrades in arms - such as that of Sgt Clark of Kilchurn Road, Forest Gate. He also met with the family of his old billiards opponent, Bernard Page. These were the florists, of Forest Gate and elsewhere, 

He was invited to supper by Bernard's father, then "BRP's younger brother", took him on a drive "through Chigwell, via Abridge to Theydon, then on to Loughton and Chingford, before arriving home for tea".

His final day was spent at home with his father, before, on Friday 5 May: "Packed up things and left home. Train to L'pool St, taxi to Victoria. Just caught train. No seat in Pullman.", where on his return to the front line, he was to encounter the consequences of gas attacks and the further killings of comrades in the trenches.

Alan Holthusen, local
 GP and medical officer
to Hammers Battalion,
 in unconventional dress
 - see text, below. Photo
 courtesy of Essex Regiment.

On 1 June the battalion came under sustained attack, where trenches were badly damaged. Taylor and Alston describe the role of Claremont Road doctor, Alan Holthusen, at this time:

Alan Holthusen, the medical officer, was working feverishly in very confined and extremely dangerous conditions. Since joining, Dr Holthusen had refused to wear his service tunic, opting instead to wear his tweed jacket, which had served him so well at his GP's surgery. He also wore a battered trilby for his time at the front until the initial introduction of steel 'shrapnel' helmets ... Altogether that night, Holthusen personally treated over ninety casualties from three different regiments, including those Hammers ... who were brought in by fearless stretcher bearers like Norman Bellinger. Unable to evacuate them because of the intensity of the shelling, Holthusen and his orderlies took on the status of an advanced dressing station (ADS). They finally managed to move the wounded to the rear by motor lorry between 6 am and 11 am.

The second and concluding article about the role Forest Gate soldiers played in the "Hammers Battalion" will appear next week. It starts with the Battle of the Somme and tells the story of the battalion's remaining months, and disbandment, due to loss of members, in 1918.

Footnotes

1. Thanks to Elliott Taylor and Barney Alston, whose dedication resulted in the publication of Up The Hammers - The West Ham Battalion in The Great War - 1914 - 1918, available at Newham Bookshop, and from the publishers, Amazon for £14.99. See here, for details. The book is available from Amazon, world-wide and has 60 never-before-published photos of the Hammers, a small number of which, as indicated have been reproduced above.

2. Elliott maintains an up-to-date blog on matters relating to the battalion, which is well worth a visit, via hyperlink:this. Elliott is always seeking out new relatives of soldiers from the Battalion, and will be happy to share your details of them (if you wish) and his further researches with you.

3. Other WW1-related articles on this blog are:

Black war hero and football pioneer, Walter Tull 
Tragic end to World War 1 romance (1) 
Tragic end to World War 1 romance (2) 
Becoming rapidly forgotten 3/8/2014
Centenary of anti-German riots in Forest Gate

4. As Elliott reminded us, Walter Tull (see link above) was a member of the Footballers Battalion during the First World War. They fought side by side with The Hammers Battalion, throughout its existence, in the 6th Brigade of the British army.

Turning the Pages of history

We've recently come across a great website, that specialises in getting hold of old postcards, putting them into a social and family context and relating their back story, and we are very grateful to them for inspiring this posting.

One of their subjects is a 1915 card from Dames Road - sent 100 years ago today, on 27 May. Their blog gives some fascinating details (see here) and we thought we'd paint a fuller picture, by putting it more firmly in its local context.

Below is the rather plain postcard, and it shows the shop front of TR Page, Bootmakers - with a young girl in the foreground.

Start of the tale: postcard
 of Page's shop on
 Dames Road, 1915

The second photo below, is a blow up of the image of the girl. The postcards' blog identified her as Ethel Page - daughter of the bootmaker. She was born in 1907, so would have been around 8, when the card was sent. As can be seen, she was well-dressed, including wearing a rather smart pair of boots - presumably made by her father, Thomas.

Ethel, proudly modelling her dad's boots

The recipient was her friend, Lily, in Crowthorne, Berkshire, an altogether more salubrious area than Forest Gate.

So, what can we add?

Well, Dames Road gets its name from, the Dames estate, of which it was part, until the mid nineteenth century.

The social commentators, Howarth and Wilson, in 1907, had this to say about the part from where Page traded:

In Dames Road, which for the most part runs northward from Woodford Road, are some new flats, with separate front doors. The accommodation consists of four rooms and a wash-house downstairs, and three rooms and a wash-house upstairs. They were built in 1903, and are inhabited mostly by newly married City clerks.

