My Great Grandad George

 Recently I made a discovery at home whilst sorting through stuff, something that I had never ever seen before. I have been trying for a while to find out some more information about my Great Grandad George Ives, and the role he played on the home front during World War Two.

On the 1939 register I saw around 4 years ago I discovered he volunteered for ARP duties whilst still working full time as a mason and paver by trade. Part time wardens were supposed to be on duty around 3 nights per week, but this increased greatly when bombing was at its heaviest. He was part of the decontamination squad and rescue services. The decontamination squad scraped up contaminated rubble from the streets whilst their colleagues followed behind them coating affected areas with bleach. The rescue service were responsible for finding and removing the dead and injured out from bombed out premises.

Other duties for ARP wardens included that the blackout was observed, sounded air raid sirens, safely guided people into public air raid shelters, issued and checked gas masks, evacuated areas around unexploded bombs. Arranged and located temporary accommodation for people who no longer had a place to call home and reported to their control centre incidents and fires.

 One in Six ARP volunteers was a woman, amongst the men there was a high percentage of veterans who fought during the First World War.

The local Air Raid Wardens kept a record of each incident, noting the date, the type of bomb and its location. Each Borough recorded its findings in its own way, the borough of Finsbury typed out a sheet every day reporting all the incidents that had happened in the previous 24 hours.

As I sat on my sofa I began to unwrap a small paper bag I found in a box, I was amazed and couldn’t believe my eyes it was my Great Grandads ARP leather wallet. As I opened it I was presented with his silver ARP badge. From the formation of the ARP until 1939, the badges were made of solid sterling silver, with a crescent shaped button hole attachment for men and a pin brooch style for women. From 1940 onwards the badges were made from base metal.

What’s more it contained his civil defence medal, a pink form from Finsbury Borough Council so he could order what he needed such as his uniform and equipment which he would need on duty. The form is dated 15th June 1944 he ticked boxes for the following: Helmet, Civil Defence respirator and haversack, anti-dim outfit, whistle, beret and coat.

However at the beginning of the war, ARP wardens had no uniform and wore their own clothes. Wardens wore helmets, arm bands and badges on their civilian clothes in October 1939 they were issued with ‘bluette’ overalls with a red on black ARP badge.

Also enclosed was his Civil Defence authority card which he carried inside this very wallet to show that he had authority to carry out his duty as warden, although it is stamped 1943 I know that he was a warden before this date. The original card may have been lost whilst on duty.

I then found a receipt for his Civil Defence Medal ribbon, the medal was issued at a later date.

I was very emotional that this had been kept by my Nanny Rose and I was now holding in my hands my Great Grandads wallet that he carried in his pocket 84 years ago. My great grandad volunteered for duty in 1936; as the Metropolitian Borough of Finsbury set up their ARP committee as early as 1935. This very wallet would have been with him the whole time and throughout the duration of WW2, whilst running into burning buildings trying to save people and salvage through the rubble in hope that there was still life out there to be saved. The sights he saw are unimaginable and I have heard stories of these events. One of that he found my Nanny Roses best friend at the time next to her mother with a baby in her arms all sadly lost to the tragedy of the War.

I am immensely proud of my Great Grandad and I can honestly say that my heart truly bursted with joy as well as sadness when I found his wallet.

Thank you for all you did God Bless Great Grandad George

Wedding & Leading Lady

The wedding photo is of my cousin Frederick G B C Whiter marrying Annie Allen in 1900 in Islington.
Freddie was an electrical engineer by trade he was born in Bethnal Green in 1876.
The young married couple emigrated to Canada in around 1904 with their daughter Irene.

Freddie and Annie went on to have another two children also girls, their names were Dorothy and Florence they were born in Canada.
Annie, Freddie’s wife died young at the age of 29 in 1910. I know that Florence the youngest daughter would have only been three when her mother died she was adopted, maybe her father couldn’t cope after losing his wife. Florence was now called Florence Williams (her adoptive name) she later married a man named Edward Waller in Toronto, Canada 1934; they had three children together. She went on to be a huge success and was the leading lady in the ‘Best Years’ theatre production in New York. I have attached a newspaper clipping of her. Her stage name was Billie, she passed away in 1980.

