The Dames Road disaster - 27 July 1944

We have written before about the Doodlebug bombing of Dames Road in July 1944, here and here.

The local Labour Party held an event outside the Holly Tree on 27 July this year, to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the bombing and to remember the dead (see photo, below).

The Labour party 73rd anniversary commemoration
 event (photo: courtesy of Newham Recorder)

Our earlier reports expressed a frustration in getting accurate numbers of those killed and injured by the bomb. We are now able to bring fuller details of the carnage, including the names and addresses of 34 killed at the time and to usefully speculate on what could have happened on the day. 

We are grateful to local resident, Shirley Hartley and the Waltham Forest archives at Vestry House and, in particular, the assistance of archivist Jo Parker, for much of what follows.

Our previous coverage relied on the report from the Stratford Express from the week following the hit (below) - which only identified four dead - and the West Ham borough post war list of the WW11 civilian dead - which only identified a different four.  We knew, however, that  these were serious underestimations of the carnage the bomb brought.

Stratford Express 4 August 1944

The Stratford Express reproduction may be difficult to read.  The relevant sections says:

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.

This account is dramatic, suggesting that far more than four were killed.

A V1 rocket of the kind that struck Dames 
Road. See footnote for details.

A confirmation of its serious nature and scale came from the biography of Cyril Demarne, who later became West Ham's Chief Fire Officer (see footnote for details). He said:

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 Fire 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.

Cyril Demarne, who attended the Dames
 Road attack, who described it as "The most
 horrific thing I ever witnessed. Cyril rose
 to become West Ham's fire chief after the war.

So, eight civilian deaths was clearly a serious underestimation of the scale of the horror.

There was almost no, recognisable, national press coverage of the Dames Road disaster in the days that followed, other than in a rather strange item in the Belfast Newsletter of 1 August, which in a round-up of Flying bombs over Southern England, including the London area, stated:

At least eight persons were killed and 10 injured when a bomb fell in a residential area. Italian prisoners helped fire-fighters in the rescue work.

Given the proximity of Dames Road to the Italian Prisoner of War camp on Wanstead Flats (see here), this oblique reference almost certainly describes the incident. There was no reference to the precise location in the account, as there rarely was in contemporary press reports, as censorship was in force and details that could have been deemed to be useful to the enemy were omitted from press reports.

Rescue crew assisting with the aftermath
 of a V1 bomb, elsewhere in London

The explanation is that the bomb actually landed in what was then Leyton, just the other side of the borough boundary on Dames Road. Local resident, Shirley Hartley pointed us in the direction of a Leytonstone paper of the time that offered a more accurate assessment of the carnage inflicted. 

This account, however, in the Leytonstone Independent was dated 15 September 1944 - 7 weeks after the event (see below). 

Leytonstone Independent
 15 September 1944

The relevant section read: 

34 killed in trolleybus

Leyton's most disastrous incident which took a heavy toll in lives was when a bomb crashed in Dames Road near the corner of Pevensey Road, Leytonstone.

A trolleybus laden with home coming workers and shoppers was wrecked. The top of the bus was blown away and seats inside the lower deck twisted and mangled. Rescue workers recovered 34 bodies, among them the driver. Others died in hospital.

Another trolleybus was involved. Military Civil Defence and NFS (ed: National Fire Service) personnel worked together clearing away debris. Within two hours, other buses were passing through.

Details of major war incidents were collated centrally, by the government information service, and released to the press some while afterward the events, again as part of the censorship and enemy frustration process. This report was the first mention in the Leytonstone press of the incident - 7 weeks after its occurrence.

The Walthamstow Guardian of the same week, presumably using the same Government Information Service briefing,  also covered the incident - see cutting below, but provided different numbers.  

Walthamstow Guardian, 15 September 1944

The relevant section of the report reads:

At Dames Road, when a bomb fell within a few yards of a trolleybus, 41 people were killed and 24 taken to hospital.

And, that was it - for probably the area's worst bombing incident of World War 11 - 24 words!

But, still no agreed numbers of killed or injured, and certainly 34 or more.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) was given the job, by the government, of drawing up details of the country's civilian war dead, and publishing it, borough by borough, at the end of the war.

We used the West Ham list in our previous account of the bomb, and could only identify four people (Gladys Blackman (aged 39), Wendy Blackman (aged 4), Abraham Ince (aged 76) and Edith Tilley (aged 41) killed in Dames Road on the day of the bomb.

Four, different, people, were identified by the Stratford Express on 4 August (Denis Barfield, Thomas Driscoll, Reginald Harold Hillman and William James Winter). Neither the Leytonstone nor the Walthamstow papers' news reports named anybody.

The Leyton Civilian War dead register, however, identified 28 deaths caused by the bomb.  We provide an aggregated list of the 34 names we have been able to discover from these three sources, below. This, incidentally, is the number of dead identified by the Leytonstone Independent (see above).

Piecing together the story

According to local people, the bomb fell pretty close to the bus stop, on Dames Road, just the northern side of the Pevensey Road junction, and as can be shown in the photo, just inside what is, today, Waltham Forest. 

It fell approximately where 127, Dames Road - now called Dames Road House - is located. Clearly all the houses surrounding this spot are post war, and built on the bomb site. New houses were built very soon after the war, and at least one local resident moved into her house in 1949, and has been there since!

