Simpson Thomas William Pardoe marries Eliza Sara Ann Taylor

Father housepainter                                  

1885

Massive housebuilding for the working poor in South London

Naomi Susannah born

Father greengrocer

1887

Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee/1st motor bus appears

Samuel Thomas William Pardoe born

1888

Factories built along the south side of the Thames

Samuel dies

1889

Widespread adulteration of food

John William born

1890

Maude Ethel Pardoe born

Father carman

1892

Charles Samuel born

NS photo on beach

1895

Cycling in Battersea Park is the fashion.

Battersea Bridge is built

George Thomas born

Father is a ‘Master Fruiterer

NS waves flag outside school

1897

Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

She goes on progress through South London.

John William born

1898

Tram tracks are laid.

Naomi Susannah becomes a ‘monitor’.

?1899

School leaving age raised to 12.

Boer War begins.

Eliza becomes a money lender?

.

1900

Lily Langtree is praised for her performance in a play in Washington.

Battersea becomes a Metropolitan Borough.

Epidemic of ‘flu in London.

There are 7 1/2 thousand (horse-drawn) hansom cabs in London and nearly 4 thousand ‘growlers’ (3 passengers).

Rent for 2 rooms is 5s 6d.

The working week is 5 ½ days x 12 hours day.

Workhouse inmates and prisoners pick oakum.

A live-in maid earns £6 year.

A prostitute can earn £25

Charles (Tim) on ‘Punch’ at the opening.

1901

Electric trams start.

Queen Victoria dies as the year opens. Her funeral is in Feb.

State schools are put under the control of local authorities.

Razor blades go on the market.

Horniman museum opens.

John William dies

William John born

1902

Smallpox spreads in London.

Edward V11 has appendicitis, coronation postponed to August..

State secondary education becomes available, but not compulsory.

Family move to the shop/house at Bedford Hill.

Eliza dies; Simpson’s (William) mother, Naomi Rhoda Hose moves in.

NS leaves the house with Albert (Jim) James

to live at his parent’s house? my information was they moved to 16 Amies Street Battersea with Agnes and Frederick Michelmore. Albert sacked.

Maude is very upset as she is now expected to do more in the house.

Agnes Mary born to Agnes James and Frederick Michelmore.

1903

Relief of Ladysmith in South Africa.

Relief of Mafeking. Kitchener has a hero’s welcome in London.

Edward is proclaimed ‘Emperor of India’

NS and Albert marry in Wandsworth Town Hall.

Edwin (Ted) born.

Agnes's’s mother, Mary, has had 7 infant children die; she has a gin-addiction problem: Agnes has often had to go to the police station to fetch her home.

1904

Edward dies, George V is King.

Simpson marries Laura Whitehead. The children like her. Maude Ethel goes into service and will work her way up into being the cook in a great house.

Mary James is 58 and suffers from an addiction to gin. SN and Agnes are tee-total. They are also church goers

1905

Demonstrators shot in St Petersburg and in Moscow.

NS, Albert and Edwin move to Thornton Heath? They are desperately poor.

1906

Build up of arms all over Europe.

NS and Albert move to Thornton Heath?

1907

Albert obtains work from Lily Langtree.

Maude born- Albert upset, then accident and Albert relents.

Edwin James, Albert's Father Dies from Pneumonia

1908

Suffragettes go to prison for invading the Commons.

King Edward travels widely to calm tensions.

Florence Nightingale awarded Order of Merit.

  Laura leaves Simpson; when?  This is a bit of a mystery. There is little info on Laura. Divorce was still difficult and there is no details on her dying before Simpson marries Florence.

1909

Tsar visits his cousin Edward in Britain.

Suffragettes are force-fed in prison.

Poor Law commission recommends changes- ‘Peoples’ Budget’ proposes pensions for the old and hospitals to be set up outside the Workhouse.

Simpson opens shop at Forest Hill Rd, where he has stables, pigs and chickens in the 100 ft.garden.

SN, Albert, Edwin, Maude move to 31 Amies Street?

Picture of modern day 31 Amies Street, Battersea.

1910

King dies. Crowned heads from Europe and Russia walk in the funeral procession.

Doctor Crippen caught.

