Blog Archives - The Streatham Society

Today we commemorate Battle of Britain Day remembering the brave RAF servicemen and women for all that they did 80 years ago on the ground and in the air to protect our freedoms

15/9/2020

A Streatham Battle Of Britain Ace from 85 and 139 Downton Avenue killed 11th October 1940

Desmond Hugh O'Neill was born in December 1914 in Madras, India and arrived in the UK on 7th March 1922.
He joined the RAF on a short service commission in July 1938. He was posted to 10 FTS Tern Hill on April 9th and joined 2 AACU at Lee-on-Solent on 29th October 1938.

He went to 611 Squadron at Digby on 20th August 1940 and then moved to 41 Squadron at Hornchurch on 29th September.

O'Neill was involved in a mid-air collision with Sgt. LR Carter during a battle climb to engage Me109s on 11th October. He baled out but was killed when his parachute failed to open. His Spitfire, X4042, crashed near the Crooked Billet, Ash.

O'Neill was 25. He is buried in Streatham Park Cemetery,

Wallpaper Manufacturer of "Dixcot"

14/9/2020

On This Day 15th September 1941 Sir (Richard) Walter Essex died

Sir (Richard) Walter Essex (13 January 1857 – 15 September 1941) was a British businessman and Liberal Party politician.

The Essex family lived at Dixcot, 8 North Drive Streatham (Image below 1960) Richard (born in Pimlico), his wife Lizzie (b 1856 in Newcastle), daughters Mabel, Irene and Norah.

The eldest son of John Essex, he established a wallpaper printing business of Essex Mills, Battersea.
The company was taken over by Arthur Sanderson. Arthur Sanderson and Sons was awarded the Royal Warrant as Purveyors of Wallpapers to the King in 1923

Educated at Streatham Grammar- Lord Harris

14/9/2020

On This Day 15 September 1942 Philip Harris was born. He attended Streatham Grammar School

Philip Charles Harris, Baron Harris of Peckham (born 15 September 1942) is an English businessman, Conservative party donor and member of the House of Lords.

Lord Harris, was educated at Streatham Grammar School and in 1957, at the age of 15, following the sudden death of his father; he took over the running of the family business. This consisted of three carpet shops, which by 1977 he had increased to 93. Later that year he acquired Queensway Discount Warehouse and in 1978 successfully floated the Harris Queensway Group.

In 1988, Harris Queensway was taken over by the Lowndes Consortium and Lord Harris went on to set up Carpetright, which was floated in 1993. Lord Harris was the Chairman and Chief Executive of Carpetright plc, which currently has just over 650 stores in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Belgium and The Netherlands and employs almost 4,000 staff. Carpetright plc also comprises of Storey Carpets and a bed business aptly named Sleepright. In 2014, Lord Harris retired as Chairman of Carpetright after 26 years at the head of the organisation.

He married his childhood sweetheart, Pauline, in 1960 and together they have three sons and a daughter plus 11 grandchildren.

Lord Harris is Chairman of Harris Ventures Ltd. He is a major supporter of many charities including Great Ormond Street Hospital, Prostate Cancer, Guys’ & St. Thomas’ Hospital and the NSPCC to name just a few. Lord Harris and his family also support Harris HospisCare, a local charity in Orpington, Kent.

Lord Harris is a sponsor of 13 Academies which all form part of the Harris Federation Schools. He is also a major sponsor of Bacon’s College, Southwark and Kemnal Technology College, Sidcup. He is a benefactor of two colleges at Oxford, Oriel and Harris Manchester and Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.

He was voted the Ernst & Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007 and went on to represent the UK at the World Entrepreneur of the Year held in Monte Carlo. Lord Harris is a lifelong supporter of Arsenal FC of which he is now a non-executive director.

The Dream of Bottom and some Others- on tour at Streatham Hill Theatre

14/9/2020

The Dream of Bottom and some Others- on tour at Streatham Hill TheatreImage © Illustrated London News Group. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

Archbishop of Liverpool George Beck

13/9/2020

On This Day 13th September 1978 George Beck died

George Andrew (Augustus) Beck (1904–1978), Roman Catholic archbishop of Liverpool, was born on 28 May 1904 in Streatham, London, the second son of Fleet Street journalist Patrick Beck and his Irish wife, Louisa O'Keefe.

The family lived at 52 Gelncairn Road Streatham and George was educated at Clapham College and later at the Assumptionist College of St Michael at Hitchin in Hertfordshire.
(George Andrew Beck 1904–1978 by Elliott & Fry, 1955
© National Portrait Gallery, London)

Music Hall star brought Streatham High Road to a standstill

12/9/2020

On This Day 13 September 1947 Daisy Dormer died and is buried at Streatham Park cemetery

At the time of her death in 1947 her funeral cortege brought Streatham High Road to a standstill. Her name lives on today by a housing development in Brixton – Daisy Dormer Court on the Trinity Gardens estate (not far from Morley’s Department Store). Like many music hall stars she spent her final years in Clapham and Brixton, drawn to the area by the quick and easy access tram travel provided to the theatres of the West End.