These flats are very strictly kept, as they are in great demand. The rest of Dames Road, which was built in 1878, is chiefly inhabited by clerks and businessmen in the City, and has shops on one side of the southern end. The rents vary from 8s 6d, per week to £40 per year. The houses have maintained their level up to the present time, but the shops are difficult to let.

We can assume, therefore, that Page's shop was constructed around 1878.

According to local trade directories, Thomas Richard Page, a boot maker, set up shop there in 1908 - around the time of the birth of his daughter, Ethel. The shop is long gone - see later - and was near the present Anna Neagle Close.

Page lived above the shop, in a four-room flat.  At the time of the 1911 census he was aged 34 and shared the accommodation with his 30-year old wife Eliza and 4 year old daughter Ethel.

Trade directories suggest that Page continued to operate as a boot maker from the premises until the end of the first World War.

By 1922 he moved his workshop a little further up the street, to 54 Dames Road, where he traded from for the next 30 years - but now as a boot repairer, rather than boot maker. Presumably  more highly automated factories in places like Northampton priced small local manufacturers out of the production of footwear. He must have felt deskilled by industrial progress.

While trading from 54, he could well have been a witness to one of the area's more dramatic events - in 1944. Although Dames Road was hit by three small explosions during the Blitz of 1940 (on 16 September and the 8th and 15th October), the damage was minor and mainly structural.

The Germans launched their much more vicious series of V1 attacks on London from June 1943, and Dames Road took a very direct and spectacular hit on 27 July 1944 - a little over 100 metres from Page's shop.

A "Doodlebug" hit a trolleybus at the junction of Dames and Pevensey Roads - by the Holly Tree pub, killing at least eight people.

Below we reproduce an extract from the following week's Stratford Express, describing the incident.

The extract is interesting, in that, apart from recording the incident (rather vaguely), it shows the level of censorship prevalent during World War 2 - designed to not give too much information to potential German spies about locations, and therefore assist in the accuracy of further bombing raids, but also in not fanning the flames of despondency and having an adverse affect on morale on local people.

Without a very detailed knowledge of local events and geography, it would be impossible to locate the bombing location referred to in the extract below. The incident was reported on an inside page of the paper, whose front page was filled with comparatively trivial local day-to-day civilian matters, and it is almost certain the newspaper underestimated (deliberately, or otherwise) the numbers of fatalities endured, in its report.

The extract below is from the Stratford Express of 4 August 1944. It may be difficult to read, so a transcription is supplied below it.

Stratford Express, 4 August 1944,
 recording the Dames Road
 trolley bus incident

Incidentally, the cinema referred to, again obliquely, as being damaged, in the headline, is almost certainly the Rio Cinema on Woodgrange Road, which was hit on 29 July (not that you would know if from the report!). It is now the location of the Durning Hall charity shop.

When a number of dwellings were damaged close to a public house (ed note: Holly Tree) and the edge of open land (ed note: Wanstead Flats); early on Thursday evening last, listening apparatus was employed by members of the rescue parties with a view to finding how many victims were trapped. It was a demanding voice, heard through a loud speaker demanding: "Quiet, please, everyone" which brought a strange silence on the scene. A moment before there had been all the noise inseparable from the aftermath of any "incident"; but the voice that came out the loud speaker altered that. Men perched precariously on debris were listening for sounds which would indicate the presence of survivors. The hush was a weird one, but it told the listeners all that they wanted to know, and in a minute came the voice again. This time it said "Thank you, carry on" and the resources were soon rapidly in progress. A passing vehicle (ed: the trolley bus) was wrecked by the blast and there was loss of life amongst those travelling on it. The dead included William Winter, Dennis Barfield, Thomas Driscoll and Reginald Hillman.

It is likely that the four mentioned above were passengers on the trolley bus, because four residents of Dames Road were also killed on that hit, according to Air Raid Precautions (ARP) records. They were: Gladys Blackman (aged 39), Wendy Blackman (aged 4), Abraham Ince (aged 76) and Edith Tilley (aged 41).

The eye witness account, below, from a very credible witness, suggests that the death toll was very much higher. No publicly available records confirm quite how many, but well into double figures, by the sound of things.