S’s father, John Pardoe, dies in the Union Infirmary (old workhouse) of TB, at 69.

1911

Shop workers win the 60 hour week.

Lloyd introduces his National Insurance Bill.

Coronation-most lavish ever seen.

Prince of Wales invested.

In Wales 50.000 troops assembled. Nine people are shot. Ten month miners’ strike collapses.

King George goes to India to be proclaimed Emperor and shoot tigers.

Dorothy born, NS has hysterectomy.

1912

Captain Scott’s expedition fails in the Antarctic. The Titanic sinks.

Transport strikes paralyze Britain.

The Balkans erupt into conflict.

Suffragettes commit acts of arson and bombing.

Doctors oppose the NI Act and pledge £20 each to fight the scheme.

NS etc move to 14 Warsill Street?

Simpson marries Florence Simpson, the live-in maid. She is 26 and he is 50. She has been there for some years. The children do not like her.

NS buys the singer sewing machine on 1/- week?

William John Pardoe leaves home to live with NS and Albert. It is said that Naomi said "I'm not leaving him with that woman" William contracts polio. Albert refuses to allow him to be put in callipers and makes him keep practising. William has a limp but is able to walk.

1913

Panama canal opens to shipping.

‘Cat and Mouse Act’ passes to take suffragettes back to prison after recovery from hunger strikes.

Emily Davidson dies when she throws herself in front of the King’s horse in the Derby.

King George visits the Czar and the Kaiser to discuss preventing war.

George Pardoe, Henry, Tim, and Albert go to war.

Maude contracts ringworm. Her head is shaved and radiated. It kills the ringworm but also weakens her hair. It never grows thick and strong again. All the time it is growing she wears a knitted cap that NS makes for her.

Henry marries Beatrice Hedger

The Army requisitions S’s Russian ponies, leaving him with two horses, named Peter and Beattie.

1914

World War 1; suffragettes cease their campaign.

George Pardoe dies on HMS Goliath during the campaign in Turkey

 (a further link to Gallipolli here)

Grace born to Henry Pardoe and Beatrice.

1915

Gas is used in the trenches; women go to work. Bombs dropped over Britain.

200,000 thousand miners go on strike in Wales.

Edith Cavell is shot by the Germans.

Albert home on leave after gassing?

Albert goes back to the front.

NS takes in ‘mums and tums’?

Maude shares a bed with Dolly. Sometimes she sleeps on horse-hair sofa.

1916

Conscription begins.

Easter Rising in Dublin- Leaders are executed.

Lloyd George becomes the leader of the wartime government.

US enters the War.

Maud Pardoe marries her cousin, James, the son of Simpson’s sister, Henrietta.

Ted and Rae Craven-Griffiths join the household?

Feeding the family.

All the children are given home medicines and tonics.

NS’s children smuggle out jam sandwiches for their friends.

1917

Parliament discusses the franchise.

US introduces a limited franchise.

Royal family drops its German name and adopts ‘Winsor’.

Mata Hari is executed in Paris as a spy.

The Bolshevics take control of Russia.

Albert comes home and evicts the ‘mums and tums’.

Mr Craven-Griffiths brings NS his two children whose mother has died. NS and Albert bring them up.

Albert and NS register and vote for the first time.

NS takes in sewing.

Callers at no 14.

The James children visit Great Grandma Naomi Rhoda at Simpson’s house. She cuts the bread for tea which they have in her room. Florrie gives the children bruised apples.

1918

Franchise extended to service-men inc 19 years, women of 30 or 21 if married.

A new Government is elected. Nancy Astor is the first woman MP.

RAF set up.

Red Baron is shot down.

Kaiser abdicates and Armistice signed.

Influenza pandemic sweeps the world and more die than in the War, especially the young.

NS asks the Salvation Army for help? They refuse and tell her to sell the sewing machine.

1919

There is widespread unemployment.

Average wages for working men are 30/- week? Albert?

Albert takes Maude to the Music Hall.

NS takes the children hop-picking for their holiday. They travel on a lorry which sweeps round the streets picking up the families.

George born to Henry Pardoe and Beatrice, 14th January

1920

Conscription abolished.

Peace treaty signed at Versailles. Victory parade follows.

