A survivor's tale - 1941 bombing of the Princess Alice

One of the delights of running this website is that sometimes articles can prompt replies and memories that can add colour and flavour to our understanding of the past.

One such correspondence was provoked by our article on the history of the Princess Alice (see here for details). Reader, John Muskett was in the pub the night of the bombing. We are posting this article on the 77th anniversary of the bomb - 20 April 1941.

This is his story:

I was guided to your web site and was sad to hear that The Princess Alice is no more. 

I was actually in the Princess Alice at the time of the bombing and wanted to show my eldest son something about it.

Princess Alice pub in the 1930's - pre bombing

The Landlord at that time was Mr Albert Smith. His wife, Violet, was my mother's sister. I lived with my maternal grandparents, - as my mother had died a year or so before.  Another aunt lived with us, but our house had been bombed and we were, homeless at that time. We lived, temporarily in the pub for a while, until we were rehoused.

John Muskett - whose memories are retold
 here, at about the time of the bombing in 1941

The cellars of the Princess Alice were very extensive, at least they were as far as a 5 1/2 year old was concerned. One of them rather resembled a hospital ward, being surrounded by beds. My aunt and uncle giving any passing serviceman without somewhere to go, a bed for the night.  I was down there we were when the bombing happened. 

Bomb site, where the pub
once stood - after April 1941

The Head Barman also lived in the pub and had been in the cinema - see photo of bombed Queen's cinema, below - on which the bomb actually dropped, the fall-out from the explosion hit mainly the front of the Alice - opposite.

Queen's Cinema, Romford Road, in the 1930's,
 opposite the Princess Alice and between
 Barclays Bank and what was the Odeon
 Cinema and is now the Minaj-ul-Quran mosque

I remember the head barman being asked how many people he thought may have been in there, by a fireman leaning on a felling axe. 

That was something that must have impressed itself on me as I cannot think why my memory of that particular incident should be so clear after all these years. 

I also remember the next morning when we had to pick our way over all the bricks and rubble to get out and I picked up the top of a soda syphon which I had for a great many years afterwards.

Queen's Cinema, completely destroyed by a
parachute mine on the day the Alice was struck
by what John says was collateral damage.

The death of the man you mentioned (ed: killed while out walking his dog) has always served to remind me just how simple decisions and luck can make a difference to life and death.

He was the dentist who lived next door and came in to us for shelter when there was an air raid (ed: according to the West Ham register of the WW2 civilian dead register, this looks like it would have been Herbert Emile Kaye, aged about 60 of 1 Woodgrange Road). On the night of the bomb, he chose to come just when the bomb exploded, and he was still in the street when he was hit. 

The Sunday Express describing the dramatic
 night of bombing that saw the end of
 the Queen's cinema and destruction of the
 Alice, April 1941

I was told that he was blown through the flaps in the pavement where the beer would have been lowered into the cellar, and was found in the cellar next to the one we were in. How true that was I cannot say. 

 Some years later - I think maybe in the 70's or 80's - there was a report in one of the evening papers that the ghost of the dentist had been seen in the Princess Alice. When I told my aunt, she said he was looking for her, as she had paid a deposit for some new dentures and never had either the dentures or her deposit returned!

There is just one question I would like to ask you if I may.  I know I went to school while I was there, although not for any great time. It was a small school, in possibly a couple of houses in one of the streets close to the pub.

It was certainly within walking distance and run by nuns. Quite why I went there I do not know, as we were not Catholics.  I assume that it is no longer there but would appreciate it if you could confirm that for me.

 (Ed: I'm afraid we cannot help you with an answer to your question, John. It sounds as if the sisters may have been some that stayed in Forest Gate after St Angela's school evacuated to Norfolk.  John seems to think the school may have been in the Earlham Grove/Norwich Road area. Perhaps one of our readers can assist, and post a comment, below?).

I still have a small card inscribed, To dear little John from the Sisters.

 The card from the Sisters to John - 1941

 As you will no doubt have realised,  I am now in my eighties and, like so many older people, I so often think back to the times past. I find myself constantly surprised by the trivial little memories that come to mind. 