#MyFamilyHistory #wedding
#leadinglady 🖤

PC Alfred Smith

Alfred Smith born in Wokingham near Reading in 1880 , he moved to London in 1902 and joined the Metropolitan Police on 10th October that same year, his admission papers describe him as 5 ft 11inches in height and 13st 2Ibs in weight with auburn hair, blue eyes  and a fair complexion. PC Smith was assigned to G Division and covered the Finsbury area (known today as the old borough of Finsbury Islington) along with other constables initially living at the police station at that time. 

Around mid-morning on Wednesday June 13th 1917, PC Smith was on duty close to a clothing factory which manufactured clothes for the Debenhams Department Store close to Central Street,Finsbury, high over London, fourteen German Gotha planes began unleashing their deadly cargoes of bombs onto the streets below. 

A mixture of panic and curiosity appears to have gripped the citizens of the Metropolis as the bombs began to explode around them.

PC Smith heard the German Gotha G.V aircraft approaching and warned panicking factory workers in Central Street, Finsbury, to stay inside. The factory consisted of 150 Women and girls who were machinists and supervised by three men. Two of these men ran out in the street to see what was happening after hearing the first bombs. One of the men was killed and the other one badly injured. With little experience of daytime air raids and petrified by the explosions the women and girls from the factory started to in panic leave the building and run down the street.

The remaining supervisor was trying to gather the factory workers together, to bring them back inside but in all the chaos was struggling to do so.

PC Smith heard the German Gotha G.V aircraft approaching and warned panicking factory workers in Central Street, Finsbury, to stay inside. He eventually got them back in inside and assisted the supervisor. He then stood on the porch at the factory doors to prevent them returning back out into the street.

In doing his duty he sacrificed his own life. He died when a bomb exploded a few feet away from him. The 37-year-old had a wife and a three-year-old son.

The raid on June 13th  killed a total of 162 people.

There is a memorial in Postman’s park London EC1, remembering the heroic self sacrifice that was made by PC Smith.

In 2017 an Islington People’s plaque was erected to mark 100 years of PC Smiths death and bravery at 43-45 Central street Islington. “The plaque is well deserved and marks an extreme act of bravery,” said Robert Jeffries, 63, PC Smith’s great-nephew and a retired police officer.

“He did what’s in the news now, policemen running towards danger, and he wouldn’t have had time to know what hit him.”

Memorial in Postman’s Park

Islington Peoples Plaque

Canary Girls

The Canary Girls were British women who worked in munitions manufacturing TNT shells during the First World War.
The nickname arose because exposure to TNT is toxic, and repeated exposure can turn the skin an orange-yellow colour reminiscent of the plumage of a canary (this bird which itself was used by miners to detect toxic carbon monoxide in coal mines).

The women also carried the risk of them contracting potentially fatal diseases handling the explosive chemicals. Some reported bone disintegration, while others developed throat problems and dermatitis from TNT staining.
One of the most serious being a liver disease called toxic jaundice. There were 400 cases of the disease during World War One - a quarter of which were fatal, said historian Anne Spurgeon.
"There was the yellow that was the staining of the skin, which while unpleasant, wasn't fatal or a serious disease.
"But there was this liver disease that was a different yellow.
"When they had repeated exposure to TNT, it attacked the liver. It was a poison and caused anaemia and jaundice."

They also risked losing fingers and hands, burns and blindness.
"In these factories, they would take the casing, fill it with powder, then put a detonator in the top and that had to be tapped down. If they tapped too hard, it would detonate,"
"It happened to one lady, who was pregnant at the time, and it blinded her and she lost both her hands.
"She saw the pregnancy through, but the only way she could identify the baby was with her lips, which still had feeling."

Explosions were a common occurrence, Women were banned from wearing nylon and silk.
Nellie Bagley, whose first shift at Rotherwas in 1940 was on her 18th birthday, remembers having to strip down to her underwear to be inspected.
"You took everything off and you had just your bra and if it had a metal clip on the back you couldn't wear it... and no hair grips of course, because they would caused friction... explosions."