Maude passes the scholarship at 13 and goes to Mayfield Grammar School. NS gets an LEA grant for the uniform and trolley fares.

Leonard Morgan born and joins the household. He is re-named Peter James. Throughout his childhood he is visited or visits his natural mother Madge Morgan. She marries Mr Craven-Griffiths and becomes part of the interwoven families.

Leonard Morgan (Peter James)

1921

London Irish talks begin. In Dec the Irish Free State is created.

First poppy day.

Bolsheviks defeat the Whites in Russia.

Post is no longer delivered on Sundays.

Maude babysits the household on Saturdays nights when NS and Albert go out, to the fair or the pictures (silent). They do not drink. They smoke like chimneys.

Madge Morgan marries Mr Craven-Griffiths, confirming her as part of the interwoven families.

1922

There is rampant inflation in Germany.

Gandhi is jailed in India.

Mussolini becomes the dictator of Italy.

Tutankhamen’s tomb is discovered. The country goes wild with excitement.

BBC is formed. They broadcast daily news. The first radio licences cost 10/- pa.

Waterloo railway station opens.

Dorothy passes the scholarship and goes to Grammar school at 11.

Maude meets Fred C-G when he visits no 14 with his father.

1923

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon marries the Duke  of York who will become George V1.

Wives will be able to divorce their husbands for adultery. This gives them the same rights as men. Actions must still take place in the High Court.

Radio Times begins. Big Ben’s chimes are broadcast.

Hitler goes to prison for 5 years. He is given total privileges and released after six months.

M bans other parties in Italy. Germany declares martial law.

Maude and her bike.

Their Pardoe cousins visit. No 14 ‘is where you all went.’

Ted goes to work??? Where? When did he join the army?

1924

Lenin dies. British Government recognises the USSR.

Ramsey MacDonald is the first Labour Party MP. Conservatives win General Election. Baldwin is the PM. Winston Churchill is Chancellor of the Exchequer.  

Gandhi is freed. He fasts to end riots.

BBC begin the ‘pips’.

Edwin (Ted) marries Mary (Big Doll)

Their son Edwin (Eddy) is born premature at no14. NS wraps him in cotton wool.

The young people go around in a group.

Card games Saturday nights at no 14. All the men play, often through the night.

Pardoe Family Photos

1925

M takes full control of Italy. In Tennessee the ‘Monkey trial’ takes place. The teacher is found guilty of teaching evolution.

‘Daylight saving’ is declared permanent.

Queen Alexandra dies on Nov 20th.

The Northern Ireland border is settled.

Pardoe Family photos (2)

Everyone gets lifts and gets to work. Battersea Bulletin.

Maude and Fred are engaged. She has her hair cropped and crimped. NS does not approve. Dolly keeps hers long.

Simpson’s new shop, at 70a Peckham Rye, wins a prize- best dressed shop window.

1926

General Strike. Troops are used.

Widows are awarded pensions.

Princess Elizabeth is born to the Yorks.

Rudolf Valentino dies.

Gwen born to Ted and Big Doll in October.

1927

BBC broadcasts programmes.

Transatlantic telephone begins at a cost of £15 for 3 minuets.

The wedding service is modernised in the Common Prayer Book.

Charles Linberg flies the Atlantic.

Dolly passes the Civil Service exams and goes to work.

Rae Griffiths goes to work?? When does she go to the Middle East to dance??

Albert’s mother Mary dies at no 14.

1928

Full franchise introduced. Everyone may vote at 21.

Dolly meets Bob Eames at work.

Maude and Fred are married. They take two rooms across the road at no 22.

Elizabeth (Betty) is born to Ted and Big Doll.

1929

First public telephone.

Wall Street Crash.

Lillie Langtry dies.

Al Capone sends his best men to assassinate the rival gang of Bugs Moran. It results in the St Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Oct Wall St crashes.

Baldwin loses the election. He serves in the Coalition Government that takes Britain through the Depression.

Betty contracts measles and dies.

Antony is born in August.

Teddy Griffiths goes to work?? When does he join the army?

Naomi Rhoda dies at Forest Hill Rd (Shop) of ‘senility’, on 3rd March. She is 80.

1930

Jarrow march

Amy Johnson arrives in Australia.

Gandhi is arrested.