I was probably only living at the Princess Alice for about 4 or 5 months and yet one of the things that made a great impression on my mind was a visit to Wanstead Flats where I saw the Fire Brigade practising. I saw the rainbow in the jet from their hose and how it disappeared into the ground when the water was shut off! Why should that have made such an impression?

Prior to being bombed out and going to live at the Princess Alice we went there to see the wonderful new thing called television.  The room was duly darkened and the television set switched on but, to everyone's disappointment, nothing came on. 

Uncle Bert, who was not renowned for his patience, fiddled with all sorts of knobs at the back in vain and finally all attempts were given up.  Later, when the evening papers were delivered, it was discovered that all television broadcasts were discontinued for the duration of the war! The television, having been salvaged from the Princess Alice, was, strangely enough, the set on which I eventually saw my first ever television show when broadcasts began after the war.

I hope that the ramblings of an old man have been of some interest to you and remain,

 Yours faithfully,

John Muskett.

Forest Gate-born Bryan Forbes recalls his local origins

One of Britain's cinematic greats, Bryan Forbes, was born and brought up in Forest Gate, as this site recalled, when it marked his death in 2013 (see here).

He first hit the entertainment headlines as question master for BBC's Junior Brains Trust in the 1950's, was later head of production at EMI, and founder of a film production company, Beaver Films.

It was however, his role as actor in and writer and director of such films as The League of Gentleman, The Railway Children, Whistle Down The Wind, The Stepford Wives and the L-Shaped Room, that he is best remembered.

This article provides a potted biography of him and in particular of his roots in Forest Gate. It relies heavily on his first autobiography: Notes For a Life and his Wikipedia entry (see footnotes for details). He used his autobiography as an aide-memoire to pen an article for the short-lived Forest Gate Times in 2011, which is also quoted, below.

Bryan Forbes' first autobiography,
 upon which much of this
article is based

He was born, John Theobald Clarke on 22 July 1926: "in the sullen aftermath of the General Strike", as he recalled in his autobiography. He had a sister six years his senior and the family lived at 43 Cranmer Road - "destined to be destroyed in the early days of the Blitz" - he told the Forest Gate Times. 

43 Cranmer Road, today. Forbes
 told the Forest Gate Times that it
 was "destined to be destroyed
 during the Blitz". Hmm ...

His stage name, Bryan Forbes, was chosen at random by the man who gave him his first professional job, as Equity rules at the time required that he could not perform under his birth name, as another actor was already registered under it.

He went to Godwin Elementary School, as it was then called, and later recollected. "That establishment was approached through a long corrugated iron covered way which held more dread than all the tombstones in Wanstead Cemetery (ed: he probably meant Manor Park Cemetery)." 

Godwin school - Forbes' first

After winning a scholarship, he went to the old West Ham Secondary in Tennyson Road, Stratford.

His grandparents lived in Odessa Road, where he went once a week for family tea. Writing of the street and house in the 1930's, he said in Notes for a Life:

This was a dismal thoroughfare, bordering at one end on the London and North Eastern Railway, which ran, below street level behind a blackened wall, topped with jagged bottle glass. ... Pollution being then undiscovered, the belching tank engines were merely an accepted fact of life, menacing every wash-line and delighting only small boys - for to remain fearless on the wooden pedestrian bridge while a train shuddered beneath it was a considered a supreme test. One of the punishments meted out to the bullied (of which he was one) was for the victim's face to be pushed between the wooden floor slats of the bridge while a slow goods train passed jerking and clanging below. Apart from the terror produced by the noise, the sufferer was choked by thick yellow smoke which took minutes to disperse.

He later told the Forest Gate Times, that his grandparents' house was:

A humble house, sandwiched between two other identical houses with front gardens just big enough to take a pram lengthways, separated from the road by a privet hedge, the stems cankered by years of vintage dog pee, the leaves sooted and crisped to the texture of dried holly.