Eye witness account from
 Cyril  Demarne, later chief
 of  West Ham Fire Service

James Owen, author of Danger UXB - The heroic story of the World War 11 Bomb Disposal Teams, quotes Cyril Demarne's account of the incident. Cyril was a fireman of the time, and later became Chief Fire Officer of West Ham:

A particularly nasty, gory, situation confronted us, following a V1 explosion in Dames Road, Forest Gate. A trolley bus, crammed with home going workers had caught the full blast and the whole area was a sickening sight. Dismembered bodies littered the roadway; others were splattered over the brickwork of the houses across the way and the wreckage of the trolley bus was simply too ghastly to describe.

The roof and upper deck, together with the passengers, were blasted away. Standing passengers on the lower deck were also  flung against the fronts of houses on the other side of the road. The lower deck seated passengers were all dead. Although many of the victims had been decapitated, they were still sitting down, as if waiting to have their fares collected.

Demarne described the Dames Road bomb as "the most horrific thing I ever witnessed." Given the position he rose to in the service, and the number of incidents he must have witnessed in a long and distinguished career, that is some testimony to the horror of the event.

Thanks to local community historian, Carol Price, for pointing this reference out, and for confirming neighbourhood memories of the nature of the incident.

The houses in the photo, below, were built on the site of those destroyed by the bomb, post-war.

Junction of Pevensey and Dames
 Roads today - location of the
 trolley bus bombing in 1944

Back to the Pages of Dames Road. Thomas Richard Page ceased trading as a boot repairer at 54 Dames Road in 1952 - some 44 years after he began shop life in Forest Gate - aged 75. Presumably he retired, or died.

The business carried on, however, for another 15 or so years, in the name of Charles Thomas. We don't know whether he was a relative of Thomas, or had purchased a going business concern. Neither do we know why he ceased trading, but can assume that he became a victim of the throw-away society that would rather buy new than repair old.

The lower part of the eastern side of Dames Road was demolished in the 1970's for redevelopment, and the photo below shows the cleared ground, including what would have been Page's two shop locations, in 1984.

Lower part of Dames Road,
 undergoing redevelopment, mid 1980's

The area between Dames Road and Woodford Road is now covered by a small residential estate.

Amazing, where following the tale of a postcard can take you!

Forest Gate - short-changed

Newham is, of course, a one party state, at local council level. There is no formal opposition on the 60-0 body; and the elected mayor, Sir Robin Wales, is able to treat the borough as his personal fiefdom.

Council meetings are over in minutes, public scrutiny is thin on the ground and decisions are taken behind closed doors, in party caucuses, or in pubs by the cronies.

We, the citizens, are administered to and treated with contempt by the power elite.

Robin Wales, like political leaders world-wide (as Cameron will soon be showing us, by the bucket load), has a juggling act to perform, to retain power and keep the comrades happy. And he does so at our expense - quite literally.

Mates are given top, and lucrative jobs in "the cabinet", complete with meaningless sounding "portfolios". Others, whose support, or that of their communities, he needs to retain power are paid off - by our taxes - with sinecures. All but one of the nine mayoral advisors for areas of the borough are, for example, of Asian heritage. Each of the nine of them receive £6,679 p.a. for undefined purposes (i.e. in excess of £60k in total)

Step forward Cllr Rohina Rahman.

Who, you may ask? She has been a councillor for Green Street East (roughly the area south of Romford Road, between Green St and Katherine Rd.), since 2006.

She has hardly made a mark in her 9 years on the council - though has picked up £100,000 for the privilege. Google searches, a trawl through Newham Recorder back editions and the Newham Council website struggle to throw up her name once a year, on average (apart from at election times, when she is looking for votes, of course).

Forest Gate resident, Martin Warne, who runs excellent blog www.forestgate.net, has tracked her contribution to the council and its democratic processes. He recently wrote:

According to council records, in the 2014/15 municipal year, she turned up to just three of eight meetings of the Health and Social Care scrutiny commission she sits on, and not a single cabinet meeting. She attended four full meetings of the council, although the minutes do not record her uttering a single word.

That works out at about £2,000 per hour on official duties - averaging out her £11,000 p.a. councillor remuneration between recorded attendance at recorded council meetings.

Her track record, to be frank, is probably little different from many of her 59 colleagues, on the council.

So, why single her out?

Because, exactly a year ago Robin Wales appointed her his "Mayoral Advisor" on Forest Gate and awarded her £6,679 a year for the post, allegedly for one day per week's work - in addition to her basic £11k per year councillor remuneration.