After paying for soup kitchens to feed the unemployed, Al Capone is arrested for perjury.

Talkies begin in the cinema.

Princess Margaret is born.

John is born to Maude and Fred in April at no 14. Soon after Fred and Maude go off to an RAF posting. They are housed in a council house in a small town.

1931

Whipsnade Zoo is opened.

After cuts in spending, the Labour Party sack Ramsay MacDonald. He is re-elected as PM for the ‘National Party.’ The King agrees to a multi-party coalition.

David born to Ted and Big Doll in March.

Maude has a nervous collapse and goes back to no 14 with John.

By now, Albert has been working in the factory for some time. Bill has spent years lying around the house reading, apparently depressed. Albert takes him to work and gets him a job. Bill stays there until it closes down in the 1950s.

1932

NS gets ‘radio rental’. (or earlier?) King George V makes his first radio broadcast on Christmas Day.

Hitler is given German citizenship.

Lindberg’s son is kidnapped and is later found dead.

Amelia Earhart flies the Atlantic.

The USSR allows emigration on payment of large sums in foreign currentcy.

Maude and Fred go to live on an RAF patch where she is happy.

Dorothy’s boy friend from work, Bob Eames, joins the household as a lodger at sometime this year/next? He and Dorothy share a bedroom. They cannot marry as he is already married.

1933

Britain, France, Italy and Germany sign a non-aggression pact. In Britain no one wants another war.

Prohibition is repealed in the USA.

Reichstag opens. Women and Jews are excluded. Women’s suffrage is to be abolished.

Maude gives birth to Derek in Queen Charlotte’s hospital. John announces that the baby is too small to play football.

1934

Barricades in Paris and 17 are killed.

Riots in Spain lead to martial law.

Germans ‘sterilise’ inferior citizens. G signs a non-aggression pact with Poland.

Bonnie and Clyde and then Dillinger are killed in ambushes.

Quinns are born in Canada.

Al Capone goes to Alcatraz.

262 miners die in a Welsh pit disaster.

In USSR 12,000 are sent to Siberia.

Prince George marries Princess Marina of Greece.

Weissmuller stars in ‘Tarzan of the Apes’.

Heinrich Himmler sets up G’s concentration camps. Hitler is named ‘Der Futher’ by the G cabinet.

 William is an avid user of the library. Now he begins buying paperbacks.

1935

In G two women are beheaded for spying.

Cats eyes go into the roads.

Baldwin becomes PM again.

Italy invades Ethiopia and Abyssinia.

King George V celebrates his silver Jubilee.

Penguin paperbacks are published.

 Peter James goes to work?? Where??

Maude and Fred live in a village, off patch. When?

All over London the flames are seen.

Argument rages over the Royal crisis. The King is popular with all classes especially women. The politicians believe he is an unreliable King. At no 14 it is constantly argued. Albert is for the King and talks of civil uprising. Those who argue with him are told to leave the house.

1936

King George dies in Jan.

Spanish Civil War begins.

The speaking clock begins.

The Jarrow March takes place.

In Nov Crystal Palace burns down.

Edward V111 tells Baldwin he intends to marry Mrs Simpson. In Dec he abdicates.

The couple are whisked off to France where they live in exile. They marry there but she is refused the title of ‘Highness’.

Michael born to Ted and Big Doll in Jan.

There is a house full of children and young adults at no 14. Every Fri night The working adults line up in the living room and hand over their wage packets to NS. She then gives them their spending money. They have roast beef on Sundays and steaks on Sat night. Dolly spoils her nephews John and Derek, taking them in taxis on outings (photos). The Sat night card games are at their peak. The women make sandwiches for the men late at night.

Maude takes herself to the pictures every week while Dolly looks after John and Derek.

NS organises the street for the coronation. It is so effective that they are photographed for the local paper. The street buy her a clock as a thankyou. (photos)

1937

Public Order Act comes into force.

Coronation of George V1. His daughter Elizabeth is now the heir. The new King is the opposite of his brother with his stammer, shyness and lack of confidence.

His Coronation is celebrated with street parties everywhere.

Gov bans volunteers from fighting in Spain.

The Irish Free State becomes ‘Eire’.

The Hindenburg Airship explodes and brings to an end airship flights.