Going back to their skin changing colour, the women were targeted by media campaign advertisements encouraging them to use oatine face cream which was aimed at the munition workers to keep their complexion clean and fresh.  This was available for purchase from chemists. I have attached an advert with this post for Oatine.

It was not only the UK's female munitions workers that were affected by the TNT, but also the babies that were born to them. Hundreds of "Canary Babies" were born with a slightly yellow skin colour because of their mothers' exposure to dangerous chemicals in the munitions factories during World War One. Nothing could be done for the babies at the time, but the discolouration slowly faded with time.

Health and safety measures in factories were stepped up to limit exposure, such as providing protective clothing, but only so much could be done to eradicate the risks.

These women accepted all sorts of terrible working conditions, they knew they were putting themselves in danger - TNT was yellow, they saw what was happening.
But it was seen as a patriotic act… as the women were doing their bit for the war effort.
I believe they were definitely doing more then their bit. It amazes me that women weren't allowed anywhere near a gun, yet they were filling shells in factories.
Over a million women during both World Wars worked at thousands of Ministry munitions factories, however there are no official records to indicate how many of these woman died or were seriously injured in their line of duty.

God Bless you all, each and every one of you deserves recognition.

The Vinegar Ground

The area now taken up by the Sutton Estate, at the junction of City Road and Old Street was known in the 1940s as the Vinegar Ground.

The Sarson’s Vinegar factory was based on the site of Champions Vinegar works which had long gone when the first houses were built there.

The vinegar was first brewed by Thomas Sarson in 1794 from malt barley. James Thomas Sarson was a vinegar maker living at Brunswick Place, Islington in 1841.
The name of the factory was called Craven street works as seen on a receipt from 1843 which I have included in this post. What was once Craven street Is today Cranwood street, but as you can see from various posts the location Sarsons vinegar works laid on Catherine street from 1893.

The site in this photo is champions vinegar works which was much larger in scale and occupied the corner of City Road and Old street. But to the left of the photo is Catherine street where Sarsons traded from in 1893, this photo below dates from 1880s. 

Going back sales rocketed when his son Henry James Sarson took over in 1850. 

Sarson & Son branded its product as “Virgin Vinegar” from 1861 in order to indicate its purity at a time when food adulteration was rife. Most vinegar brewers added sulphuric acid to their product to decrease the necessary fermentation period.

It was renamed "Sarson's Virgin Vinegar" in 1884.

Sarson & Son did not add caramel to darken their vinegar, unlike most brewers, so their product had a much lighter colour than its rivals.

In 1893, the company was trading under the name of Henry Sarson and Sons from "The Vinegar Works", Catherine Street, City Road, London. Two of Henry's sons, Henry L Sarson and Percival Stanley Sarson also joined the family business as vinegar brewers. 

A print of a cartoon dates from 1893 entitled "The Irony of Circumstance", featuring 'acetic faced women' in front of sign which reads "Virgin Vinegar". I have included this cartoon it was featured in the Sketch Newspaper.

Henry Sarson retired from the business in 1893. Henry Sarson & Sons had been converted into a private limited company by 1900.

A Sarson's Virgin Vinegar colour advertisement postcard survives from the 1900s for a campaign entitled " She would have Sarsons”. And from the 1930s and 1940s there is a photograph of a Sarson's vinegar truck and 49 photographs of the works, in a collection created by British Vinegars Limited and are held in the London Metropolitan Archives.

The slogan used to advertise the product is "Don't say vinegar - say Sarson's".

In 1932 the company merged with other British vinegar producers to form British Vinegars Ltd. The 20th century was the golden age of vinegar. 65 licensed breweries existed in the UK. However, by 1940, only Sarson’s remained.

In 1968, British Vinegars purchased a site from the Co-op in Middleton, Greater Manchester and production moved there. 

 The company was taken over by Crosse & Blackwell which in turn was taken over by Nestlé but sold to Premier Foods. Premier Foods agreed in July 2012 to sell its Sarson's, Haywards pickled onion and Dufrais vinegar brands to Mizkan – a 200 year old vinegar manufacturer in Japan – for £41m as part of a streamlining programme.