Writing of his own, Forest Gate home during childhood, he said: 

The gentle flow of life in Cranmer Road were seldom disturbed. It was a peaceful neighbourhood with pretensions to what used to be called the 'genteel' : neat, undistinguished but solidly built rows of terraced houses, carefully painted every year on the outside, and the women used to hand striped canvas sun-blinds during the summer months to protect the front doors.

Of Forest Gate, in the 1930's, he wrote:

Forest Gate was a pleasant place to live in those days. Originally a hamlet lying to the north of Upton at the edge of Wanstead Flats, it was as its name denotes, the southern entrance to Epping Forest.

He had this to say about Wanstead Flats:

Cranmer Road bordered on the Flats, the savannah of my formative years which I was forbidden to explore beyond a certain limit and which, in consequence, appeared to me to be as mysterious and boundless as the entire continent.

In reality it was a large area of sparse grassland dotted with irregular plantations of thin trees and some sand hills humped around what I assume must have been a derelict gravel pit.

 It had a pathetic boating lake, like something out of Toy Town, with half a dozen rotting paddle boats for hire, and a small bandstand where, some Sunday evenings, we were taken to hear the music, sitting on hard slatted seats and surrounded by discarded peanut shells. I thought it was one of the most romantic places on earth.

Bandstand on the Flats, a few years
 before Forbes was taken to hear
 music on Sunday evenings

 Running parallel to Cranmer Road", he noted:

were four other roads named after the martyred bishops - Latimer, Lorne, Tylney and Ridley. They were considerably posher than my own, and Lorne was the poshest of the lot.

My dallion days on Wanstead Flats were for the most part totally uncomplicated: it was football in the mud during winter and cricket until the light faded in the summer.

Bryan Forbes had his first - unwanted - sexual encounter on Wanstead Flats, when he was approached by a flasher, who offered him 6 pence if he co-operated. Forbes ran off, cutting his thumb on a broken bottle as he stumbled and later recalled:

The gentleman in the raincoat proved to be an escaped lunatic (it would appear that Forest Gate had more than its fair quota in those days) and apparently, was swiftly apprehended.

The episode was completely erased from my mind until 1969 when I went back to Cranmer Road with a BBC camera team who were shooting a biographical Man Alive programme around me and visiting my childhood haunts to capture celluloid nostalgia. 

Bryan Forbes on a return visit to
 Forest Gate, in the 1950's

I stood again on Wanstead Flats, the limitless vista now reduced to its true scale, shivering in the winter dusk while hoards of turbinated immigrants played hockey in the Giant's Basin - not the canyon I had remembered, but just a slight dip in the arid terrain. It was only then that the memory of the naked man returned, though the physical scar has always whitened the skin beneath my left thumb.

Bryan Forbes recalled fascism in Forest Gate, during the 1930's

Mosley came to Wanstead Flats some Sunday evenings. He came in a sealed truck with a wire cage set into the roof. Surrounded by a black garland of close-cropped, scrubbed and wax-like body guards, he stood within his cage and screeched his British upper-class impersonation of Streicher to an audience that mostly consisted of children, derelicts and policemen.

Oswald Mosley, a visitor to Wanstead
Flats in the '30's - caged in his white van

I remember listening without comprehension (ed: Forbes would have been about 10 at the time). It was merely a strange, but not unwelcome diversion from the sameness of everyday life. I can remember seeing bottles breaking on the white cage close to the thin drawn face of Mosley and hearing his lunatic-amplified voice bouncing back from the houses behind him.

Mounted police waited in the shadows beside the empty bandstand, edging their restless horses forward as the bully boys started on the really important business of the evening. Mosley looked like Mighty Mouse in his mobile cage and departed the scene as battle commenced to spread his gospel to another corner of a foreign field.

His early encounters with the cinema were in Forest Gate

Most of my contemporaries patronised the 'Tuppenny Rush' at the Splendid, alongside Forest Gate railway station. (His Forest Gate Times article embelished this a little: I also haunted the old second hand bookshop close to the cinema. I have no idea how the old bookseller kept his head above water, because he operated on a barter system.) There on a Saturday afternoon, we would rush the doors to tread the threadbare carpets inside that dark and welcoming cave. For three pence you could join the ranks of the elite and sit upstairs in the balcony, a privilege which carried with it the bonus of being able to hurl your ice cream carton on the unruly audience below.