What does this onerous position involve? We wish we could tell you. There is no job description or list of duties and accountabilities attached to the function.

Freedom of Information requests to the council, over a year, seeking answers to the "what does the job involve?" question have been ignored/rebuffed/evaded/frustrated.

This website - interested in all matters Forest Gate - decided to try and find out.

Two months ago, we wrote polite letters to Cllr Rahman, Robin Wales, council chief excecutive, Kim Bromley-Derry, and the council's "Head of Complaints, Members Inquiries and Freedom of Information".

The letters asked for a job description, list of duties undertaken in exchange for the remuneration, and sight of any reports produced and recommendations made, affecting our area.

Below, we reproduced the sum total of the answers received, so we can show you, in completely unedited form, what we are getting for our money.

What 2 months time and over £400,000
 a year's salaries and expenses can
 tell us about what Cllr Rahman has done

Why does Robin Wales need a "Forest Gate Advisor"? He has spent most of the last 20 years living within a couple of hundred metres of the area, and is frequently seen in and around E7 - particularly coming in and out of the railway station.

Forest Gate is probably over-represented by Newham councillors who live within the area, and  four of the district's councillors (Ellie Robinson, Rebecca Tripp and Seyi Akiwowo, from Forest Gate North and Dianne Walls from Forest Gate South) are some of the most hard working and diligent members of Newham council, active and visible within the area.

What other advice does he need about the area - that justifies the expenditure of over £6,000 per year? We are still waiting to hear - and will share the answers with you, when we do.

Just a reminder. Robin Wales is paid over £80,000 as the council's mayor - over three times the average Newham wage. Kim Derry-Bromley, the council's chief executive is paid £195,000 a year - and will get a bonus this year for being the returning officer in the general election.

Kim Derry-Bromley - the
£195k p.a. sound of silence

Both of them have a legal responsibility for ensuring that public funds are used responsibly and appropriately. One year on, they cannot, between them, offer a single line of explanation for what Newham gets by way of advice on Forest Gate, for this £6,000+ expenditure.

Cllr Rahman's £6,679 payment isn't, apparently, enough to enable her to be able to account for her actions, either. And presumably the council's "Head of Complaints, Members Inquiries and Freedom of Information", on an estimated minimum of £40k p.a., is too busy applying for other similarly exotic sounding jobs in BBC's excellent W1A to have time to respond to our request.

Robin Wales, of course, has form when it comes to wasting money on vanity projects. Like the £40m he has given Tory peer Karren Brady and her pornography producer fellow directors of West Ham, to move to a ground that most fans don't want to go to. 

Then there is the, who knows what (£1m per year?) actual costs of producing the Wales fanzine - The Newham Mag.

Robin Wales: vanity, patronage
 and no accountability

As we face 5 years of Tory government, the £20bn of cuts they promised - but wouldn't spell out during the election - will begin to tumble out. Local government, we know, will take a big hit.

How will Robin Wales react to the central government imposed cuts, locally?

Protect the poor and sacrifice vanity, or continue to squander £6,679 a year on the silent Ms Rahnam and her ilk (£60k+, in total)? 

A not unreasonable litmus test of his priorities will soon be with us.

Centenary of anti-German riots in Forest Gate

Following the outbreak of World War 1, in August  1914, there were a number of riots and skirmishes aimed at German nationals, or those who were thought to be Germans, in towns and cities throughout Britain, including locally.


Location and date unknown, but a widely
used photo illustrating looting of "alien"
shops in East London during World War 1

A recent exhibition by the excellent Eastside Community Heritage (see footnote for details) looked at much of the anti-German activity in East London during World War 1. 

One of the more bizarre aspects of this was re-naming the former  King of Prussia pub on Stratford Broadway the more "patriotic" Edward V11 (who had recently died). Both his family and their name - Saxe-Coberg - were, of course, equally German.


Stratford's King of Prussia pub renamed Edward V11

The biggest upsurge in anti-German feeling locally came nine months after the outbreak of hostilities; and followed the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915. There was a significant amount of rioting and looting of German premises in both Forest Gate and Manor Park, by - as we shall see - Forest Gate residents.

Most of the copy in this blog is taken from the Stratford Express of the time.

Sinking of the Lusitania

The Lusitania was a British ocean-going liner, launched in 1906, and was for a period the world's largest ship. It regularly crossed the Atlantic - from the UK to New York.