Site of the V1 attack on Dames Road, today

As the accounts tell, the bomb fell in the early evening, as people were returning from work and the buses were busy.

Within minutes the war-time rescue services were at the site and at least some of their members may have been killed, in the rescue of the bomb victims, either cutting them out from the trolleybus or digging people out of the demolished houses.

Italian Prisoners of War from the near-by camp on Wanstead Flats were also soon on the scene bailing out victims of their own country's allies' bombings.

Within two hours the majority of the dead were dug and moved out and upto 40 injured were transported to Whipps Cross hospital.

The death toll was minimally 34, as reported by the Leytonstone Independent and verified by the details below. But may have risen to 41, as reported by the Walthamstow Guardian - or more.

The injury list is almost impossible to calculated, 73 years on, but press reports suggest that it was at least a further 24.  So -upwards of 65 victims in this one night of horror on Dames Road, in July 1944.

The work of the rescue services was so efficient that Dames Road was cleared enough to allow a continuation of bus services along its length. 

A quite remarkable story and feat!

Among the dead were four people whose houses probably took a direct hit, Dorothy and June Jarvis of 124 Dames Road and Reuben and Leah Newhouse of 117 Dames Road - see list below for full details. 

There were seven other people killed who had lived in the immediate vicinity - presumably either waiting at the bus stop, waiting to alight, or just going about their daily business: Florence White, 109 Pevensey Road, Sarah Wightman, 68 Huddlestone Road, Alan John  Neale, 61 Huddlestone Road, William Alfred Barton 69, Huddlestone Road, Herbert Smith, 107 Vansittart Road, Mary Mclaughlin 173 Dames Road and Frederick Ernest Wright, 211 Dames Road.

Four of those killed could well have been rescue workers, judging by the descriptions in the Civilian Dead lists (George Neal, an air raid warden, Reginald Hillman and air raid ambulance driver, Horace Presland from the Heavy Rescue Service and Bertie Sabine from the Home Guard).

So, of the 34 identified dead, 11 were from the immediate vicinity of the where the bomb dropped, four could well have been rescue workers, one was the driver (we do not know his name) and the other 18 were probably passengers, returning from work.

One family appears in both the Leyton and West Ham books - it is not clear why. The Blackman family lost three people - the most from any one family, as far as it is possible to see. Mother Gladys and daughter Wendy appear in the West Ham book, and daughter Jean in the Leyton book.

Of the four dead mentioned by the Stratford Express, only two, Thomas Driscoll and Dennis Barfield appear in one of the lists of civilian dead.

The identified dead from the Dames Road disaster

Cover of the CWGC publication listing
 West Ham's  WW11 civilian dead

Margaret Ball, aged 24 of 48 Albert Road, Silvertown. Daughter of Eugene and Elizabeth Hilda Gray of the same address and wife of L'Cpl Arthur John Ball, Royal Armoured Corps.

Dennis Barfield - no further details, but mentioned in Stratford Express Report - see above.

John Alfred Barnicoat, aged 39. Son of Mrs Barnicoat, 14 Clacton Road, Walthamstow.

William Alfred Barton, aged 36, of 69 Huddlestone Road, Forest Gate. Son of Mr WA Barton of 132 Sebert Road, Forest Gate.

William Albert Bell, aged 17. Son of Mr and Mrs WWF Bell of 183 Harrow Road, Leytonstone. Died in Whipps Cross Hospital of wounds suffered at Dames Road.

Gladys Blackman, aged 39, of 323 Billet Rd, Walthamstow. wife of AC1 William Blackman, RAF. Gladys, unlike her daughter, Jean, appears in the West Ham list and not the Leyton one.

Jean Edith Blackman, aged 10 of 323 Billet Rd, Walthamstow. Daughter of AC1 William Blackman, RAF, and of Gladys Blackman. Unlike her mother, Gladys, above, and her sister Wendy, below, Jean appeared in the Leyton list and not the West Ham one. The Leyton list mentions this.

Wendy Blackman (aged 4), of 323 Billet Rd, Walthamstow. Daughter of AC1 William Blackman, RAF and of Gladys Blackman. Wendy, unlike her sister, Jean, appears in the West Ham list and not the Leyton one.

Alan Bunt, aged 15. Son of Winifred M Bunt of 24 Kingsdown Road, Leytonstone and the late John Payne Bunt.

Dennis Butfield, aged 17. Son of Mr and Mrs CJ Butfield of 31 Pretoria Avenue, Walthamstow.

Ernest Edward Harry Chapman, aged 37. Son of Mr and Mrs Chapman of 76 Lynmouth Rd, husband of Laura Chapman of 91 Harrington Road, Walthamstow.

Thomas Driscoll - no further details, but mentioned in Stratford Express Report - see above.

William Albert Heard, aged 40, of 28 Tavistock Road, Forest Gate. Husband of May Lavinia Heard.

Reginald Harold Hillman, aged 37, ARP, Ambulance Driver. Son of the late Mr and Mrs SA Hillman; husband of EL Hillman of 79 South Esk Road, Forest Gate. (also mentioned in Stratford Express report - see below).

