Samuel Gurney (1786 - 1856) - Forest Gate's most influential resident

We have written, in passing, frequently about Samuel Gurney - who has probably been Forest Gate's most influential (both locally and nationally) resident. And here we touched on his literal and metaphorical monumental legacy.

This article presents a biography of the man, himself.

He was born on 18 October 1786 in Earlham Hall, Norfolk. The buildings - see photo - now constitute part of the University of East Anglia.

Earlham Hall - the family seat - today,
 as part of the University of East Anglia

The Gurney family can be traced back to the Norman Conquest, when ancestors were given areas of Norfolk as part of William 1's English control and pacification process.

The family had lived in Earlham Hall, as tenants, for over half a century before Samuel was born. Sixteen years before his birth, they established a local Norfolk bank - Gurney's.

As Quakers, the family were denied access to many of the traditional routes of the sons of the rich and famous - university, the army, some professions etc - but not banking. Like the Jewish community, many members were almost forced into the looked-down upon (by the upper class) fields of commerce and banking in order to make a living.

In 1800, aged 14, the young Gurney was placed in the counting house of his brother-in-law, Joseph Fry, in St Mildred's Court, Poultry in the City. Joseph was married to Samuel's older sister, Elizabeth - the prison reformer.  The "favour" by Joseph to Samuel was later returned - see later.

Samuel Gurney (1786 - 1856)

In 1807 Gurney joined the firm of Richardson and Overend, which, over the course of the next few years, became the most significant retail bank in England.

The following year, Samuel married Elizabeth, daughter of James Sheppard of Ham House (which was to become the family seat and provide the grounds 65 years later for West Ham Park - see here). Samuel inherited and moved in to the property on the death of his father-in-law (in the days before the Married Women's Property Act) in 1812.

Samuel and Elizabeth had two children by the time they took possession of Ham House and set about making alterations to it, that made it a Georgian house of distinction. At the time it had about a dozen live-in servants.

Ham House, pre- destruction

In 1809 he borrowed money from his father and father-in-law and bought into the bank in which he was working and had it re-branded as Overend, Gurney and Co.

During the financial crisis of 1825 his bank lent money to a number of other London banks in temporary financial difficulties. For the next 30 years it was to be the largest discounting house in the world. Thus, Gurney became known as 'the bankers' banker' and many firms began to deposit money with his institution in preference to the Bank of England.

Having impressively stamped his mark on the banking world, Gurney devoted much of the rest of his life to his two main passions - land acquisition and disposal in Forest Gate and a variety of (even today) impressively liberal philanthropic endeavours.

Philanthropy

Chronologically, the philanthropic endeavours came first. They are worthy of - and have been recorded in - many histories. For brevity's sake, the more significant of them were:

• Supporting, financially, his sister Elizabeth, the prison reformer and brother-in-law Joseph Fry - who had kick started his career. The Frys were hit in the financial crises of the mid 1820's and were forced to sell their grand house in Plashet - now host to Plashet Park and the borough's registration offices. Gurney rented them Cedar House, next to his own home of Ham House, in Portway. (This later became home to the Territorial Army - ironically for a property owned by pacifist Quakers).

Elizabeth Fry - reading to
prisoners in Newgate Prison

• Supported another brother-in-law, Edward Buxton and his father Fowell Buxton - in the anti-slavery movement. He attended the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840 - see picture (in National Portrait Gallery) - below, and was for a while chairman of the organisation.

Gurney, front row, far left at the 1840
 World Anti-Slavery Convention

• Played a significant part in helping to established the African state of Liberia, as a home for slaves freed from Europe and America. Such was his contribution to the establishment to the country, that he had a town named after him there.

• Was a staunch opponent of capital punishment; and was threatened with prosecution himself for refusing to prosecute a man who forged his signature, knowing that the result would be capital punishment for the offender.

• Was patron of two non-conformist British and Foreign Society Schools (see here for details) in Stratford: one for boys and another for girls. He left an annuity of £150 - c£15,000 today - for the future development of the two schools in his will. This passed to West Ham School Board, on its formation - and now rests with Newham Council.

•  Was the national treasurer for the non- conformist British and Foreign Schools Society from 1843, until his death in 1856. He left the Society £5,000 (c £500,000 today), on his death.