Dolly and the lodger Bob Eames pair up as do Peter James and Jeannie Eames, Bob’s daughter. (photo)

William (Bill) wins a duck in a Christmas raffle- but it comes home live with a string for a lead. ‘Donald’ lays an egg the next day and is reprived. She is given a bowl of water for a pond in the tiny scrap of garden. She lays an egg every day.

1938

School children will be issued gas masks.

Regents Park Zoo opens.

Italy becomes officially anti-semitic.

Orson Welles makes his radio broadcast of the Martial invasion.

Jews are expelled from colleges in G and are sacked from their posts in Austria.

G troops march into Austria.

Hitler annexes the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.

June born to Ted and Big Doll in June.

Dolly is evacuated to Wales where she meets Humphrey Hall.

Bob Eames is sent by the civil service (where?)

Peter and Ted James are in the tank regiment.

Eddy James is now 14 and??

Fred is in the RAF as is his brother Arthur.

Ted Griffiths is ??

Ted James and Arthur C-G stories of diverting army and RAF supplies to no 14.

1939

War is declared.

Air raid shelters are given out in the streets (photo). Some streets have communal ones.

Women are urged to work. Nurseries are set up.

Nylon stockings go on sale in the USA.

Precious metals and stones are confiscated from Jews in G.

Britain calls up men aged 20 and 21.

Hitler declares war and invades Poland.

British liner ‘Athenia’ sunk by G sub.

The Home Service begins on the radio.

Identity cards are issued in B.

The ‘Royal Oak’ is sunk in Scarpa Flow.

All Jews in G wear the star of David.

The Graf Spee is scuttled in Montevido Harbour.

Ted and Doll’s children are evacuated.

Maude stays with hers at no 14. She gets work in the Post Office in the City. She joins every queue she sees for food, whatever it is.

All the children left in no 14 have ½ day schooling. When the bombs fall they hide in the shelters at home or in the cellars at school. Some school days are spent hiding from bombs.

As the bombs fly Donald Duck runs in from the garden and dives under the table. He is their early warning radar.

As food becomes scarcer, NS organises the household so that each child has an egg every day. Acres of Battersea Park are turned into allotments which carry on for many years after the war. A pig farm is set up in the park and a club is formed. A municipal lorry collects the household scraps to feed the pigs. William takes ‘shares’ in the pig club. He must put in hours to match his shares. At Christmas he is given his quota of pork and bacon. (photos) William finds the money for the children’s shoes.

1940

Anderson shelters are given out across London. Women are recruited to do men’s jobs.  The King calls on Winston Churchill to take over the War Cabinet. As PM he makes the ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’ speech on May10th. Munitions factories are kept going 24 hours. On June 4th 340,000 men are evacuated from Dunkirk. On 10th the French abandon Paris to avoid the G bombing it. On 22nd June France surrenders. Days later G begins bombing Brittain.

 ‘Dig for Victory’ land is released for people to grow food. Leaflets are printed explaining how to make meals from what is available. Eggs become scare and egg powder is used instead. Fruit is scare. Bananas are not seen for years. Recipes for puddings include, ‘carrot flan’. Horsemeat and whalemeat are sold. Rationing and price control ensure everyone has something to eat. The population are slim but healthy.

Dorothy and Humphrey marry in Wales on 29th March at Colwyn Bay. NS and Albert go. Dolly is soon pregnant and they return to no14.(photo)

Fred is ‘mentioned in Dispatches’ for bravery. He drives a lorry full of ammunition from a fire. He does not have a driving licence.

1941

Roosevelt is elected for a third term.

Amy Johnson disappears at sea.

The House of Commons is bombed.

Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland.

The Bismark is sunk.

Clothes and coal rationing begins.

Germany invades Russia and the siege of Leningrad begins.

The Government orders potatoes to be sold at 1d.

The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour, invade Hong Kong and Malaya.

The desert campaign begins in North Africa.

Rosemary is born to Dolly and Humphrey at no 14 on 16th March. She is damaged during the birth and cries all the time. She dies on 30th March.

In August Peter James goes missing in the North African Campaign. He is later said to have died when a sniper shot him as he left his tank to smoke a cigarette. The house is inconsolable.