The Splendid cinema - Bryan Forbes'
introduction to his later, illustrious, career

To this day I can recall the agonising delight of those afternoons, the bliss of coming out of the darkness into sunlight and crossing the road to Paterson's (sic) Dolls' Hospital on the bridge, to spend what remained of our pocket-money on a penny bomb. This was a small, but effective device, made of some cheap alloy and shaped like a hand grenade.... There was a satisfying explosion when it fell to earth.

Pattinson's Doll's Hospital, mentioned
 by Bryan Forbes, above - facing Forest
 Gate train station. Note correct spelling

The simplest and most effective ploy at the poor old broken-down Splendid was to raise money to buy one ticket. Once inside, the owner of the ticket would then work his way to the remotest exit, carefully open the door, where his partners in crime would be waiting outside. 

They would dart in like rats and occupy the nearest vacant seats., The aged usherettes were too bored and poorly paid to give chase, but from time to time a new manager (pathetically attired in some second-hand dress suit) would brush the dandruff off his collar and attempt a purge.

But if the Splendid was my village church, the Queen's at the top of Woodgrange Road was my Westminster Abbey. This superior palace, glorifying the Cunnard liner of British cinema architecture, demanded greater respect and the collection started at six pence. It was there on Friday nights, that blissful childhood day of the week, when school can be pushed to the back of your mind, that I became addicted.

The Queen's cinema, Romford Road -
bombed during WW11 - Forbes' "Westminster Abbey"

 His main local enthusiasm, apart from the cinema, seems to have been his membership of the St John's Ambulance cadet force. He wrote:

I joined the St John's Ambulance Cadet Force, since the uniform had more attraction to me than the Boy Scouts. Albert Herbert accompanied me to a series of lectures at Barclay Hall, Green Street ...

On other occasions I did duty with my father at Upton Park. Football crowds seemed just as violent then and I always considered myself lucky to be on the touchline with the police.

An abiding, and unfond, memory of the area, was the railway:

Trains from Forest Gate were appallingly dirty, the third class being little better than upholstered cattle trucks, and it was quite normal to have eight people standing in bleak proximity in each crammed compartment.

His last local connections

He was evacuated for the first time in 1939, but his parents soon brought him home:

It was now, when the war seemed suddenly much closer, that my parents decided I should return to London. I thus went back to Cranmer Road just as the Battle of Britain was beginning, a piece of timing which perhaps perfectly illustrates the most baffling piece of our national character.

My second exodus from London took place in September in September 1940. This time I travelled with the bulk of West Ham Secondary School to Heston in Cornwall.

Bryan Forbes went on to describe life in Cranmer Road during the Blitz. We will draw on these writings in our next article, which will be looking at how three writers described Forest Gate during that period.

And so ended his local association.

Post Forest Gate life

Nanette Newman, Bryan Forbes's
 second wife, who survived him

Bryan Forbes went to Hornchurch Grammar school, after his family left Forest Gate. He then trained, briefly, as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.  He did four years of military service in the Intelligence Corps and Combined Forces Entertainment Unit, 

After completing his military service in 1948, he began to act, appearing on stage and playing numerous supporting roles in British films, in particular An Inspector Calls (1954) and The Colditz Story (1955). 

He received his first credit for Second World War film The Cockleshell Heroes (1955), while other early screenplays include I was Monty's Double (1958),and The League of Gentlemen  (1959), his breakthrough. 

In 1959, he formed a production company, Beaver Films, with his frequent collaborator Richard Attenborough.

Forbes's directorial debut came with Whistle Down the Wind (1961), again produced by Attenborough, a critically acclaimed film about three northern children who conceal a criminal in their barn, believing him to be a reincarnated Jesus Christ.

The L-Shaped Room (1962), his next film as director, with Leslie Caron in the female lead, led to her gaining a nomination for an Oscar, and winning the BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards. 