Samuel Gurney in 1840

• Although a Quaker, he was non-sectarian in his approach to education. So, he also supported Church of England schools. In 1853 he donated land on the corner of Woodgrange Road and Forest Street to build Emmanuel (later St Saviours) National School.

• Toured Ireland in 1849 and made many donations to those affected by the Potato HUnger of that decade.

• Established the Poplar Hospital for Accidents in 1853, to look after injured dock workers, in the first instant.

• In 1856, his will gifted £800 - c £78,000 today - for the "maintenance and winding up of clocks in public places" in Forest Gate, including one to be erected on Forest Gate Congregational Church. Since 1860 the income has been given to West Ham, now Newham, Council.

Local land acquisition and disposal

Having inherited the area of what is now West Ham Park from his father-in-law in 1812, Gurney was quiet on the local land acquisition front until his effective retirement from his successful banking career.

His transactions and their subsequent disposals, however, have shaped the area, making what is recognisably Forest Gate, today.

in 1851 he bought the 131 acres of Hamfrith Farm/estate for £17,710 - c £2,250,000, at today's prices - from the Greenhill estate. This was roughly the area between Romford Road and Wanstead Flats, to the east of Woodgrange Road, as far as Station Road, Manor Park.

Two years later he bought the 200 acres of the Woodgrange farm - most of the Forest Gate area to the west of Woodgrange Road.

He also acquired about 250 acres in what was then Little Ilford (now Manor Park) and acquired the Lordship of the manors of Woodgrange and Hamfrith.

He promptly resold much of the land he had acquired, to become the West Ham and Jewish cemeteries, as well as the Industrial School on Forest Lane (see here and here, for details).

Ever the astute businessman, he clearly saw the development opportunities with the arrival of the railways into Forest Gate (see here); and in the short period  remaining in his life, began to package some of the land up, with a view to housing development resale.

So, from 1855, development started on the Gurney and Dames estates - to the west and north of Forest Gate station (see here, for details).

He died on 5 June 1856 and was buried in the Friends' burial grounds in Barking. He was survived by 9 children and 40 grandchildren. His oldest son died soon after and the estate subsequently transferred to his grandson, John.

Within 10 years, however, the bank that Samuel Gurney established and built became mired in severe financial difficulties, by diversifying into greedy, risky projects (sound familiar?) and faced bankruptcy. Many shareholders, including members of the Gurney family, lost fortunes and faced financial ruin.

It was this crash that spurred the rapid building boom in Forest Gate, as grandson John disposed of land and property in order to stabilise family finances.

Most notable among the disposals was the sale of the family home, in 1872, to become West Ham Park (see here), for a knocked down price of £15,000 - c £1.5 million, today.

The grounds of Ham House, before being
 turned into West Ham Park, in 1874

Also, in 1872, he sold most of the north side of what had been the Hamfrith estate to the British Land Company, which, in turn sold some to the Manor Park Cemetery Company (see here) and enabled the development of much of which in estate agents-speak is now known as "The Forest Gate Village".

Thomas Corbett acquired much of the south side of the Hamfrith estate and developed it into what is now the Woodgrange estate, between 1877 and 1892 (see here).

The period 1870 - 1890 saw the development of the western end of Forest Gate, from lands that had been part of the Gurney estate. This lead to the construction of Hamfrith, Atherton, Sprowston (see here), Norwich and Clova Roads,. as well as Earlham Grove (see here).

So, Quaker, banker, philanthropist, land-owner, Samuel Gurney stands as the man whose property dealings lay the foundations of Forest Gate, as we know it today.

He is most visibly remembered locally not in Forest Gate, but by the obelisk and drinking fountain in the grounds of St John's church, in Stratford. It is interesting that there should be a monument to a Quaker in the grounds of a prominent CofE church - but such was the regard in which he was held locally.

An 1861 drawing of the Gurney
memorial, soon after its erection

The monument is 40 feet high and made of granite. It was unveiled in 1861, having been designed by Gurney's fellow Norfolk-man, John Bell.

The inscription reads:

In remembrance of Samuel Gurney, who died on 5th of June 1856. Erected by his fellow parishioners and Friends (Quakers) 1861.

When the ear heard him, then it blessed him.