Abraham Ince, aged 76. Appears in West Ham but not on Leyton list.

Harry James Jackson, aged 43. Son of William Jackson of 124 Westfield Road, Caversham, Reading; husband of Anne Jackson of 20 Well Street, Hackney.

Evelyn Dorothy Jarvis, aged 14 of 124 Dames Road. Daughter of Mr and Mrs Robert H Jarvis, at 124 Dames Road.

June Irene Jarvis, aged 17, of 124 Dames Road. Daughter of Mr and Mrs Robert H Jarvis, at 124 Dames Road.

Mary Agnes Mclaughlin, aged 18, of 173 Dames Road. Daughter of Andrew and Agnes Mclaughlin.

George Stanley Thomas Neal, aged 51, ARP, of 47 South Esk Road, Forest Gate. Son of the late Mrs Hillman (formerly Neal) and the late I Neal.

Alan John Neale, aged 14. Son of Henry Nicholas and Lily E Neale, of 61 Huddlestone Road, Forest Gate.

Leah Rachel Newhouse, aged 51, of 117 Dames Road. Daughter of the late S and F Harris; wife of Maurice Newhouse, at 117 Dames Road.

Reuben Newhouse, aged 29, of 117 Dames Road. Son of Maurice and of Leah Rachel Newhouse, at 117 Dames Road.

William Henry Penfold, aged 63. Husband of Caroline Penfold of 67 Malvern Road, Leytonstone.

Horace Victor Presland, aged 27; Heavy Rescue Service. Son of Ernest and Elizabeth Presland of 79 Chester Road, Seven Kings; husband of Elizabeth Presland of 9 Manby Road.

Bertie William Sabine, aged 50, Home Guard, of 162 Chandos Road, West Ham.

Herbert Smith, aged 55. Husband of Mrs Smith of 107 Vansittart Road, Forest Gate.

Frederick Henry Stevens, aged 40. Husband of EM Stevens of 15a Priory Place, Well Street, Hackney.

Muriel Bertha Tampion, aged 15. Daughter of Mr and Mrs John Edward Tampion of 62 Cheney's Road, Leytonstone.

Edith Tilley, aged 41. Appears in West Ham but not on Leyton list.

Florence White, aged 40 of 109 Pevensey Road. Daughter of Joseph White. Died in Pevensey Road.

Sarah Wightman, aged 47, wife of Ernest Wightman of 68 Huddlestone Road, Forest Gate.

William James Winter, aged 48. Husband of Florence May Winter of 43 Dongola Road, Plaistow. (also mentioned in Stratford Express report - see below).

Frederick Ernest Wright, aged 32. Son of Frederick Edwin and Lillian Alice Wright of 211 Dames Road.

Footnotes. 1. The V! - flying bomb (Vergultungswaff) was also know a a buzz bomb or doodlebug. It was first launched in London in June 1944, in response to the Allied invasion of the European mainland. They were directed mainly at south-east England.  The last one was launched in October 1944, when the Allies captured their last launching pad in Europe.

2. Cyril Demarne's book is entitled The London Blitz: A Fireman's Tale and was published by Newham Parent's Centre in 1980. 

Copies may still be available from the Newham Bookshop.

Tres Bon (1) - the first 75 years of St Bonaventure's school

St Bonaventure's school celebrated its 140th anniversary on 27 August this year. In this, the first of two posts on the school, we take a brief look at its history,  We are grateful for Di Halliwell, the school's head of PR for the contents of this post - taken largely from the summer edition of the school's magazine, which featured the text here.

Origins

In the autumn of 1872 the Franciscan order opened a "middle class school for boys" beneath St Francis' church in Crescent Grove, Stratford, with 25 students. It was called St Francis' Day school, but closed a year later.

St Antony's church, next to the school,
and host to many St Bon's occasions

On 27 August 1877 St Bonaventure's school, Upton, was founded under the supervision of Father Germain Verleyen, and the numbers began to rise rapidly. Mr McVey was the first headteacher, under the direction of Franciscan monks and the active patronage of Cardinal Henry Manning.

Cardinal Manning, an early
and active patron of St Bon's

The school was a preparatory and junior school in its early days, which is why some of the pupils in the early photos look so young.

An early class photos, showing
 young - prep school - pupils

Early 20th century

Following the 1902 and 1904 Education Acts, St Bonaventure's became a secondary school, known as West Ham Grammar School (St Bonaventure's), and was fee paying. By 1910, the initial roll of 6 boys had risen to 100, with five masters.

A photo showing the first year football team in 1915.

The First World War was difficult for the school. Many of the boys were left fatherless, as surviving records show "killed in action" in the "father's name and occupation" sections of the registration forms.

A busy World War 2

The school had 150 boys on the roll during the 1920's and just over 200 at the outbreak of World War 2, in 1939. The school was initially evacuated to Felixstowe, in Suffolk, and was based at the county secondary school,  Felixstowe Grammar - which was co-educational - while retaining its own identity.

The boys were billeted at the nearby villages of Trimley St Mary and Trimley St Martin. They were not there long, however, as the German occupation of Norway and Denmark in the spring of 1940 meant that Felixstowe was no longer considered a safe town.