1942

The Japanese take Singapore and bomb Sydney.

Lidice in Czechoslovakia is massacred by the Nazis in revenge for an assassination.

Soap is rationed. Princess Elizabeth registers for war work. Duke of Kent dies on active war service.

Winston Churchill flies to Washington.

RAF drop 100,000 bombs on Dusseldorf in an hour.

British and US troops invade N. Africa.

French fleet scuttled in Toulon Harbour.

Nuclear power station opens in USA.

Russia has new tanks and traps 3000,000 Gs in Stalingrad.

Dolly gives birth to Raymond Peter, always known as Peter, on 15th May. This baby is delivered in Queen Charlotte’s Hospital. It becomes apparent as soon as they are back at no 14 that when Peter cries she feels lost. At night when the house wakes to hear them both crying, Albert takes Peter into bed with him.

1943

Eighth army takes Tripoli.

RAF bomb Berlin in daylight.

178 crushed when an air raid shelter is hit.

US rations meats, fats and cheese.

The Allies bomb Sicily. The Dam busters raid takes place. French resistance leader Jean Moulin is killed by the Gestapo. In July Mussolini resigns while the Allies bomb Rome, Turin, Milan and land at Salerno.

In May the Allies take North Africa.

NS and Albert are sent a war pension for Peter. It is 6d a week. Albert tears the book into shreds and flings the pieces around the room as he shouts, ‘Is that all my son’s life is worth’. He slowly gives way to grief and never recovers.

V1s and two V2s fall on Battersea. Shortly after Maude gives birth to Jennifer on 12th November in Queen Charlotte’s hospital, one blows up inside Christ Church, Battersea. The church and the area is flattened. (photo)

Jennifer is a sick baby. Maude is not allowed to see her in case the baby dies. Fred tells NS, ‘Your daughter is alright but mine is not.’ He bursts into tears.

Dolly and Humphrey are allocated one of the new ‘pre-fabs’ put up on bomb sites. Inside it is all fitted together like a jig-saw. There are two bedrooms, a living room, bathroom and kitchen.

1944

RAF hit Hitler’s Chancellery. Hitler mobilises all children over 10.

Allies land at Anzio.

The siege of Leningrad collapses after two years.

The Gov meets the demands of Welsh miners after a strike.

In April PAYE starts. The first half million pre-fabricated houses go on view.

D Day is in June. Allies liberate Paris, Brussels and Antwerp. Rome, Florence.

Failed attempt on Hitler’s life. Rommel is forced to commit suicide. British troops take Crete. The Tirpitz is sunk by the RAF. Germans start ‘Battle of the Bulge’ in the Ardennes.

Uprising in Warsaw Ghetto leads to a month of fighting and the eventual massacre of all the Jews.

V1s and then V2s fall on London. The V1s can be heard, ‘doodle bugs’. V2s cannot as they travel faster than the speed of sound. They induce first terror and then apathy as there is no way of knowing when and where they will fall.

Maude finds a house in Broughton St and they move there when Jennifer is six months old. NS tells Maude that she is to take Mrs Collins with her as a lodger. First they must clear the house and make it habitable.

Dolly gives birth to Valerie on 14th June at 30 Worfield Rd.

Battersea is pockmarked everywhere. Some streets barely exist. Arding and Hobbs at Clapham Junction is still there.

1945

Russians take Warsaw. They enter Auschwitz. As the USA bombs Japan the Allies cross the Rhine. US troops enter Buchenwald. Both Atlee and Roosevelt die. Truman is the next President. Russian and US troops meet in Berlin. Gs surrender in Italy. Mussolini and his mistress are executed and hung on meat hooks. Goebbels kills his wife and 6 children before committing suicide. Himmler commits suicide. The war in Europe ends in May.

General Election sweeps Labour to power by the returning men and women who want change. Atlee becomes the PM. He takes Churchill’s place in the meetings with Stalin and Roosevelt. Stalin manipulates the other leaders.

In July the atomic bomb is tested in New Mexico. It is dropped on Hiroshima on Aug 4th, Nagasaki on Aug 9th. On the 14th Japan surrenders. On 30th Hong Kong is re-occupied. The Japanese sign the surrender on USS Missouri in Sept. In Oct leaders of the occupied countries are executed for treason. In Nov de Gaulle is elected Nuremberg trials begin. Tito becomes the President of Yugoslavia. The IMF is set up in Dec.