 (ed: this is a paraphrase from the Book of Job) 

One final point. Although the bank that Gurney turned into such a success bombed a decade after his death, its entrails survive as part of what is now Barclays Bank. If only he had been around in 2008 to offer them his counsel, prior to the banking crash of 2008.

A nod at our neighbours (2): Manor Park pt 1

This is the second in an occasional series of articles taking a quick peep at the history of a neighbouring area. This time our friends to the north east: Manor Park: from the Domesday Book until the latter part of the nineteenth century.

What we now know as Manor Park was, until the late nineteenth century, called Little Ilford (the small crossing over the River Hile - former name of the Roding) - as indeed the eastern part of it still is.

The area gained its modern name to describe the growing suburb being constructed around Manor Park railway station. This, itself, took its name from the home of the Lord of the Manor of West Ham, just round the corner, in what is now Gladding Road. 

Nineteenth century railway builders were a bit like modern estate agents in trying to brand areas with upmarket names; so, locally we have Manor Park, Upton Park, Woodgrange Park and Wanstead Park stations - all some distance from anything we would recognise as a formal park!.

Little Ilford was identified in the Domesday Book (1086), following the Norman Conquest, as part of Ham(me) - a low-lying pasture. It had a population of only 10. It was simply a hamlet at this time, and barely grew in population for the next 400 years.

It is thought that an alehouse has stood on the site of the former Three Rabbits pub, on the corner of Rabbits Road since the 1630's - probably taking its name from a rabbit warren on the old Aldersbrook estate (hence Warren Avenue). The pub was said to have been used by dealers trading at the annual cattle fairs on what is now Wanstead Flats, until the nineteenth century. It was situated, of course, on the old Roman - Colchester, now Romford, Road.

To the left, an early 20th century
 image of Three Rabbits pub. To
 the right the former Manor Park library,
 now re-opened as an arts centre.

Boots the Chemist, on the corner of Rabbits
 and Romford Roads, on site of former
 Three Rabbits pub, location of an
 alehouse for almost 500 years

The Three Rabbits lasted until the early years of this century, as a large music pub (ex-Tremeloes front man, Brain Poole was a regular, for a while), when it was refurbed into a Boots the chemist, with flats above - see photo.

Chapman and Andre's map (see below) of 1777 shows that the parish of Little Ilford, then, consisted of the parish church, Manor Farm, a few cottages, the Three Rabbits and the Aldersbrook estate.  Its small size was confirmed by the 1801 census, suggesting it had a population of just 100.

Chapman and Andre's 1777 map,
 showing the hamlet of Little Ilford

The Manor House that was built between 1810 and 1827 was the seat of the Manor of West Ham. It replaced a former house, of which there are few extant details. The nineteenth century dwelling, and the surrounding land, was purchased by the Eastern Counties Railway in 1839, when the London to Romford line was being constructed, to accommodate its route, for £10,000.

The Manor House,and splendid
 grounds, in better days

The house, itself, however, was not directly affected by the railway line and was leased to William Storrs Fry - son of Elizabeth, the prison reformer, who lived nearby, firstly in what is now East Ham's Plashet Park and then later behind what is now West Ham Park. 

The Manor House, and much of the land, remained leased to the family until 1866, when it was sold to the Victoria Land Company, from when it was to have a fascinating history.

Meanwhile, other developments were happening apace in what was still Little Ilford. Between 1829 and 1831 a jail was built in the area: The Little Ilford House of Correction (around what are now Gloucester and Worcester Roads), at a cost of £30,000.

Unfortunately no photographs of the prison survive, but when it was demolished in 1878, some of its rubble was used in the construction of houses in the aforementioned roads.

It was a brick building, designed for 100 inmates, who were expected to spend their time in silence, while incarcerated. It consisted of 60 cells, with eight day wards, 10 exercise yards and a treadmill, for the exhausting "hard labour" sentences.

Life there was grim. Existing records, still within the Essex Records Office, show a lack of adequate water supply, poor ventilation and diseases like scurvy, associated with poor diet. It is not known whether Elizabeth Fry ever visited, or was influenced by conditions there, but within a year of its opening she was giving evidence to a House of Commons Committee on poor prison conditions.

Print of prison reformer, Elizabeth
 Fry, reading to prisoners

Largely as a result of the existence of this penal institution, Little Ilford's population began to expand. By 1848 it stood at 189, which figure, in turn, had more doubled by the census, three years later. 