The school returned briefly to Forest Gate, before re-locating to the Rhondda Valley in South Wales, at the Pentre Secondary school. The students lived in a village - Treherbert - but arrangements were not satisfactory, as there was no nearby Catholic church. Plans were set in motion to return to Forest Gate, but the Blitz of 1940 put an end to them.

A temporary home was found in Raunds, a small market town in Northamptonshire, but there was no accommodation available, and the students had to settle in Wellingborough - a few miles away. Here, the students alternated between public and grammar schools.  This arrangements lasted until January 1943.

Evacuation was voluntary for the boys, and as numbers on the roll declined rapidly.  So, the longer term future of the school was in some doubt. But, the school bounced back.

.. and after

In response to the Education Act 1944, St Bonaventure's became a voluntary aided, multi-lateral school - the first and one of the most successful in the country. The school no longer existed to serve a small body of highly selective boys. It now became open to all boys aged 11 to 14 from East London, and embraced the whole range of abilities.

The school - in its guise as West Ham
 Grammar school, before reverting
 to the St Bonaventure's name in 1949

The school roll soon tripled in number. The school reverted to the name St Bonaventure's in 1949.  Its frontage and address was Khedive Road, which was later changed to St Antony's Road.

A plaque to "The glory of God and the memory of old Bonaventurains who gave their lives in 1914 - 1918 and 1939 - 1945" was erected in St Antony's church, next door to the school, to remember those who were killed during the World Wars.

The school and accompanying friary, from the air

In the years since, the school has advanced by leaps and bounds and is currently an "outstanding school", as designated by Ofsted. 

Just what an impact the school has had on so many of its past and current pupils can be ascertained by a glance at its impressive list of alumni. A selection of some of the high achievers in the fields of industry, public service, entertainment and sport will feature in a future post on this website.

St Bon's - today

Happy Birthday, St Bons!

Forest Gate Cycling Club, and life on the road at the end of the C19th

We have covered cycling in Forest Gate at the end of the nineteenth century on this site a number of times before. Notably, when we traced 14 cycle building workshops in the area, here; when we described, in detail, life inside one of them, here; and when we looked at some of the events taking place around cycling at the time, here.

This post, unapologetically, returns to the subject. It puts the Forest Gate cycling boom of the time into a bit of historical context and dips, briefly, into the life of the Forest Gate Cycling Club of the time.

Forest Gate Cycling Club sign - c1897

We are immensely grateful to vintage cycling enthusiast, Tim Dawson, and his excellent blog, here for the inspiration for much of this, and to the indefatigable Mark Gorman for some of the sleuthing that makes the account possible.

The second half of this article consists of extracts from the Forest Gate Weekly News (FGWN) of 1896, at the peak of the cycling boom. The editor of the paper was a cycling enthusiast and wrote a weekly column of snippets about life in the saddle locally, with some side cycling-related glances at wider social issues.

The extracts are, by turn, informative, amusing and frankly sexist (hardly surprising for the period). Some of them suggests that a number of  modern problems on the road go back rather a long time. Comments on the perils of Centre Road may seem very apposite today, given recent issues on that road.

Much of this article focuses on 1896, which is, fortuitously, the year for which we have the FGWT snippets, below. It was a boom year for cycling - possibly the height of its popularity in the Victorian era.

Woodford Meet 1903 (Photo: Harry Gulliver)

The pneumatic tyre was invented in 1888, but wasn’t widely available until the early 90’s. It was a few years before the tyres became reliable, easy to fit and repair ( see FGWT snippet 14 August, below). Forest Gate had its role to play here, too.  John Allen, another cycling enthusiast follower of this website, some while ago wrote to say, that at a later date:

One particular well-respected and still sought-after parts manufacturer was 'The Constrictor Tyre Company' that was housed in Nursery Lane, off Upton Lane, approx behind the Odeon Cinema, which, of course fronted on Romford Road.

With the widening popularity of pneumatic tyres in the mid 1890's, bicycles began to be easier to ride, and popularity increased greatly. Many realised the health benefits of cycling.

A big factor in 1896 was that society circles began to ride bicycles, including the royals. Parading along Rotten Row in carriages was replaced by riding a gleaming bicycle sedately around Battersea Park. The peak year for this was 1896. 

Cycle manufacturers increased their capacity and the market was saturated as early as mid 1897. Prices had to be drastically reduced to clear stocks as cycling fell out of fashion, and many companies went over the next few years. Not long afterwards the motorcycle and motor car became the thing of fashion - not that you would guess it from the FGWN extract of 11 September 1896, below.

Forest Gate Cycling Club

Tim Dawson, a keen collector of early cycling mementoes, wrote to us a couple of months ago to say that he had picked up a most unusual sign (see below), for the Forest Gate Cycling Club. He continued:

Over 25+ years of collecting, I have never seen a cycling club sign, other than the usual CTC (Cycling Touring Club?), Clarion etc.. About as rare as rare can be, it must be a one-off, and was probably attached to the front of a pub or hotel in the area, where the club had their headquarters. It measures 32 x 24 inches.

It transpires that the club met at the Forest Glen Hotel on Dames Road - now the site of a controversial music "venue". The club itself is referred to under its previous incarnation, as the Glen Cycling Club in the extract from FGWN 19 June 1896, below.  The pub's location - at the entrance to Wanstead Flats and then Epping Common - made complete sense, as a starting point for ride outs.