Radical changes are proposed in Britain with medical help and supplies for all, housing and essential services. In June Family Allowance is paid for the first time. It takes much longer than is realised to do these things and the bomb sites are a fixed feature for years in many towns.

Maude gives birth to Robert on 3rd June in Queen Charlottes Hospital. Fred is away so John and Derek go to NS at no14 and Jennifer to Ted and Big Doll at no 13. When Maude returns with the baby a fortnight later Jennifer does not want to leave no 13 where she has been spoilt by everyone. John and Derek do not want to leave no 14 where they have friends. When Maude takes them, Jennifer tries to push the baby out of ‘my pram’. Some weeks later Maude takes the baby to the GP for a check up. She notices that Jennifer does not walk. The hospital confirms that she has rickets and will never walk. The GP is determined to get the child well. She treats her for free but Maude has to pay £1 week for the medicines. Her RAF allowance is £8. The rent is £2. When she cannot manage NS helps.

Dolly gives birth to Richard on 20th October at £30 Worfield Street. Later she attends the new Family Planning Clinic. NS is horrified that her daughter would deliberately prevent conception. Dolly tells her, ‘Four births are enough.’

1946

In Jan Lord Haw Haw is hanged for treason. Goering and von Rippentrop are tried. Hess is tried. Goering poisons himself before he can be hanged. The others are executed.

There are riots in Cairo.

Juan Peron becomes president of Argentina.

Italy becomes a republic.

An atomic bomb is exploded in the Pacific and three ships are sunk. Another is tested on the Bikini Atoll.

A terrorist bomb destroys the King David Hotel in Jerusalem and kills forty.  Terrorists bomb the British Embassy in Rome.

The UN is sited in NY.

The Bank of England is put into public ownership. BEA airline is formed.

Milkmen go on strike.

In July bread rationing begins.

TV licenses start.

In Nov the NHS comes into force.

Stevenage New Town is built.

John and Derek set about to teach Jennifer to walk. They stand her one side of the living room and call her to them on the other. They do this every day until she can do it without falling.

Dolly and Maude walk the children to NS every day. One or more are often left with her. The five young cousins grow up knowing no 14 as their second home.

Maude finds the two older boys and two babies a handful. John and Derek play rough games. Water fights that flood the passage, cowboys and Indians with Derek being tied up at the top of the stairs.

1947

The coal mines are nationalised.

Al Capone dies in Miami.

Lord Louie Mountbatten is sent as the last Viceroy to India as it moves to independence.

The British Officers Club in Jerusalem is bombed.

IMF begins operating.

Flooding in Britain is the worst on record.

School leaving age raised to 15.

Food rations are further cut.

An atomic reactor is opened at Harwell.

Truman asks the Americans to cut back consumption of meat, poultry and eggs to assist Europe.

The first supersonic flight takes place.

There are two train crashes in Oct. In Nov Elizabeth marries Philip Mountbatten.

Fred leaves the RAF and joins the British Legion. He finds adjusting to civilian life hard after thirty years. It is some time before he and Maude manage to sort it out.

1948

The railways are nationalised.

Coop opens the first supermarket.

Gandhi is assassinated, there are riots in Bombay. The British leave India.

Jan Masaryk is found dead on the pavement. He is said to have jumped from a window,

The offices of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem is blown up.

Electricity is nationalised.

WHO begins

GCE to replace School Certificate.

Israel becomes a Jewish State.

Berlin airlift begins.

First Oxfam shop opens.

Bread rationing ends.

Prince Charles is born.

France starts up a atomic reactor.

Albert dies. NS is worried how she will live without his pension. Ted, Dolly and Maude agree to give her 30/- week between them. They don’t know how they will live either.

Maude feels the death of her father keenly.

Children from Warsill Street, including June James and her friend Joan Callard, stampede the shops for sweets and they quickly sell out.

June & Michael James outside 14 Warsill Street

1949

Clothes rationing ends in Feb. On April 24th choc and sweet rationing ends. Gas is nationalised.