The growth came from a combination of the development of the jail and incoming Irish immigrants, fleeing the famine in the late 1840's, for cheap accommodation on the outskirts of London (see reference to Irish Row, in our recent blog about Ebor cottages - here).

We have written previously about the development of much of our local area as cemeteries in the second half of the nineteenth century (see here). Manor Park was at the forefront of this development. 

In 1854 the Corporation of the City of London bought over 112 acres of land from the Manor of Aldersbrook -  part of Little Ilford - for £200,000 for the construction of the City of London cemetery. It opened two years later, to accommodate up to 6,000 burials per year.

City of London Cemetery,
 Manor Park, c 1850

Within twenty years, another 50 acres parcel of the land was bought in the area, this time from the former Hamfrith farm's new owner, Samuel Gurney - a relative of the Frys - for the construction of the Manor Park Cemetery. This is a privately owned cemetery (for details see cemeteries articles referred to above) and was opened in 1874, with its original chapel opened two years later. Its success would have been confirmed by the opening of Manor Park station in 1872 (see next post).

Between these two cemetery developments in the area, the Catholic church purchased the Manor House, itself, and seven surrounding acres in 1866 and established St Nicholas Industrial School. We pick up the Manor Park story, next week with the school's story.

They lie amongst us - part 2

In what sounds like the opening line of a rather off-colour joke, there is a Jewish cemetery, predominantly Muslim cemetery, a public sector and a private sector cemetery all within Forest Gate.

In June we published the first of a two part look at Forest Gate's local cemeteries, and their occupants, featuring the largest - The City of London Cemetery.  In part 2 we look at the other, smaller, four of them.

As we have previously indicated, Forest Gate became a growth area for cemeteries in the middle of the nineteenth century, as inner London burial grounds became overcrowded and couldn't cope with the metropolis' rapidly expanding population and when public health concerns lead the government, and others, to look to provide burial grounds away from heavily populated areas.

Cheap, available land and recently developed good and fast rail links to inner London made Forest Gate an obvious location for the capital's dead.

The array of what was built and later developed in our area is fascinating.

West Ham Cemetery, Cemetery Road

This is the area's third oldest cemetery, having been established in 1857, the year after the City of London's inauguration (see June).
 
A West Ham Burial Board was established, as a result of the 1850's Burial Acts to secure a plot for a local publicly owned burial ground. It proved difficult for the Board to obtain enough land at a suitable price, but they eventually succeed in persuading Samuel Gurney, of the Quaker family - related to the Frys,  to sell them 12 acres, in 1857.  

This was extended to 20 acres in 1871.

West Ham Cemetery, Cemetery Road

There are three sections to the cemetery, covering  consecrated, unconsecrated and Muslim areas. A small low brick wall separates this burial ground from the West Ham Jewish Cemetery- see below.

It is a rather undistinguished cemetery, with few distinctive features or monuments, or very notable people interred.  It does, however, provide a last resting place for the bodies of five disaster victims.  They were:

George and Catherine Bennett. They were two of the 550 people who drowned when the pleasure steamer The Princess Alice sank, following a collision, on the Thames, in 1878.  


Part of the hull of the Princess Alice,
 after its 1878 sinking - scene of death
 of George and Catherine Bennett

Frederick Sells and Henry Vickers. They were two of the firemen killed in the Silvertown munitions factory explosion, which killed 69 people and injured 390 others in 1917.  A procession a quarter of a mile long followed their hearses to their funerals.

Albert Wardale was drowned in the Egypt, which sank in 1922, with the loss of 96 lives and over £1,000,000 gold and silver bars.

There are 214 war graves, from both World Wars, and various war memorials in the cemetery.

Manor Park Cemetery, in Sebert Road

 

This is a privately-owned cemetery, and unlike many other similar burial grounds, is well maintained by the owners/management company - which has run it since its original construction 140 years ago.

It occupies 50 acres and was established in 1874. The chapel was built in 1877, but was hit by a bomb in 1944; so it was rebuilt in 1955, when a crematorium was added to its east side. It is very much a locals' cemetery. It  counts a Victoria Cross holder, a royal nanny and a Ripper victim among its occupants.