The club changed its name in 1897, to the Forest Gate Cycling Club (FGCC), and appears under that name in a number of programmes for the Woodford Meet (see below) and in some press articles (also below).

The Forest Glen on Dames Road - home
 in the early 20th century to Forest Gate
 Cycling Club.  Home in the early 21st
 century to a rather dubious "music venue"

The first press cutting suggests that by 1904, the FGCC seems to have established a number of branches, but all farther out into the (then) countryside than Forest Gate. This may have been for the same reason that the Essex Beagles athletics (now Newham and Essex Beagles) club moved its HQ from Mile End to Forest Gate, and then further out into Essex as housing development progressed in the 1890s-1900s.

The FGCC and the Woodford Meet

We covered the Woodford Meet- a large local meeting of cycling clubs at the end of the nineteenth century -  in a previous post, here. Tim and Mark have unearthed more fascinating details about some of the apparently strange activities and games they embraced and encouraged, as seen in the programme extracts and press cuttings below - with particular reference to the FGCC.

Woodford Meet programme June 1900

The 1912 article (from the Preston Herald) shows the club still in existence and attending the Woodford meet, but by now under a slightly different name. It is unclear what "St James" refers to - could the club have become attached to St James' church in Forest Gate or moved HQ to Walthamstow?

Preston Herald 20 June 1912 showing
 expansion or relocation of Forest Gate Cycling Club

The members of the FGCC provided some amusing sounding entertainments at the Meet. For example, in 1902, they provided a "Ping-Pong" tableau. Quite what that may have been sets the mind racing! They also appear to have participated in a concert and other entertainments opposite the Royal Forest Hotel, in Chingford.

Woodford Meet programme 1902, with
 Forest Gate Cycling Club and Ping-Pong tableau

In 1904 they provided the "Forest Gate Non-Slipping Band" - more mind boggling, here - with some members being mounted on a "Quad" (a four seat cycle), others on a "Trip" (a triplet, or three seater), playing such musical instruments as the Cyclophone, Piccalooloo and Kazoone!

Woodford Meet programme 1904 with
Forest Gate Non-Slipping Band Tableau

Tim's blog covering the FGCC  and Woodford Meet can be found here . We are most grateful to him for allowing us to share it with you.

Victorian cycling in Forest Gate, from FGWN June - September 1896

The editor of this short-lived publication was clearly a keen cyclist and wrote a weekly column of snippets on his views, on a whole range of local cycle-related activities.  Below we provide a sample of them - without comment - which appeared under the column title Hum of the Wheel, and written under the nom de plume: The Skipper.

Enjoy!

5 June 1896

I wish the tryo would confine himself (or herself) to the side roads for practice. On the Flats road (ed: today's Centre Road) the learners are a danger to themselves and everyone else.

Never pass a lady cyclist on the near side if it can be avoided. It is a bad practice at any time, and eminently distressing for the fair sex.

Elston, Forest Gate cycle maker, catalogue 1899

 12 June 1896

The ordinary pedestrian still retains his antipathy to cyclists. We are a long-suffering race, and so long as the cyclist-hater confines himself to bad language, we pass him by in silent contempt, but really should, for his own sake, stop there. I hear a bit of a "dust-up" with some of these "road hogs" Aldborough way, in which our friends at the wheel acquitted themselves like men, and effectively silenced the foul-mouthed fraternity.

The cycling constable, or, as our American friends would say "the bike cop" must surely be a journalistic joke. We are seriously told, in a London morning daily, that "on many of the roads leading out of London, plain clothes policemen, mounted on machines, are stationed. These men give chase to any trouble-some cyclists, and are of great use in maintaining order on the public highways" It's too comic! Fancy the joy of the young scorcher at  being "taken on" by one of these heavy fliers, and then the denouement of them both being summoned in another district for road racing.

The Woodford Meet, seen through
 the eyes of FGWN in 1897

 19 June 1896

The Glen CC is one of the wheel clubs of the district, for although it has only been established about three months, it has a roll of some 63 members. Dr Collier of Manor Park is the President and Mr E Davies of The Forest Glen Hotel and Mr W Maggs of Woodgrange Road are among the vice-Presidents. ...

Glen Cycling Club, predecessor
of Forest Gate Cycling Club
(Essex Herald 18 August 1896)

A very pleasant run is taken by the Glen Cycling Club on Saturday afternoon to Keston Lakes, or as they are known locally, "The Fishponds" (ed: these are on the edge of three commons: Hayes, West Wickham and Keston).

10 July 1896

I notice with much satisfaction the increasing growth in the popularity of the tricycle. There was an age when this type of machine seemed positively doomed; and what few were in use appeared to be ridden chiefly by old gentlemen, who dared not risk a single track.

Things have somewhat changed since those days; no longer is the tricycle confined to the ranks of the aged and the feeble, but we find both the young and the old, the strong and the infirm, the robust and the dyspeptic taking to the three tracker; and little wonder, for only those who have thoroughly mattered the tricycle can really appreciate to the fullest all the delightful sensations experienced in the riding of it. Then here's to the further success of the tricycle!

