On This Day 7 July 1945 the Ice skater, Sally-Anne Martine Stapleford was born.

She attended Streatham Hill High School and trained at Streatham Ice Rink. She is the 1965 European silver medalist. She represented Great Britain at the 1964 and at the 1968 Winter Olympics, placing 11th both times.
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She is the daughter of Ice Hockey player Richard Harvey Stapleford who played for Streatham. Her maternal grandfather was Comedian and Streatham-resident Charlie Naughton, member of the Crazy Gang

​On This Day 6th July 1915 Lieutenant Druce Robert Brandt was killed in action in WW1 in Boezinge in Belgium. He was an English First Class cricketer and Army Officer
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Druce "Drucie" Robert Brandt was born at "Rookcliffe", Palace Road. The younger son of Robert Edmund Adolphus Eugene Brandt, a Russian timber and grain merchant, and Florence (nee Druce) Brandt of 15 Lennox Gardens in London and later of 23 Brompton Square, London SW3. He was christened at Christ Church, Streatham Hill on the 4th of December 1887. He was known by his family as Bob.

On This Day 6th July 1755 John Flaxman was born
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John Flaxman R.A. (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several years in Rome, where he produced his first book illustrations. He was a prolific maker of funerary monuments.

He was commissioned to carve Sophia's monument which is on a wall in St Leonard's Church, Streatham.

Sophia was the seventh child of Henry and Hester Thrale of "Streatham Park"
The relief shows "her husband weeping” by her bed, her sisters kneeling at the foot, and a flying angel beckoning her to heaven." He adds that it was sculpted” by Flaxman, "whom William Blake called the sculptor of eternity"

​(Arthur Mee and Victorian Web)

On the 5th July 1957 the Moscow State Variety Theatre performed at the Streatham Hill Theatre
(The Stage Image © The Stage Media Company Limited 4 June 1957)

On This Day 4 July 1846 Walter Greaves was born. Painter of murals of riverside scenes in Streatham town hall.

Walter Greaves (1846–1930), boat builder and painter, the son of Charles William Greaves, a Chelsea boat builder and waterman, and his wife, Elizabeth Greenway, was born on 4 July 1846 at 31 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.

He and his brother became studio assistants to James McNeil Whistler and were taught by him to paint.

In 1911 an exhibition of Greaves's paintings closed after he was accused of passing off unfinished works by Whistler as his own. His reputation ruined, it was not until 1921 that he was rescued from penury by prominent artists including Augugtus John and William Nicholson.

The brothers were struggling financially when a friend secured a commission to decorate the Streatham Hall. "For nearly 20 years they walked from their home at Chelsea to Streatham,, several days in the week, summer and winter, attired in their well-known garb, viz., silk hat and frock-coat, with cuffs much in evidence, wearing pink and yellow ties respectively"
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Images Walter Greaves by Powys Evans 1928 © National Portrait Gallery and Portrait of James Abbott Mcneill Whistler by Walter Greaves.
(Source Christian Brinton and Tom Pocock)

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Zoë Denise Dominic [née Levi], was born On This Day 4th July 1920 at 124 Downton Avenue, Streatham. A theatrical and dance photographer

The daughter of Lionel Judah Levi (1882–1960) and his wife, Dora Jane Ann, née MacDonald (1896–1966). Her father was a carpet merchant and fine art dealer who specialized in French antique furniture and kept a shop in Mount Street, Mayfair.

Zoë Levi was educated at Francis Holland School in Regent's Park and at a finishing school in Switzerland. After the Second World War she worked for the society portrait photographer Vivienne (Florence Entwistle) before establishing her own studio in Netherton Grove at the Fulham end of the King's Road.
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​On This Day 3 July 1908 Sir Reginald Goodwin was born in Streatham

Sir Reginald Eustace Goodwin (3 July 1908 – 29 September 1986), usually known as Sir Reg Goodwin, was a British politician. He was Leader of the Greater London Council from 1973-77. On the moderate wing of the Labour Party, he favoured public control of utilities.
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Goodwin was from a middle-class family of five and was born in Streatham- the family lived at 104 Pendle Road. He went to Strand School, leaving at 16 to become a tea-buyer for a City firm

This is a good read on the Southwark and Lambeth-based collections of RI and RH Measures.

Robert H Measures lived at "Woodlands" and his son Herbert at "Beclands" in Tooting Bec Gardens. Robert Measures donated the land on which the Church of the English Martyrs was built.

Thanks to our friends at Loughborough Road for sharing this. Authors Tracey Gregory and Christine Beddoe

loughboroughroadsw9histories.wordpress.com/2020/06/30/the-measures-brothers-south-london-orchid-growers/

Robert and Mary Measures (picture courtesy of JW Brown)

Robert was an Iron Merchant born in 1841 in Cambridgeshire. In the 1891 census his 5 sons, 3 daughters and 5 servants are in residence at "Woodlands"
Robert ran the family business in Croydon.
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In 1892 Robert donated the land on which the church of the English Martyrs was built on the corner of Mitcham Lane and Tooting Bec Gardens- the carvings of the family are contained in the church

The Silk Mill at Streatham Common - now Sainsbury. 1984 from Immanuel Church . Photo Courtesy Graham Gower