Bryan Forbes at the height of his fame

Forbes wrote and directed Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), and the same year he wrote the third screen adaptation of the Somerset Maugham novel Of Human Bondage. 

In 1969, he was appointed chief of production and managing director of the film studio Associated British (soon to become EMI Films).

Under Forbes's leadership, the studio produced The Railway Children (1970). His tenure though, was short-lived and marked by financial problems and failed projects. Forbes resigned in 1971. 

From the early 1970s, Forbes divided his energies between cinema, television, theatre and writing. 

Forbes returned to Hollywood to direct The Stepford Wives (1975), it featured his wife Nanette Newman and was to become his best-known film. His final film as a screenwriter was Chaplin in 1992.

In 2004, he was made a CBE for his services to the arts. In May 2007, he was the recipient of a BAFTA tribute, celebrating his "outstanding achievement in filmmaking". 

In 1951 he married Irish actress Constance Smith and the couple travelled to Hollywood in the early 1950s. They divorced in 1955. Forbes went on to marry actress Nanette Newman the same year.

Forbes was diagnosed with MS in 1975, however, he revealed in a 2012 interview that it had been a misdiagnosis. He died at his home in Virginia Water, Surrey, on 8 May 2013 at the age of 86, following a long illness.

Footnotes and sources
1. Notes for a Life - Bryan Forbes , Everest Books 1974
2. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Forbes
3. Bryan Forbes Remembers Forest Gate, from The Forest Gate Times,  2001

Godwin School ( boys ) log 4 - Godwin and Forest Gate between the wars (1919 - 1939)

 This is the fourth of a series of posts based on the school log of Godwin School, from 1883 - 1984, providing a fascinating, worms' eye view of the development of the local area.

Godwin school 1973

See here for details of the first post and a background to this series of articles.

This article, in particular, highlights:

• The school participating in public celebrations and commemorations;

• some remarkable service records from school staff;

• a goal-scoring English international footballer on the staff!;

• high achievement by the school in London-wide music and football competitions;

• gradual emergence of "new technology" into the school and its teaching;

• visits by older pupils to large local employers, with a view to future employment;

• Improvements in HMI reports following appointment of "new broom" head.

14 Apr 1919 It is 34 years today since the school opened. The master (ed: Herbert Henry, the(head) master would now have been about 59).

18 Jul 1919 School was closed today to celebrate the Peace. Outing to Grange Hill. The day was fine and all seemed to enjoy the outing thoroughly.

11 Nov 1919 Armistice Day In accordance with the wish expressed in the King's letter, all classes observed two minutes silence at eleven o'clock. The boys were spoken to during the morning about the significance of the event. Each boy made a copy of the following: "Remembrance day, a thought for 11 a.m. November 11 At this hour, and on this day, forever tell us remember the brave men who died that Britain might be free. Let us endeavour so to order our lives that we may be worthy of the sacrifice they made for us."

9 Dec 1919 The boys visited the Borough Theatre to see the Merchant of Venice played by Ben Greek's company.

Borough Theatre programme, 1925
 (photo courtesy Arthur Lloyd)

Interior of Borough Theatre (photo:
 courtesy of Athur Lloyd)

Borough Theatre, Stratford c 1920
 (photo courtesy Arthur Lloyd)

12 Jan 1920 24 boys who are studying Julius Caesar have gone this afternoon to see the play at the Pavilion, Whitechapel Road.

27 Apr 1920 Mr Joseph Addison, in accordance with the council's instructions, gave a temperance lecture this afternoon to Standard 7 (60) boys.

6 Sept 1920 Mr Robert Gibson of North Bay, Ontario, visited us this afternoon. He has been in Canada for 7 years and is chief clerk to the railway at North Bay. He was a scholar here in the nineties.

1 Oct 1920 Ten boys have left today, being over age (ed: the minimum school leaving age was raised from 12 to 14 in 1918) or have passed the labour examination.

11 Nov 1920 The two minutes silence was observed at eleven o'clock this morning. The boys were assembled in the playground and the names of the Old Boys on the Role of Honour was read out, as previously.