One of the fancy dress tableau on show
 at Woodford Meet in 1903 (Photo: Harry Gulliver)

 17 July 1896

I had the recent report of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which states that a new form of cruelty has recently been brought to light, under the action of the Society, consisting of over-taxing the strength of dogs, when running with bicycles over long distances at high speed. Some dogs will rather die than stop when following their masters, and this has actually happened without the knowledge at the time of the owners. It has already come to the knowledge of the Society that hundreds of dogs have been lost in country places, consequent on bicycle riders out-running them on roads where no trace of the course they had taken been left.

24 July 1896

I would advise that the new riders who contemplate taking their machines with them for the summer holiday to make sure that the roads in the vicinity of their chosen resort are sufficiently good to make it worth their while doing so. This applies more especially to the fair sex, who, after having been mulcted heavily by railway company porters and cabbies, at last arrive with their beloved bike at a sea-side town only to find that the hobbly, flinty roads in the immediate neighbourhood render the pastime anything but an enjoyable one, and their trusty mount a veritable "white elephant".

31 July 1896

The gross incompetency displayed by some of our local authorities over the simplest matters makes one long for the power to regulate the salaries of these gentlemen. The Flats road, for instance, was such a purgatory for cyclists a few years ago that most men went round by Dames (or as it was then called the Leyton) Road to avoid it, and until the Wanstead Board took it over in compassion, and made up the road properly, the standard plan of pitching down granite periodically, and leaving it to work in or out as it pleased was very regularly pursued. Now, one is inclined to wish that they would dismiss the new Road Surveyor and his staff and hand us over en bloc to the Wanstead parish. Then perhaps Woodgrange Road would be attended to properly.

Advert for Clark Bros cycles, FGWN 1896, the
largest of the area's 14 cycle manufacturers, 1896

 7 August 1896

The carriage of bicycles by rail is becoming so general that before long the railway companies will be compelled to provide increased accommodation. I would suggest that a special van, with supports for cycles, be attached to all long-distance trains in the summer season as a means of overcoming the existing difficulty. Considering the way we are mulcted in fares we are surely entitled to some additional measures of safety to ordinary passengers' luggage - and milk cans.

The lady rider is more in evidence than ever, and it is interesting to notice the civilizing influence she exerts over her masculine attendants. Their handle bars go up, and their coats are buttoned and some of them are actually deluded into wearing a collar and tie. In time, maybe, the influence of the "cock and hen" parties may even regenerate for the "bounder", but that, perhaps, is too much to hope for.

Cycle built for "a lady" by Forest Gate
cycle manufacturer, Elston, c 1899

 14 August 1896

The modern cyclist is of a very effeminate, luxurious disposition. He complains of his saddle, the roads, his gear, and what not, so often that I am sometimes lost in wonder as to what this tender individual would have done in the good old days of 60lb ordinaries, with their iron seats, short cranks and "trawl" brakes. It is interesting, by the way, to recall the advent of the "Spider" as we named it, and the days of the BTC (ed: British Touring Club?) and its Lincoln green uniform. There was a Spartan-like severity about "learning to ride" then, which puts to shame the age of air tyres and riding schools.

21 August 1896

Despite all statements to the contrary, I adhere to the opinion I have before advanced, that a brake is quite unnecessary on the machine of an experienced rider. Any hill that you cannot hold a light machine on is much better walked down, as the surface is sure to be bad for the tyres. For the full roadster type, of course, a brake may well go with the mud-guards, pump, cyclometer etc, that some riders load themselves up with. 30lbs may be within a rider's control, whilst 45lbs, may, perhaps, be beyond it.

28 August 1896

Many of my readers may like to know of the foreign cycling tours which have been successfully organised of late. A week can be spent in Normandy for £5, 15 days in Brittany for 9 guineas and other parts of the Continent are catered for on a like scale. Sewell and Crowther of 41 Gracechurch Street will supply all details to anyone desiring fresh fields and pastures new.

I am glad to see that the absurd charge of "furiously riding a bicycle" brought against Miss Mildred Clark of East Ham was unsubstantiated. Perhaps the public will begin to realise that the bicycle is a vehicle in the eye of the law, and perfectly entitled to a use of the road, when a few more of these frivolous charges are dismissed.

4 September 1896

There is only one real safeguard against having your bicycle stolen, and that is to look after it. So many thefts have occurred lately that it seems necessary to remind riders that nowadays when the "man in the street" can ride, it is unsafe to let your machine go out of sight except placed under lock and key.

Vaseline, and plenty of it, is the one and only preservative from rust. It is a good plan to carry a small tin in one's satchel, and then if one is caught in a shower, the worst effects, at any rate, can be avoided.

Edmund Hussey, another of the
 contemporary Forest Gate
cycle builders, 1896

 11 September 1896

After 14 November the various auto-car, motor-car, horseless carriage companies will have no excuse for delay in showing the British public generally, and their shareholders in particular, what they can do. I doubt, myself, if they will succeed in placing upon the road a machine capable of maintaining a speed of 14 miles per hour, with credit to themselves and comfort to the public, for some considerable time to come. The specimens at work at the Crystal Palace do not favourably impress me at all.