They are:
John Travers (Jack)Cornwell (1900 - 1916). Manor Park resident Cornwell is the cemetery's most famous occupant.  He is the country's third youngest Victoria Cross holder, which was awarded posthumously to him, for his bravery as a 16-year old at the Battle of Jutland. The epitaph on his headstone reads "It is not wealth or ancestry but honourable conduct and a noble disposition that maketh men great".

Jack Cornwell VC - 1900 - 1916,
 Manor Park cemetery's most
 celebrated occupant

The gundeck on which Cornwell
 perished, at the Battle of Jutland

 

Annie Chapman (1841 - 1888). She was the second victim of Jack the Ripper. Although murdered in Whitechapel the police and her family wanted a private no-fuss funeral, so chose the Manor Park Cemetery, some distance from her residence, the scene of the crime and the mortuary in which she had been kept. She was buried in an unmarked public grave, the site of which, apparently, has subsequently been reused for another burial.


Annie Chapman, 1841 - 1888,
 Jack the Ripper's second victim

Newspaper 'Wanted' notice,
 following Chapman's death, 1888

Mary Orchard (1830 - 1906). Orchard served as Princess Alice's (the person, not the ship!) children for forty years. Princess Alice was Queen Victoria's third child, and an unlikely supporter of women's rights. Orchard's monument was erected "in grateful memory by Victoria, Princess Louis of Battenberg, Elizabeth, Grand Duchess Sergius of Russia, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and Alix, Empress of Russia". 
It is not recorded whether their devotion to Orchard stretched to attendance at her funeral.

Princess Alice, the person
 - Mary Orchard's employer

 

Woodgrange Park Cemetery, Romford Road

 

In contrast to Manor Park cemetery, this is a privately owned burial ground (owned by Badgehurst Ltd of Grays, Essex) which suffers much neglect and is in a sorry state. It is tucked away behind a Tesco convenience store and service station.

It was founded in 1890 and covers 28 acres. It has certainly seen better days and is a mass of undergrowth, bordered on one side by the chimney pot railway line.  It's gothic chapel, suffering from broken windows and in a general uncared-for appearance, was demolished in 2006.


The chapel at Woodgrange Park 
cemetery, demolished in 2006

The burial ground is the only one in the country to have an Act of Parliament devoted to it - the Woodgrange Park Cemetery Act 1993, achieved by the exertions of the Friends of Woodgrange Park Cemetery (www.fowpc.co.uk).
 
Their efforts were directed towards preventing Badgehurst from selling the land off for development; although largely successful, the Friends, however, have had to witness a section of the land being sold off for housing, with the 14,000 interred being moved elsewhere within the cemetery.

It has subsequently, effectively, become a Muslim cemetery, but remains in an untidy and scruffy state of repair.

There are a total of 287 World War 1 and 101 WW11 burials in the cemetery and an impressive war memorial, the details of which are meticulously detailed on the Friends excellent, though slightly dated, website.

There are no exceptional tombs. Its most notorious occupants are the five Iranian terrorists who were shot during the siege of the Iranian embassy in 1980.  They are buried in unmarked graves.

Its most distinguished internee is probably Frederick Charrington (1850 - 1936).  Charrington was a member of the well known family of brewers but became known as 'The Great Temperance Advocate" for his  vigorous promotion of abstinence.

 

Frederick Charrington (1850 - 1936),
 'The Great Temperance Advocate',
 born into a well-known brewing family

 

 

 

West Ham Jewish Cemetery, Buckingham Road

 

Although technically in Stratford, this cemetery adjoins, and has often been confused with, the West Ham cemetery, above. It was established in 1856, in the same year as Forest Gate's  first cemetery - the City of London (see previous article).                     

General view of the now partially
 closed West Ham Jewish cemetery

 

With the rapid decline of the local Jewish community, to which we will return at a later date, the cemetery has effectively been closed since 2002, although permission to visit can be obtained via the appropriate Jewish authorities.

Over 40,000 people have been interred here, and it hosts the graves removed when the Hoxton cemetery was redeveloped, in 1960.

The most prominent feature of the cemetery is the Rothschild's mausoleum, erected for Evelina Rothschild, who died in childbirth in 1866, by her husband Frederick.  The pre-eminent architectural critic Nicolas Pevsner describes this building as a "noble and notable exception" to the otherwise undistinguished structures in the cemetery, which he explains is "a domed building on a circular plan with Baroquizing Renaissance details, by Sir Digby Wyatt. The deceased's initials are cleverly entwined."