The Lusitania - one time largest ocean going vessel

In February 1915 Germany declared the waters around Great Britain as a war zone, and said it would attack hostile vessels. In April 1915 their embassy in London placed adverts in the British press, warning civilians of the perils of  transatlantic travel for the duration of the war (see advert, below).



German advert, warning
travellers to avoid the 
Lusitania, April 1915

On 1 May the Lusitania left New York on its final voyage, and was hit by a German U-boat, off the south coast of Ireland, on 7 May.  It sunk, completely, within 18 minutes.

1,198 people perished in the sinking and 764 survived.

Britain claimed the Germans had broken international conventions, by hitting a civilian ship. The Germans countered (correctly) by saying that it was an auxiliary military ship, since it was carrying over 4 million rounds of ammunition and other military equipment.

This was denied by the British government, who used the incident as leverage to persuade America, which had lost citizens in the sinking, to join the war.

The sinking lead to widespread anti-German riots throughout the United Kingdom, including - as we shall see - in Forest Gate and Manor Park.

The first extract, below, is from the Stratford Express dated 15 May 1915, and describes local riots on the nights of 11 - 13 May 1915.
 
We have cross referenced the premises and business mentioned with local trade directories  of the time, and, where possible, are showing photos of those locations today. We are also highlighting the names of local streets and addresses in the text that follows.

The second extract is from the the following week's edition of the paper and records the court appearances and sentences of local people convicted of rioting and looting. It suggests that the justice was pretty summary.

Riots, Stratford Express Sat 15 May 1915

Stratford Express 15 May 1915

Anti-German feeling has been high in every quarter ..., and commencing on Wednesday afternoon many ugly scenes have occurred...

Quite close to Upton Park station there is a large butcher's shop kept by Messrs Schuch and Sons  (341 Green Street) and for many hours on Wednesday evenings these premises formed the scene of an extraordinary demonstration.

341 Green Street now - a library, on the site of
Schuch's 1915 looted butcher's shop

Thousands of people gathered in the roadway and it was with great difficulty the trams and motor buses made their way through the crowd.

The police did what they could to protect the premises but they could do very little in the face of such an overwhelming crowd .. but every minute the 'ping' of a stone would strike the shop or upper windows and when the glass fell to the pavement there was a loud cry of exhalation. Hundreds of youths were in the crowds and for hours sang snatches of patriotic songs.

Green St is paved with cobble stones, and by the number of stones that were thrown it was quite evident that a certain element in the crowd had brought their 'weapons' with them from some other place.

At Manor Park everything was quiet until the evening, when a large crowd assembled in the Broadway and a determined attack was made on two shops in that district - one a watchmaker's shop, kept by Messrs Krenz and Sons (697, Romford Road) and a pork butcher kept by Mr Streitberger (693, Romford Road), all the front windows in the pork butchers shop were broken, but the damage inside the house does not appear to have been so great as was the case in some instances. 

 

693 - 697 Romford Road today, a century ago,
 the premises of the looted watchmaker's of Mr Krenz
 and the pork butcher's of Mr Streitberger

The watchmaker's shop, however, was gutted, and had a bomb dropped on the shop greater damage could not have been done. Not a vestige of a window was left, and all the goods were destroyed or removed.


799 Romford Road - Bachmeyer's hairdressers,
1915, chicken shop today

Two shops kept by men named Bachmeyer - one being in Station Road (51)and the other in Romford Road (799) - were also attacked and a great deal of damage done". (These were both hairdressers shops. See photographs of locations today; 51 Station Road continued to be a hairdresser - 100 years on -until its very recent closure!).

51 Station Road, Manor Park
- hairdressers in 1915 (Bachmeyer's),
and until very recently, now

In addition to the events above, on 12 May 1915 a large crowd attacked house of Martha Mittenzwei, a German citizen, in Manor Park, but no details of her address survive.

Also, at a date unknown, Menzler's  shop (speciality unknown) -  890 Romford Rd, near Manor Park -  was attacked by stone throwing.



890 Romford Road today - 1915,
 the attacked premises of Mr Menzler

Court proceedings, Stratford Express 15 May 1915

Stratford Express - 22 May 1915

Thirty eight men, women and lads appeared before Mr WJ Grubbe, the stipendiary magistrate, on Thursday, charged with various offences, including theft, unlawful possession and disorderly conduct. Fines were imposed in a few of the more serious cases, but most of the prisoners were bound over for six months.