Then we shall have to find them a new name for general use. The essays in this general direction have been rather clumsy up to the present, "auto-car" being the most euphonious, though not etymologically correct.

I am constantly being asked what I think of this or that make of American cycle. I cannot understand why riders want to go outside the large range of choice they have in the English manufacturers, who are, after all, the oldest makers and the best judges of what is most suitable for English roads and climate. It must be to that craze for "something new" which lies dormant in human breasts that the Yankee manufacturer appeals.

Three authors write on WW2 air raids in Forest Gate

This article looks at the way in which World War 11 air raids in Forest Gate have been approached and described from three very different perspectives. They are from the local fire chief of the time, a school boy, recollecting later in life and from the fictional work of an author born in West Ham.

The Fire Chief was Cyril Demarne and we have quoted from his work about Forest Gate before, here. The school boy was actor and film director Bryan Forbes, who spent his childhood in Cranmer Road and the novelist is Mike Hollow, who has authored three books about the Blitz Detective, DI Jago. Full details of the books can be found in the footnotes.

We have covered air raids in Forest Gate in previous articles, here and here, but not directly in the words of victims/witnesses.

Bryan Forbes' autobiography  - Notes for a Life

We covered Bryan Forbes' recollections of Forest Gate life in the 1930's in a previous blog (see here). Part of his childhood recollections focussed on his experiences of air-raids experienced from his Cranmer Road house, in 1940 - before the family moved from the area.

What follows is a graphic and direct quote of recollections of youth, from his first autobiography.

The early nights of the Blitz were not all that frightening. I felt curiously, irrationally secure in the fetid darkness of the small shelter and devolved a method of determining the distance from our own house of the bomb blasts. I would put my cheek against the sweating concrete walls and calculate by the intensity of the vibration carried in the earth.

We listened to Lord Haw Haw in the Anderson, searching the dial of the wireless until that arrogant, rasping voice filled the small enclosure. 'We shan't be dropping bombs on Earlham Grove tonight' he said once, in a reference to the Jewish Quarter of Forest Gate, 'We shall be dropping Keating's Powder.' Keating's was a brand of dustbin disinfectant. In repeating the remark here I am not trying to perpetrate that distant vicious smear, I merely wish to record the absolute amazement and fear I felt at hearing my own locality mentioned by the remote voice of the enemy

On the Saturday afternoon, when the second phase of the Blitz began in earnest I was inside the Odeon, Forest Gate, watching a matinee of Gaslight. Half way through the performance the audience became conscious of what seemed to be a hailstorm beating on the roof. The projector lamp died and the house lights came up. The limp manager, in black tie, came on to the stage and announced that the audience should disperse in the interest of safety.

We trooped without undue haste into the bright sunshine outside and stood in groups on the pavement watching pattern after pattern of sun-silvered Dorniers winging high overhead. Urged on by the police and wardens I ran the length of Woodgrange Road and along Godwin Road straight into the arms of my distraught mother.

We went immediately into the Anderson and except for hurried forays into the house for food and the use of the toilet during the rare lulls in the bombardment, we stayed in the garden shelter for the best part of two whole days and nights. During the night hours the sky was swollen red enough by the monstrous Dockland fires to make the regulation blackouts meaningless.

Sticks of bombs fell across Wanstead Flats, cutting a path through Cranmer Road at the top end, but the Anderson never shifted.

Our experience was nothing out of the ordinary and we were far luckier than most, for when the last bomb with our number on it found its target the Anderson shelter still held, but our life in Cranmer Road was over forever.

Cyril Demarne's Fireman's Tale

This short memoir was published almost 40 years ago. Cyril joined the West Ham Fire Brigade in 1925 and spent the much of the war serving in the district. He was later appointed Chief Fire Officer for West Ham and was made an OBE in 1952.

The book describes life as a fireman in the area during the war. Below we reproduce two extracts about places very familiar to Forest Gaters.

Writing of July 1944, Cyril says he got a radio call:

"V1 explosion in Blake Hall Crescent, Wanstead, sir. Your car has been ordered"

Oh, God: here we go again. What frightful scenes should we encounter this time? We had become accustomed to rows of shattered houses and shops and the back street factory with a dozen girls entombed; to the heart-rendering cries of the bereaved and to children screaming for their parents; to the torn and hideously mangled bodies to be recovered from the debris; and to the little corner shop, a heap of ruins, with customers slashed by flying glass, laying amid bundles of firewood and tins of corned beef.

I asked my driver if she knew where we were going. Yes, she knew, and we were there in a few minutes. All the trees in the vicinity had been defoliated by the explosion and the pungent smell of chlorophyll mingled with the musty odour of mortar and other dusts. Only the stench of blood was missing, something, at least, to be thankful for. A number of houses had been demolished and women and children were being removed from the debris.

As we toiled, several V1's roared across the sky and there came a chorus of "Seig Heil, Seig Heil," from hundreds of German throats in the POW camp a few hundred yards along the road. How I prayed for one to come down smack in the centre of that compound, but my prayer went unanswered and the bombs flew on, to crash in Poplar or Stepney, or points west.

The houses in Blake Hall Crescent lay in a hollow which restricted the area of the blast. Casualties, relatively, were light and we were able to clear up rather more quickly than usual and make our way home. There was no knowing where or when the next buzz-bomb would dive.