“Dainty” Daisy was born Kezia Beatrice Stockwell on 16 January 1883 in Southsea, Portsmouth and died at her home in Clapham, London on 13 September 1947, aged 67.

IMAGE COURTESY ALISON YOUNG

From a pantomime debut at the Theatre Royal, Portsmouth in 1894 she was soon appearing at all of the leading London music halls and those in Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds. In 1912 she was the Principal Girl in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane pantomime, under Augustus Harris, whose lavish productions were trailblazers for what we now think of as modern pantomime.

Daisy had many hit songs (over 40) but the song that is reported to have launched her career was “I Wouldn’t Leave My Little Wooden Hut For You” by Charles Collins and Tom Mellor (1905). It is a tale of a ‘pretty Southern Maid’ seeing off a suitor, with a rousing chorus:
(Music Hall Alice)

Norwood News 11 January 1948- With thanks to Trinity Mirror.

British BAFTA award winning screenwriter and director

12/9/2020

On This Day 13 September 1969 Amma Asante was born. She grew up in Streatham

Amma Asante is a British BAFTA award winning screenwriter and director, known for Belle(2013), and A Way of Life (2004).

She is a former child actress, who began her writing career at the age of 23 with a script deals from both Channel 4 in the UK and BBC. Her first movie, A Way of Life, which she wrote and directed won her numerous awards, both in the UK and internationally, including FIPRESCI prizes and the Carl Foreman BAFTA Film Award. In 2017 Amma was awarded an MBE on the Queen's New Year's Honours List, for her services to film as a writer and director
.( IMDb)

Taxonomist John Martyn of Hill House

11/9/2020

On This Day 12 September 1699 the botanist John Martyn was born in Queen Street in the City of London, the son of Thomas Martyn (d. 1743), a merchant trading with Hamburg, and Katherine Weedon. Former resident of Hill House, a farm on Streatham Common

Early in the society's existence Martyn delivered a series of lectures to it expounding current botanical terminology. These he subsequently published

He secured election to the Royal Society and set up in practice, apparently as an apothecary, in St Helen's, in the heart of the City of London, augmenting his income by lecturing on botany and materia medica.

His correspondence with Linnaeus, initiated by his receipt from the Swedish naturalist about 1737 of a copy of his recently published Flora Lapponica, was noteworthy. Always a keen Latinist, Martyn devoted his later years to producing an edition of Virgil, with a translation and natural history notes.
(D E Allen)

Bernard Mouat Jones, soldier, scientist and academic

10/9/2020

On This Day 11 September 1953 Professor Bernard Mouat Jones died

The first scientist to become Vice Chancellor of Leeds University who also discovered the chemical constituents of mustard gas

Bernard Mouat Jones (1882–1953), chemist and university administrator, was born in Streatham, 27 November 1882 The family lived at 1 Killesier Avenue. The fourth son of Alexander Mouat Jones, wine merchant, and his wife, Martha Eleanor Brinjes. He was educated at Queen's College, Streatham (1890–95), and at Dulwich College (1895–1901). In 1901 he went to Balliol College, Oxford

In 1914 Mouat Jones enlisted in the London Scottish regiment as a private and was sent to France. Immediately after the first German gas attack in 1915 he was promoted to captain and became assistant director of the central laboratory, general headquarters, formed to organize defensive measures.

Most of the problems were chemical, and Mouat Jones was usually able to solve them. He devised methods of protection from phosgene gas, and developed an almost uncanny skill in identifying quickly any new gas used by the enemy; he was the first to identify the chemical in mustard gas (dicholorodiethyl sulphide). For his services he was appointed DSO in 1917, was three times mentioned in dispatches, and in 1918 became director of the laboratory with the rank of lieutenant-colonel

In 1938 Mouat Jones became the fourth vice-chancellor of Leeds University and the first scientist to hold that office

(Harold Hartley and KD Watson)

Portriat by Henry Marvell Carr (1894–1970)
© the copyright holder. Photo credit: The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds
News paper clip Yorksire Post and Leeds Intelligence Image © Johnston Press plc. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

Our ThrowBackThursday for the week

9/9/2020

STREATHAM COMMON NORTH c 1905

A busy scene captured by a local photographer in the early 1900s showing a number of horse and carts and local residents on Streatham Common Northside, near the junction with Leigham Court Road.
On the right can be seen a sign post pointing the way to "Streatham Hill Station" which is located at the end of the Road. The picture was probably taken on a Sunday when people were enjoying the delights of the common on their day off including a man wearing an impressive top hat who can be seen strolling just by the sign post.

On the left of the road, where a number of men are loitering, is a large drinking fountain and underneath the tree another gent wearing a top hat is seated on a park bench enjoying the view accross the common. Note the pram on the extreme left with a mother/nursemaid standing close by.

(John Brown and photo courtesy of Frances Partridge)