Amazing scenes, in which tremendous crowds took part were described by the police.  Sub-divisional Inspector Cudmore said that about twenty five different premises were damaged on the previous night, and there were thousands of people everywhere.  He had a force of 200 under him, but the crowd could not be dispersed.

Among those charged were: Walter Dixon, 38, labourer of 23 Harold Road, Upton Park; Victor Rider, 18 barman, 13 St George's Ave, Forest Gate and Harry Gordon Hall, 16, tailor's assistant of 23 Dorset Rd, Forest Gate, all charged with disorderly conduct, in Green St.

Inspector Cudmore said that at 11.10 pm he was called to 341 Green Street, the premises of Mr Schuch, a pork butcher. There was a hostile crowd of about 2,000 persons. The whole place had been wrecked and furniture had been thrown into the road from the rooms upstairs. He entered with a number of officers and special constables, and found over 30 persons inside, smashing everything they could lay their hands upon. Practically all the goods were stolen. All except the prisoners got away on hearing a shout of 'Police' five of them were in the cellar, and three were trying to push a large wire mattress downstairs.

Owen McGuire, 23, a coal heaver of 222 Queen's Road, Upton Park, who was charged with insulting behaviour was said to have 'dived' through the window of a butcher's shop in Green Street. He then went upstairs and through things into the street. When charged, he said 'I have only done my duty'. He was bound over.

John Enifor, 30, stevedore, of 343 Green Street, Upton Park and John Gardiner, 35, dock labourer of 3 Kings Road, Upton Park were charged with unlawful possession of two portions of bedsteads.

Inspector Cudmore said he saw the prisoners in Green Street, each carrying the back of a bedstead. Enifor said: 'They are all taking them home, and I don't see why I should not'. The prisoners said the bedsteads were thrown out of the windows'.

Inspector Cudmore said that there articles were presumably from the same butcher's shop. The prisoners were each fined 10s.

Thomas George Kirby, 34, grocer's assistant, of 17 Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, was charged with insulting behaviour, and also with throwing missiles. PC Watts 121K said prisoner was outside a butcher's shop shouting 'Come on, boys, let's do the XXXX in.' The windows had been broken and he shattered the remainder of the glass with stones. He was fined 5s on the second summons.

Ada Goding, 47, married of Henderson Road, Forest Gate, had possession of four half quarters of flour, taken from John Hoebig's shop at 60 Green Street, Forest Gate (see below) - She said her children brought the flour home. She was fined £1 or 10 days.

 

60 Green Street, John Hoebig's looted
 shop, 1915, Asian restaurant today

Mary Stephenson, 37, of Oakdale Road, Forest Gate was fined £1 or 10 days for having possession of 28 gramophone records taken from Hoebig's premises - she said her little boy brought the records home.

Eliza Mott, 29, married of Oakdale Road Forest Gate accused of having Mr Hoebig's sewing machine, said her little boy brought the machine home. She was fined 40s or 31 days.

Lena Harris of Studley Road, Forest Gate, who had a quantity of Mr Hoebig's kitchen utensils in her house, she said the children brought them home. She sent them back to the shop, but it was boarded up.

Mr Gillespie said: 'I think Mr Fagin must take a class down there' Fine £1 or 10 days.

 

Joseph Bornheim's furrier's,
6 Sebert Road, today

Lily Grimater, 27, married, of Forest Street, Forest Gate, who had a fur muff which had been taken from Joseph Bornheim's furrier's shop, 6 Sebert Road, Forest Gate, pleaded that she was in the crowd and that the things were thrown from the window and she picked the muff up. The police said the shop window was cleared, and many valuable furs stolen. Fined 40s or 31 days.

Below is a contemporary photo of Moy's coal and coke dealer of 741 Romford Road, whose premised were looted as belonging to an "alien" at the time of these riots.


1915 photo of Moy's coal dealer's
looted shop during World War 1, 741 Romford Road.

741 Romford Road now - hand wash car cleaners

Footnotes

1. The Eastside Community Heritage travelling exhibitions: Little Germany Stratford and East London 1914 is highly recommended as a source of additional information on the treatment of Germans and other suspected "aliens" in East London during World War 1. See here, for details.

2. Nusound 92FM, the local community radio station recently interviewed this blog's author about the post, above. Click here, to listen to the 20 minute long interview.