Analysis report

Inland Revenue Map Date:1910

Source: Layers of London 

OS Map Date:1893-1896

Source: Layers of London 

OS Map Date: 1940s-1960s

The map now shows the vinegar works now demolished and occupied 

by Sutton Dwellings 

Source: Layers of London 

City road part of site where the vinegar works was once situated 

Enlarged copy of receipt showing Craven street works In 1843

Advertisement

Sarson’s Vinegar

Date: 1893

"The Irony of Circumstance", featuring 'acetic faced women' in front of sign which reads "Virgin Vinegar". I have included this cartoon it was featured in the Sketch Newspaper.

Advertisement Date:1919

Home Pickling Booklet by Henry Sarson Date: 1949

Sarson’s receipt date: 1843

Company stationary receipt date: 1921

City of London Lying in Hospital

City of London Lying In Hospital, City Road, had as part of this hospital a chapel attached, which was principally intended for the "wives of poor industrious Tradesmen or distressed House-keepers" and the wives of soldiers and sailors. It was founded in 1750 for married women only. The original building was situated in Aldersgate street London House. In 1771 still on Aldersgate street the hospital moved to Shaftesbury house.
The hospital moved premises once again but this time to the corner of Old street in City Road on 31st March 1773.

The Museum Curator for the Royal College of Midwives Heritage Team uncovered a beautiful if somewhat battered very old 18th century midwifery certificate awarded to a Mary Burford of the City of London Lying-in Hospital. The certificate is dated 15th April 1779, which makes it the oldest item in the RCM Archive collection.

Mrs Anne Newby of the City of London Lying-in-Hospital is another interesting figure who served as a matron and midwife for 36 years. In 1803 she received a silver medal from the Humane Society for her extraordinary success in recovering 500 babies, who at first were thought to be stillborn. She also engaged in charitable programs to provide clothing for the hospital’s poorest patients. She died in 1813.

The hospital was damaged by the construction of the Great Northern and City Railway underneath Old Street, the hospital was then demolished and rebuilt on the same site between 1904 and 1907.
The rules were relaxed in 1912, to allow "Singlewomen who are sufficiently recommended and are found to be deserving of the Benefits of the Hospital's Charity" to be eligible for admission for their first confinement and the name was changed to the City of London Maternity Hospital in 1918.

During WW2 On 9th September 1940,a week after the evacuation, the northern wing of the Hospital was destroyed by a bomb, fortunately with no loss of life.  The remaining in-patients were transferred to Friern Hospital, some ten miles away. The rear part of the building had to be demolished, although the front part continued to be used for the Out-Patients Department and administration. More bombs on 6th April and 10th May 1941 further damaged the building.

The out-patient maternity service continued, with expectant mothers delivered in their own homes, whilst those willing to leave London were sent to Brocket Hall.

In January 1942, 12 emergency maternity beds were made available in the London Fever Hospital in Liverpool Road.  The number was later increased to 40.

In 1946, after the end of the war, the Hospital took over financial responsibilities for Brocket Hall from Hertfordshire County Council.

In 1948 the Hospital joined the NHS under the control of the Northern Group Hospital Management Committee, part of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.

They decided not to rebuild the Hospital on the noisy City Road and, in November 1949, it reopened with 52 beds in Hanley Road, Tollington park N4,in premises bought from the Institute of the Blind.  Clinics continued to be held in the City Road building until 1955 when a new Out-Patients Department was built adjacent to the Hanley Road premises.

Its doors were closed in 1983 and amalgamated with the Obstetric Unit at the Whittington Hospital to form the present City of London Maternity Unit.

I have included illustrations, photos and maps with this post.
Sources include:
LMA
Museum of London
RCM Archive
Layers of London
Lost hospitals of London

Source: LMA

Elevation and ground plan of City of London Lying-In Hospital, City Road, Finsbury; with a key. Date:1770

Source: LMA

Date:1831

Source: LMA 

Source: LMA

Source: Layers of London 

Source: Museum of London 

Corner of Old street/ City Road where the hospital was once situated. 

Source: Museum of London

Source:Layers of London 

Date:1929 babies born on Christmas Day 

Source: Layers of London 

Source: Museum of London

18th century midwifery certificate awarded to a Mary Burford of the City of London Lying-in Hospital. The certificate is dated 15th April 1779