The first self-service launderette opens in London. £ is devalued by 30%.

Haigh the acid bath murderer is hanged.

USSR lifts the blockade of Berlin.

Israel is admitted to the UN.

Mao Tse-Tung founds the Peoples’ Republic.

Einstein publishes his theory of Relativity.

Gwen James marries?

Maude finds it hard to cope on the money and buys clothes on a ‘provident cheque’ a form of tally-man borrowing- a£1 a week for 21 weeks is £20 to spend in named shops. Maude never understands credit, like many w/c people.

NS buys a TV; this is treated with great ceremony. When there is a broadcast, people turn up to watch; they sit in a semi-circle round the tiny screen with the curtains pulled

Maude does the weekly wash on a Saturday, at the Latchmere Wash Baths; J and B stay with NS while M walks the washing up and back.

1950

Petrol rationing in Britain ends, as does soap rationing.

Atlee forms the new Government.

In Oct House of Commons reopens and Legal Aid begins. It is this reform that makes Divorce possible for ordinary people.

The Korean War begins. General MacArthur is in command of the UN forces. Britain and Australia send troops.

In the USA McCarthy starts his campaign against Communists and ‘sympathisers’.

  Peter born to Jean Pardoe and Henry Vecci, 8th October.

1951

F and Maude buy a TV

Crab teas at NS’s house

Jennifer and Street parties

The five youngest grandchildren spend much of their time with NS. She helps her two daughters to cope with the conflicting needs of their households and children.

Throughout the years, Ted Griffiths, who marries Irene, is a constant visitor to NS and Maude. He still calls NS ‘Ma’.

1952

 Tony James meets Pat Watkins at a whist Drive in St. Stephans Church. They marry and Barry is born on the last day of the year.

They live at 14 Warsill Street on the ground floor. Naomi lives downstairs.

Robin born to Jean Pardoe and Henry Vecci.

1953

 Queen Elizabeth II is crowned in Westminster Abbey.

Sir Edmund Hilary and Tensing conquer Mt. Everest.

Derek and Joan marry

Maude and Fred take the children to the country for a holiday. On the weekend, all the young cousins arrive. June and Sylvia get burnt on the beach.

RAFA outings- NS goes on outings with family

Fred has a massive heart attack. Maude realises she could be left with 4 children to support. Within a year she joins the Civil Service, passes the exams and becomes ‘permanent staff’

Jillian born to Grace Pardoe and Bill Lovejoy.

1954

 Lynda is born on the 8th April and Tony and Pat move to 44 Salford Road, Streatham in November

1955

 Trevor is born in May.

1956

1957

1958

 Simon is Born in November

William, ‘Little Bill’, born to Henry and Beatrice, 14th June.

1959

Florrie visits Warsill St.

Ted James dies

Stephen born to Mickey James and Sylvia, 18th July.

1960

Andrew born to Mickey James and Sylvia, 13th December

1961

NS hits her cat to get it off a stall and breaks its leg; she is unaware. Later Bob and Jen spot it and get it to the Blue Cross where it is treated for free.

Evelyn born to Gwen and Bob Orton, 29th September.

David born to Jean Pardoe and Henry Vecci, 6th March.

1962

Warsill Street demolished; NS and Bill move to Este Rd. Mrs M goes mad and dies. Maude takes a rhizome of peony from NS’s garden, where every year it throws up great bundles of crimson glory.

Valerie and Tony marry?

1963

  David is born to Joyce Pardoe and Roy Jackson, 1st June

1964

Brian born to June and Alec Angus.

1965

1966

  Maud Holtom, nee Pardoe, dies

1967

  Fred C-G dies; there is an old-fashioned funeral, where the undertaker wears a top hot and walks in front of the hearse. The neighbours buy a wreath; Maude is inconsolable. She puts off retirement and returns to work. Every night after work she goes to NS’s flat, where NS has cooked the evening meal. Jennifer goes off to university in Leeds, so Bob returns to the house to be a companion for Maude. She spends the next year on a mix of Mogadon and brandy. NS counsels her to come to terms with his death.

1968

1969

  Bob marries, in Maude’s church

1970

Jennifer marries- in the same church.

1971

1972

1973

  Naomi Susannah dies; Bill remains in the flat

1974