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Funeral of Irene Wilkins lured and murdered in Bournemouth

31/12/2022

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On This Day 31 December 1921 the funeral of Irene Wilkins (21 Thirlmere Rd) took place at Immanuel Church attended by 2,000 mourners who were mainly women.

A sad murder case detailed below:
On 22 December 1921 an adverisement appeared in the 'Morning Post'. It was from a Miss Irene Wilkins who was looking for a position as a school cook. That very same day she received a telegram requesting that she come to Bournemouth at once, where she would be met. Pleased that she had got such an early response she immediately caught the afternoon train to Bournemouth.

The very next day on the 23 December her body was discovered in a field on the outskirts of Bournemouth. Irene Wilkins was not the only one to receive a telegram that day at least three others were received. This would be a very important fact later in the case.

On a road nearby the body were tyre-tracks. The tyre-tracks were traced to Dunlop Magnums and all drivers and chauffeurs in the district were questioned. One of those questioned was Thomas Allaway, who was a 36 year old chauffeur and ex soldier and he drove a Mercedes fitted with three Dunlop Magnums and a Michelin.

Four months later he attempted to pass forged cheques. He disappeared from Bournemouth and was picked up by the police in Reading. He was arrested and, in his pockets were some betting slips with writing that matched the writing on the telegrams. Other samples of his handwriting fixed Allaway as the originator of the telegrams and finally he was identified by a Post Office employee as the writer of the telegrams.

Thomas Henry Allaway was convicted of murdering Irene Wilkins. He had killed her by striking her on the head several times with a blunt instrument. The case appeared to be missing a motive, robbery was ruled out and although the murder victim's clothes had been disturbed she had clearly not been raped. All the same it was still assumed that sex was the motivation.
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Allaway was tried at Winchester in July 1922 and was soon found guilty of murder. The night before his execution he confessed his crime to the Prison Governor. Thomas Henry Allaway was hanged at Winchester Prison on 19 August 1922. (Murderpedia)
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The Montmartre ice ballet

31/12/2022

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The Montmartre ice ballet at Streatham in The Sphere On This Day 90 years ago 31 December 1932
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Image © Illustrated London News Group
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Stan Tracey

30/12/2022

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On This Day 30 December 1926 Stan Tracey was born. He was the house pianist at Ronnie Scotts and lived in Streatham at 11 Mount Ephraim Road
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Stanley William Tracey CBE (30 December 1926 – 6 December 2013) was a British jazz pianist and composer, whose most important influences were Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Tracey's best known recording is the 1965 album Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas's "Under Milk Wood", which is based on the BBC radio drama Under Milk Wood, by Dylan Thomas.
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Vera Margolies

30/12/2022

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The pianist Vera Margolies died On This Day 30 December 1959 at Onslow Court Hotel, SW7

She was the daughter of a Russian pianist, Isidor Margolies and was born in Russiia. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music winning the Sterndale- Bennet Prize in 1899

She lived at 55 Tierney Road and performed locally at "Deerhurst Hall" Coventry Park. 

The Streatham News reported
"A very fine young pianist Vera Margolies, also appeared and played Rubinstein's Staccato Study and Liszt's Rhapsodie Hongroise. The very names of these difficult sleections will indicate that Miss Vera Margolies who is apparently in her early teens is a past mistress in her chosen instrument"
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Allan Ramsey- Murad cigarettes

29/12/2022

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On This day 29 December 1932 Allan Ramsay, Tobacco Merchant and owner of Murad, Turkish Cigarettes died, leaving an estate of £97k

He also wrote “Tales from Turkey” with Francis McCullagh a book dedicated to his wife, Alexander Ramsay
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He lived at 16 Prentis Road and 88 Woodbourne Avenue
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David Nixon- celebrity magician

29/12/2022

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On This Day 29 December 1919 David Nixon was born
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TV Magician and King Rat - resident of Leigham Cottage, Leigham Court Road Streatham.
As well as a celebrity magician he was a keen Chess Player presenting "Checkmate" on TV
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#ThrowbackThursday and Kelly's Directory in 1920 How times have changed!

29/12/2022

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Dame June Whitfield

29/12/2022

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On This Day 4 years ago 29th December 2018. The much loved Dame June Whitfield died

She was born in Streatham at the "Haven" 44 Mount Ephraim Lane and later lived at 5 Palace Road. She attended Streatham and Clapham High School.
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Her Streatham-family connections: her father lived in Babbington Road and her parents were married at St Leonard's Church. Her grandparents lived in Woodbourne Ave
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Christina Broom- the first female press photographer

28/12/2022

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On This Day 28th December 1862 Christina Broom was born. A resident and shop owner at 87 Streatham Hill.

Christina Broom [née Livingston], [known as Mrs Albert Broom](1862–1939), was a photographer born on 28 December 1862 at 8 King's Road, Chelsea, seventh of the eight children of Alexander Livingston (1812–1875), a master bootmaker, and his wife, Margaret, néeFair (1826–1884).

On 15 August 1889 Christina Livingston married Albert Edward Broom (1864–1912), who worked in the family ironmongery business at Brompton. They lived with his parents in Cheyne Row, Chelsea, and when Winifred, their only child, was born they moved to Napier Avenue, in Fulham. Albert's sport was cricket and he became captain of Battersea Cricket club. In 1896 he was hit by a cricket ball and suffered serious disablement. At about the same time the family business failed and Albert and Christina invested in a stationery and toy shop in Streatham; Albert's trade card described him as an 'accountant and auditor, specialising in laundry accounts'. By 1903, however, the shop had failed to thrive.

While producing postcards Mrs Broom had become an established press photographer.
Unusually for a woman, Christina Broom became official photographer to the household brigade, with a darkroom in Chelsea barracks.

Because she lived near the Thames, Christina Broom also became the regular photographer of the annual Oxford and Cambridge boat race. Her most memorable pictures, however, are probably those of the women's suffrage movement taken between 1908 and 1913, which comprise a virtually unique record of the less flamboyant moments of their campaign. These include photographs of Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst, and Louisa Garrett Anderson in the Women's Sunday procession and meeting in Hyde Park on 21 June 1908, in which a quarter of a million women took part, and of Christabel Pankhurst at the International Suffragette Fair, 1912 (both Museum of London collection).
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(Shirley Neale)
A nice selection of her photos at https://www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Suffragettes-soldiers...
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Romaine Hart

28/12/2022

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Romaine Hart died On This Day 28th December 2021

The daughter of Alex Bloom and his wife Goldie at 6 Blairderry Road.

The family had been in the business of showing films right from the days of silent cinema. Leaving school at sixteen, she trained to be a secretary, while her father gave her the experience of working in the film business by letting her programme one of his cinemas, The Royal in Deal, Kent, part of the Bloom Theatre Circuit.

When her father died in 1968, she inherited his share of the business. Many of the family's cinemas were low-rent houses in poor condition, so in 1970 Hart took the run-down Rex in Islington, north London, which dates from 1913, and transformed it into an attractive arthouse cinema with a policy of showing films that other exhibitors would not touch. Thus was born the first of her seven Screen cinemas, The Screen on the Green.
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Hart was also active in other areas of the cinema industry. She became a member of David Puttnam's National Film Finance Corporation board and also served on the admissions board of the National Film and Television School. For her contribution to the film industry she was awarded an OBE in 1993.
(Michael Darvell)
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    Mark Bery, Secretary Streatham Society

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