Evelina Rothschild's mausoleum,
 West Ham Jewish cemetery

There are five Commonwealth War Graves located within the cemetery (four from the first and one from the second World War).

In 2005 a number of monuments were destroyed and 87 graves were desecrated in what police described as an attack by anti-Semitic vandals.  The doors of the mausoleum were ripped off by iron bars and swastikas were daubed on some tombstones and cemetery walls.

With acknowledgements to London Cemeteries by Hugh Mellor, the Friends of Woodgrange Park Cemetery and Find A Grave   for the information in this article.

They lie among us

 Forest Gate is, of course, surrounded and populated by cemeteries.  In the first of two pieces on the subject, we look at the City of London Cemetery - which although not in E7, dominates our borders - and some of its more famous occupants.

Four cemeteries were built in our area between 1856 (The City of London one) and 1890 (Woodgrange Park, on Romford Road). They sprung up in response to the rapid growth of London in the middle of the nineteenth century and the resultant chronic overcrowding of the old city church graveyards.  Added to this were public health concerns and legislation about disease being spread by putrefying bodies in the over-crowded city.

Forest Gate was an ideal location.  The area was developing rapidly, itself, because of the growth of railways and its proximity to the city.  Added to this, land was relatively cheap here and of course the Romford Road was one of the major highways out of London, having been the route of the Roman London to Colchester Road.

The Victorian buildings in the cemetery are still in good condition, in what is the second largest London cemetery, after St Pancras and Islington. (see photo).  The mastermind behind the cemetery was William Haywood, who earlier in his career had worked with the famous Joseph Bazlegette on the impressive Abbey House Pumping Station. His ashes lie in a Gothic mausoleum near the gates of the cemetery.
 

City of London Cemetery

The Corporation of London paid £31,000 for 200 acres of farmland near Epping Forest from Lord Wellesley in 1853 and began construction immediately.  They spent £45,000 on constructing the fine graveyard - £20,000 over budget, because of the splendid buildings, iron furniture and imaginative layout. They had planned on building a railway station to serve the cemetery, but couldn't find co-funders and had, in any case run out of money.

The first burial took place in 1856 and over half a million have taken place since. One of the major early tasks was to accommodate the re internment of bodies from 22 City churches, which had either been demolished or suffered from serious overcrowding.  A full list of these can be found in the splendid book London Cemeteries by Hugh Mellor, upon which some of this article relies.

Some of the noteworthy grave transfers include the communal plague pits, re interred remains from Christ's Hospital burial ground, Newgate Street, redeveloped by the Post Office in 1903 and the remains of Newgate prison burial ground, demolished in 1900 to make way for the Old Bailey.

Among the more striking constructions within the cemetery are the Haywood's monument, covering the re interred remains from Holborn churchyard, placed there in 1871.and the memorial to musician and music teacher Gladys Spencer (1931), with the figure draped over a piano.


Haywood's monument, over re interred remains from Holborn churchyard



Memorial to Gladys Spencer (1931)

The cemetery's more celebrated occupants include:
Lieutenant George Drewry VC (1894 - 1918).  George was very much a local boy, having been born at 58 Claremont Road, the son of Thomas and Mary.  He attended Merchant Taylors' School in the City of London. He was 20 years old and serving as a midshipman in the Royal Navy on HMS Hussar when he won his Victoria Cross, during the Gallipoli Landings on 25 April 1915.


George Drewry VC (1894 - 1918)

The citation in the London Gazette on 16 August 1915 reads: "Midshipman Drewry assisted Commander Unwin in the work of securing the barges under heavy rifle and maxim fire. He was wounded in the head, but continued his work and twice subsequently attempted to swim from barge to barge with a line. The King has been graciously pleased to approve of the grant of Victoria Cross to Midshipman Drewry, RNR for conspicuous acts of bravery mentioned in the foregoing despatch."


George Drewry's grave

Drewery later achieved the rank of Lieutenant, but on 2 August 1918 was accidentally killed while on active service on HM Trawler William Jackson, at Scapa Flow. A block fell from a derrick and fractured his skull. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Imperial war Museum.