12 Dec 1920 The school visited the Queen's cinema and saw a good series of pictures.

Queen's cinema, Romford Road

24 Feb 1921 The school was closed today by the Education Committee on the occasion of a school football match between West Ham and East Ham boys.

28 Feb 1921 Mr Deville took 20 boys from Standard 6 to the Tower of London this afternoon.

Near contemporary photo of Tower of London

18 Apr 1921 Received a letter from Mr Crossland stating that he had been to hospital and the doctor informed him that he had cancer in his throat. It was 36 years on Friday last that Mr Crossland began his service in this department.

2 May 1921 Standards 7 and 3 went on the flats at eleven this morning and Standards 6, 4 and 2 this afternoon, to select suitable boys for the forthcoming sports day in the borough.

10 May 1921 Bertrum Wilson, Standard 5, died yesterday morning. An inquest was held today and the doctor gave the cause of death as acute tubercular meningitis.

10 June 1921 Mr Crossland who has been a great sufferer since he gave up on April 6th passed away yesterday afternoon.

14 June 1921 The department was closed this afternoon to allow staff and may of the boys to pay their respects to Mr Crossland's memory.  He was buried at Woodgrange cemetery.

8 Jul 1921 The school was closed this afternoon on the occasion of the king opening the King George V Dock at Silvertown. 12 boys attended.

George V Docks, soon after opening

14 Jul 1921 A great many boys have been away today at St Marks and St Saviour's Sunday school excursion.

St Saviour's church, host of excursion
 resulting in school stay-away by Godwin boys

19 Jul 1921 This afternoon Mr Deville, who has been on the staff since the opening of Godwin Road, was presented with a gold watch and chain as a token of regard from the boys and teachers of all departments.

22 Aug 1921 School reopened this morning.  All present, including Mr AJ Deville, from Drew Road County School ... Mr Deville takes charge of Standard 7, in succession to his father.

31 Aug 1921 The staff decided to re-establish the school football, and so gradually bring it back to pre-war efficiency.

28 Feb 1922 A general holiday was given today for the wedding of Princess Mary.

25 May 1922 The usual work of the school was suspended after playtime to perform the function of making a presentation to the headmaster, who is retiring on 31 May. Mr Hubert has been here from the opening of this school  (ed: 39 years previously!)and there were present Mrs Horne, his first colleague at Centenary Hall, Essex St school, the one brought over to Godwin Road on its completion ... Mr Everard, a former teacher, President of the NUT, voiced the good feelings of all towards Mr Herbert.

16 Jun 1922 Herbert Stanley Ford took charge as head teacher today.

22 Jun 1922 The school was open during the afternoon session for parents to visit and inspect the work of their children and to interview their teachers.
About 80% of the parents availed themselves of the opportunity and undoubtedly much goodwill will result. In the evening the school was again open for visitation by parents from 6.30 and at 7pm a meeting of parents was held in the drill hall.

29 Sep 1922 The election of a school captain was held this afternoon. They mayor, supported by the deputy mayor and mayoress and Mrs Ridgewell acted as presiding officer. Henry Sanders was elected school captain.

28 Nov 1922 A piano has been purchased at a cost of £47.10/-, for use in the boys department.

27 Aug 1923 School re-opened ... During the last fortnight of the holidays 50 boys were taken to camp at Babbacombe, S Devon. All the boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The head teacher and Mr Taylorson were in charge of the camp, assisted.

2 Apr 1924 The boys of Godwin Rd school were successful in winning the junior football championship of West Ham. The school thus holds the junior shield and the boys gaining medals ... The boys were trained by Mr Deville.

4 Apr 1924 HMI report: This school is attended by boys from for the most part from well-to-do homes. There is, however, a certain number who have attended private schools and are backward though intelligent, and there is a certain section who are dull mentally. The school is drained at its upper end by the boys proceeding to secondary and other schools. As a result, the higher classes are comparatively small. A chart of the ages, however, shows that the classification is on the whole, rather low, in spite of the efforts of the new Headmaster to improve it, by interim promotion, and there is an accumulation of old and dull boys at the bottom of the school, which still presents an unresolved problem.