The POW camp came near to disaster about a week later, when a flying bomb crashed on the anti-aircraft rocket installation on the opposite side of Woodford Road (ed: near the current Esso garage, on Aldersbrook Road), killing a number of gunners and ATS girls. The blast set fire to dry grass on the site and it was by a narrow margin only that the NFS (National Fires Service) stopped the fire before it reached the magazines, crude corrugated iron sheds, with openings screened with hessian curtains protecting the rockets laid out on racks.

It was a close shave.

Cyril Demarne

And the second extract, describing events a little later that month:

It was during the scalded cat raids, when fast flying aircraft roared over London, dropped a load of bombs and hared away as fast as possible. A number of isolated fires had been started in Manor Park - Forest Gate area - and I found myself in a temporary fire station, manned by part-time fire crew, at midnight. The firewoman on duty reported that her crew had been ordered out to a fire at the Manor Park Cemetery and had been gone for three hours. I could not imagine a fire in a cemetery occupying a crew for anything like that time and I passed the place twice during the evening, observing no sign of fire. However, I had better investigate: it was not unknown for a fire pump to have become engulfed in a bomb crater.

The cemetery gates were wide open and we drove in, following the main drive until it narrowed into a single width road and terminated in a sort of roundabout, with four or five paths leading in different directions.. The glow of the distant fire was the only light we could see as we stopped. I got out and had a look around and there was no sign of a fire or the crew. ...

I was soon out of sight of the car and I started to hear a voice out of the silence of the night.

"I wouldn't go down there", it said, "something has come down" It was the cemetery keeper. I shone my torch ahead and saw a number of shining incendiary bombs, none of which appeared to have fired, lying scattered over graves and paths. I picked up two of the bombs, and walked back towards the car. The keeper told me that firemen  had been in the cemetery some hours ago to deal with a fire in a heap of discarded wreath frames but had left before the second fall of incendiaries. ...

The missing pump turned up, eventually. It was manned by a crew of part-time firemen, who attended for duty one night per week. ...  After dealing with the cemetery fire they chased after another showing a light at Manor Park; then to another, arriving home at their station about 1 a.m., tired out, but happy with their evening's performance."

The Blitz Detective series of novels, a review by Sandra Walker

I found this series enjoyable and very surprisingly, rather compelling. I can happily recommend it to anyone interested in WW2 east end, ‘popular’ social history (especially local Newham people) who likes an ‘easy, undemanding, lightweight’ read. Mike Hollow, the author, was born in West Ham.

Mike Hollow

The stories are full of local interest, with housing and historic building references and descriptions including car journeys along roads that no longer exist - during some of the bombing raids of the Blitz which actually destroyed them. Descriptions, venues and events are based on Mike Hollow’s family oral histories and local and national topical news at the time.  The author successfully conveys a sense of the hardship, stoicism, humour, disruption, trauma, community and ‘stiff upper lip’ attitude with which we have become familiar and associate with the events of the time.

Conscientious objectors, fifth columnists, local council corruption, inequality, early feminism, the evacuation of children, poor quality housing and healthcare, food shortages, harsh living conditions, lack of sleep, trauma of witnessing dead bodies and the impact on local communities as they are disrupted and fractured forever are just a few of the issues the reader is confronted with – this in addition to ‘murder most foul’. Yet this is skilfully woven into stories of day to day life (and murders) which continue in spite of and add to the difficulties and horrors.

I found myself quickly comfortable and easily able to relate to the somewhat familiar stereotype   principal characters of the ‘Old Bill’ of the time. The emotionally repressed bachelor, DI Jago with WW1 baggage who is our principal character is immediately likeable because he is so sensible, rational, fair minded and indeed forward thinking for his time (for example regarding women’s inequality and what the post war future holds for them). 

Jago’s trusty, novice, sidekick DC Cradock is uncomplicated and keen. The awful pompous, bumbling  DC Superintendent  ‘Soper of the yard’ and the faithful old Victorian Cockney Copper Tomkins, hauled out of retirement for desk sergeant duties are all stereotype characters readers  of a certain age will immediately recognise. 

The plots were credible however some of the relationships and links which assisted in discovering clues and gaining information were frankly rather ‘incredible’ or unlikely –very  lucky strikes!

There is, of course, the potential for  romance - provided by attractive, exiting, confident, worldly wise, female American journalist, go getter Dorothy and dependable, maternal, East Ender cafe owner, Rita. Both likeable ladies!

Originality? Well, dare I mention two similar series here; Anthony Horowitz’ Foyle’s War for characters and plots and Barbara Nadel’s local Newham based WW2 amateur sleuthing by troubled undertaker Francis Hancock for local interest?

All said and done, I liked the series and I will certainly be reading the next book scheduled for release in 2018.

Footnote  The books reviewed are The London Blitz - a Fireman's Tale, by Cyril Demarne, now out of print, but originally published by the Newham Parents' Centre (now Newham Bookshop - who may still have copies buried away) in 1980. Bryan Forbes' autobiography Notes for a Life, was published by Collins in 1974. The Three Blitz Detective novels by Mike Hollow are: Direct Hit, Fifth Column and Enemy Action, they are published by Lion Hudson