Elizabeth Everest (d. 1895) had been Winston Churchill's nanny,who contributed to the construct of her monument. Churchill's parents hired her to care for the young Winston, who called her "Woomany" (!).
 
He was later to say: "My nurse was my confidante. Mrs Everest it was who looked after me and tended all my wants.  It was to her that I poured out all my troubles. She was his constant companion in childhood and they wrote to each other regularly while he was at school.


Elizabeth Everest d 1895

When Churchill learnt that Mrs. Everest was gravely ill he rushed to her beside. He was the only member of his family to attend to her, and upon her death provided the tombstone for her grave. "She had been my dearest and most intimate friend during the whole twenty years I had lived.I shall never know such a friend again."

His son, Randolph, wrote in the first volume of the biography of his father, "For many years afterwards he paid an annual sum to the local florist for the upkeep of the grave."


Elizabeth Everest's grave

Percy Thompson (1890 - 1922) the husband of Edith Thompson, who with her lover, Frederick Bywaters was hanged for his murder, in a case that became a cause celebre.  The Thompsons were married at St Barnabas Church, Manor Park in 1916.  Edith became infatuated with Bywaters, a younger man, who soon moved in with the couple, and an affair commenced.
 
Following a violent confrontation between Percy Thompson and Bywaters over the affair, Bywaters was thrown out of the home and returned to sea, as a sailor, during which time he continued a "love letter" correspondence with Edith.
On Bywaters' return from sea, Percy Thomson was stabbed to death.  Edith told the police that she felt Bywaters was the culprit and confided the details of their affair to them. Like Bywaters, she was arrested for the murder, but the only evidence against her was the love letters, which were offered as circumstantial evidence of her guilt.

Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters

The trial took place at the Old Bailey and Bywaters, while admitting his guilt pleaded the innocence on Edith. Ignoring her barrister's advice Edith gave evidence, where she proved to be an unreliable witness and was exposed for providing a tissue of lies. The couple were both found guilty and were sentenced to be hanged.

A million people signed a petition against her death sentence and she became the first woman to be executed in Britain since 1907, on 9 January 1923 in Holloway.  The pair were executed simultaneously - he at Pentonville.  Their bodies were buried in the respective prison cemeteries.

Press cutting announcing hanging of Edith Thompson

Thompson's executioner, John Ellis, later committed suicide, having claimed that Edith's execution had preyed on his mind and caused him to be depressed. Edith Thompson was one of only 17 women to have been judicially hanged in Britain.

Sgts Charles Tucker, Robert Bentley and PC Choate(all d. 1910). All three were shot dead by alleged Russian anarchists attempting a jewel robbery, in what became known as the Houndsditch Murders, in Aldgate, on 16 December 1910.  Two of the perpetrators were later cornered and died in the infamous siege Sidney Street, when Home Secretary, Winston Churchill was photographed leading the police raid on the house where they were holed up. 

Memorial cards to Tucker, Bentley and Choate



PC Choate

The Houndsditch murders, and woundings of other shot policemen,  provoked national outrage and prompted a message from the King to the widows, reading: "The King has heard with the greatest concern of the murder of three constables belonging to the city Police, and he requests you to express to their widows and families his sincere sympathy and his assurance that he feels most deeply for them in their sorrow..."


Sgt Bentley


Sgt Tucker

The killed policemen were accorded a near "state" funeral,  as illustrated by the photograph, below, of the cortege leaving St Paul's Cathedral.


"State" funeral of murdered policemen at St Paul's

Sir Herbert Wilcox (1892 - 1977) and Anna Neagle (1904 - 1986) Wilcox was a film producer, several of whose most successful films starred his wife, Anna Neagle. She was born Florence Marjorie Robertson on 20 October 1904 in Glenparke Road, Forest Gate.  Her family later moved to Upton Lane.  She attended Park Primary school.  She became one of the biggest and brightest "film stars" of her day.


Anna Neagle - 1904 - 1986

Anna was a distant cousin of the Queen, via her descent from the illegitimate daughter of Queen Victoria's uncle. She lived in Brighton for many years with her film director husband, Herbert Wilcox.  She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1969.  She died in Surrey in 1986 after a long illness and is buried in the dame grave as her husband and parents in the City of London cemetery.

We will return to  more detailed accounts of the lives of some of the people in this feature in a later postings on E7-NowAndThen.