#OTD 31 October 1952 in the Streatham News, the Welsh singer Donald Peers appeared at the Locarno for the week
 Our last 40 copies of the History of the Hyde Farm Estate have been delivered to the lovely Hyde Farm Cafe in Emmanuel Road, Balham. Hurry while stocks last   This advert appeared in the Streatham Hill Theatre programme On This Day 31 October 1938
'Manor Court' in Leigham Avenue, 'Leigham Hall' and 'Streatham Court' in Streatham High Road, Streatham Central. Advertisement for luxury flats from a Streatham Hill Theatre Programme, 31st October 1938.  On This Day 30 October 1914 John James Webster died. A resident at 81 Mount Nod Road who was a Civil Engineer. He had worldwide reputation for bridge and pier building. He designed Britain's first transporter bridge early in 1900 and built the Shepherds Bush Stadium for the 1908 Olympic Games. Among other structures he carried out were; Conway Suspension Bridge; Portsmouth bascule bridge; Littlehampton swing bridge and Widnes-Runcorn Transporter Bridge. His last work was the Warrington Bridge at Bridgefoot which was one of the earliest examples of a reinforced concrete bridge. He is is buried at West Norwood Cemetery   "One thousand shillings wanted to purchase Xmas fare for our troops in the trenches"
Streatham News Xmas pudding fund in the papers On This Day 30th October 1914  East India Merchant John Nutt Bullen was born in West Ham On This Day 29th October 1825. He lived for many years at Hill House Streatham Common where he died in 1903 leaving an estate of £221K
(Image courtsey of Samantha Gregson on Ancestry)  On This Day 29 October 2004 Peter Frank George Twinn died. A mathematician, born January 9 1916 His parents were Frank and Lillian ( nee Tomlinson) and he was born in Streatham
He assisted Turing with the "Enigma code" breaking Twinn was born in Streatham, the son of a senior Post Office administrator. He went to school at Manchester Grammar and Dulwich College, and read mathematics at Oxford, winning a scholarship for a higher degree in physics but with no clear idea of a career. Twinn assisted Turing in organising Hut 4's assault on naval Enigma (each major German command used different ciphers) while Knox turned to the Abwehr, German military intelligence. When Knox fell ill with cancer, Twinn took over the Abwehr operation, which underpinned the elaborate allied disinformation campaign that successfully masked the plans for the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 (Churchill's "bodyguard of lies"). At this time he married Rosamund Case, a GC&CS colleague who shared his love of music and played the cello. His impressive intellectual versatility included musical composition, virtuosity on the clarinet and the viola, and an interest in insects; to photograph them he borrowed the RAE's special cameras. He studied part-time for a PhD in entomology from London University, on the study of the jumping mechanism of click beetles. He later worked as Director of Hovercraft in the Ministry for Technology (Image below Bletchley Park)   Aerial view of Streatham looking north from above Mitcham Lane. Streatham High Road runs south from the top left, with St Leonard's and the Church of the English Martyrs in the foreground. Dated On This Day 28th October 1949.
 The actor Mary Lawson in the Streatham News On This Day 27th October 1933. She lived with her sister Dorothy at 38 Valleyfield Road. She was a well-known stage and film actor during the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to her performances on stage and screen, she was known for her romantic affairs, including with tennis player Fred Perry to whom she was engaged and her future husband, the married son of the Dame of Sark. Lawson and her husband died in WW2 during a German bombing raid on Liverpool.  |
