 Gerard Baldwin Brown was born On This Day 31 October 1849 and lived at 7 The Paragon, Streatham Hill with his parents
Brown was born in Kennington, the son of church minister James Baldwin Brown and his wife, a sister of the sculptor Henry Leifchild who lived at Kirkstall Road He studied at Uppingham and Oriel College, Oxford and became a Fellow at Brasenose College in 1874. He became the first holder of the Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh in 1880 and held the chair until his retirement in 1930. In Edinburgh he lived initially at 3 Grosvenor Street in the west of the city before moving to 50 George Square Cremated at West Norwood Cemetery  On This Day 30 October 1984 June Duprez died
June Ada Rose Duprez (14 May 1918 – 30 October 1984) was an film actress. She died after a long period of illness at the age 66 and was buried at Streatham Park Cemetery. The daughter of American vaudeville performer Fred Duprez and Australian Florence Isabelle Matthews, she was born in Teddington, Middlesex, England, during an air raid in the final months of World War I.  Bill Shelton was born On This Day 30 October 1929
Sir William Jeremy Masefield Shelton (30 October 1929 – 2 January 2003) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was a Member of Parliament for Clapham from 1970 to February 1974, then for Streatham from February 1974 until he lost the seat to Labour Party candidate Keith Hill in 1992.  James Leach VC resident of 102 Norfolk House Road
On This Day 29th October 1914 near Festubert, France, after their trench had been taken by the enemy and two attempts to recapture it had failed, Second Lieutenant James Leach and Sergeant John Hogan with a party of 10 volunteers went to recover it themselves. They took the Germans by surprise with a sudden bayonet attack and then working from traverse to traverse they gradually succeeded in regaining possession, killing eight of the enemy, wounding two and taking 16 prisoners. Leach was concussed in action on 17th November 1914 and was evacuated to England on 25th November for treatment at Lady Evelyn Mason’s Hospital for Officers in London until 11th November. Two Medical Boards found him unfit for service and he was sent on leave. Whilst on leave, he was gazetted for the VC on 22nd December 1914. He was then declared fit for home service and posted to 3rd (Reserve) Battalion at Cleethorpes on 1st January 1915. He was then presented with his VC by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 13th January 1915. After the war he worked for the Bank of England but lost his job in the Great Depression. He later began training to be a lawyer but had to give it up due to a messy divorce from his second wife which cost him a lot of money. He would marry for a third time in 1945. He died at No 4 The Lodge, Richmond Way, Shepherd’s Bush on 15th August 1958 and was cremated at Mortlake Crematorium, where his ashes were scattered in Plot 8. (Source VictoriaCrossOnline)  Brian Bloice sadly died On This Day 29th October 2015
Chair of the Streatham Society and Lambeth Local History Forum, the umbrella body for all groups in Lambeth active in this field. He had also been a leading member of the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Society (SLAS) since its formation in 1965, and was a regular speaker on local history topics. Many of us first came to know him as a lecturer at various adult education institutes, including Morley College, South Lambeth Institute and latterly Lambeth College. These interests were in addition to his career as an analytical chemist in local government, pursued from 1957 until Southwark Council closed its analytical service in 1991. Brian actually grew up in Stockwell, originally in Combermere Road and then Hubert Grove. He attended Santley Street School in 1944-50 and then Henry Thornton Grammar School in Clapham in 1950-57. It was only in 1976 that he moved to Woodmansterne Road on the Norbury fringes of Streatham. Building on his experience in archaeology, he was soon involved in the Streatham Society’s local history group and helped organise the local history walks which have since grown into a borough-wide programme. Brian was the author of several publications for the Streatham Society, and his research helped protect several landmark buildings, notably the Streatham Silk Mill, Henry Tate’s old home at Park Hill, and the facades of the Streatham Hill Theatre and former ABC-Regal Cinema. (Source Alan Piper, Brixton Society)  Peter Twinn died On This Day 29th October 2004. He was born in Streatham in 1916 to Frank Twinn a Civil Servant and Lillian Tomlinson.
As a mathematician at Bletchley Park, he was the first man to break open a signal encoded by the German Enigma machine British mathematician and WWII code-breaker who was recruited as an Enigma cipher-breaker into the British Government Code & Cipher School (GC&CS) before the war and was later credited with being the first British cryptographer to break an Enigma cipher, which embarrassed him and led him to dismiss its significance, whose work was of particular importance during the Fortitude deception operation that helped to ensure the success of the D-Day landings, died on October 29, 2004. ( Source Find a Grave)  William Cubitt died On This Day 28th October 1863 William Cubitt (1791 – 28 October 1863) was an English engineering contractor and Conservative Party politician. He was born in Buxton in Norfolk In the 1851 census he lived in Bedford Hill, Streatham with his wife Elizabeth Scarlett (1791) who he married on Christmas day in 1814. They had a son and 4 daughters with Eliza and Rosa recorded in the 1851 census together with 9 servants William was a partner in the building firm established by his elder brother, Thomas Cubitt, at Gray's Inn Road but in about 1827 the partnership was dissolved leaving William solely in charge of the business. William built Covent Garden completed in 1830 and Fishmongers' Hall completed in 1834. He also built the portico and the original station buildings at Euston completed in 1837. He was also responsible for the reclaiming and development of Cubitt Town in the Isle of Dogs completed in 1850.[5] He retired completely from the business in 1851. In 1883 the business was acquired by Holland & Hannen, a leading competitor, and the combined business became known as Holland & Hannen and Cubitts and subsequently as Holland, Hannen & Cubitts William sat as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Andover from 1847 until 1861. He then resigned his seat on 23 July 1861 by accepting appointment as Steward of the Manor of Hempholme William became active in the politics of the City of London. He was Sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1847, an Alderman of the City in 1851, represented the City on the Metropolitan Board of Works from 1856,[11] served as Lord Mayor of London in 1860–61 and was re-elected in 1861–62. He died at Penton Lodge in Andover aged 72. (Image NPG 1857 © National Portrait Gallery)   Editor of Wisden's Almanack, Charles Stewart Caine was born on 28th October 1861
A resident of 66 Braxted Park Road  Norman Allin died On This Day 27th October 1973
Norman Allin (19 November 1884 – 27 October 1973) was a British bass singer of the early and mid twentieth century, and later a teacher of voice. He appeared in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and toured at the Streatham Hill Theatre. In 1921, he became a founder-member of the British National Opera Company. |