10 Apr 1924 This afternoon 25 boys visited the Houses of Parliament.

15 May 1924 Mr V Gibbins absent today, having obtained leave of absence from the Education Committee for two days to enable him to travel to France and play in the international football match. (ed: William Vivian Talbot  Gibbins, 19 Aug 1901 - 21 Nov 1979, - known as Viv -  was born in Forest Gate. In addition to being a school teacher, he was a fine amateur footballer.

He joined West Ham in 1923 and made his debut on 26 December 1923 against Aston Villa, creating the only goal of the game for Billy Moore. He became the first unpaid West Ham player to top the club's scoring charts in 1930 -31, with 18 league goals. He also played for Clapton, and won the FA Amateur Cup with the club in 1924 and 1925. 

Whilst registered with Clapton, he won two full England caps, both against France, scoring twice in a 3–1 victory on 17 May 1924 - i.e. the game for which this leave was agreed - and once on 21 May 1925. Gibbins went off injured after 35 minutes of the latter game. 

He was one of the last amateur players to play for the English national football team. He also won 12 amateur caps, scoring seven goals. After playing for West Ham and Clapton, he also played for Brentford, Bristol Rovers, Southampton and Leyton . Gibbins returned to the Tons in the 1950's, as a trainer. 

He became head teacher of Harold Road school. He died in 1979. The entrance gate at the Old Spotted Dog ground is called the Viv Gibbins Memorial Gate.

See the extract from the Stratford Express, below. This is the ONLY coverage given to this full England International, local centre forward, scoring on his international debut.  It was buried in the middle of a dense page 3 of the paper. Just imagine the coverage today!).

Vivian Gibbins, Godwin school
 teacher and English football
 international centre forward

Stratford Express - 21 May 1924

19 May 1924 Godwin Rd school choir gained 2nd place in Stratford Musical Festival ... Second place was also gained in the sight singing tests ... Godwin Rd boys were also successful in gaining the Boxing championship of West Ham schools ... the school holds the cup presented by the officers of the 6th Essex regt. for one year.

25 Jun 1924 45 boys with three teachers are visiting Wembley Exhibition today. (ed: this was an "Empire" exhibition located next to the site of the Empire Stadium -old Wembley stadium - which hosted its first cup final the previous year, featuring West Ham United - six months before Viv Gibbins joined the club).

Programme for British
Empire Exhibition, 1924

25 Mar 1925 Permission gained for day to end on 26th at 3.30 ... this will enable about 120 boys and 40 parents to travel to Tottenham (ed: via what is now the Goblin line) to watch the school play the champion Tottenham school in the 4th round of the Dewar Cup competition (ed: see entry of 27 Feb 1905, above, for details).

19 May 1925 Mr Gibbins absent today, leave of absence granted for 4 days to allow him to play in the international match against France, in Paris (ed: see above for details of Viv Gibbins. He was granted leave of absence a number of times to play in various football matches, while at Godwin.  As the comment above makes clear this was his second and last "full" international for the national team, and he left the field injured - at a time when no substitutes were allowed, so the team went down to 10 men, after 35 minutes).

Gloucester Echo 22 May 1925, describing
 Viv Gibbins' role and fate in the international. 
It is the only  coverage we could find of his
 fate, in the national Newspaper archives!

27 May 1925 Mr Gibbins left to have his knee X-rayed, he received a very serious injury in France.

16 Jul 1925 The boys department held a sports festival in Sebert Road ground at 5.30pm (ed: site of present day Woodgrange infants school?). The meeting was great success and was attended by about 2000 people.

11 Jan 1926 My Symes a member of staff for 30 years passed away on Monday 4 January. The whole of the staff and boys from classes 5, 6, 7 and 8 attended the funeral on Friday 8 Jan.

5 May 1926 The attendance of 40 boys to the baths has been cancelled, owing to the General Strike.

10 May 1926 The attendance of 40 boys to the baths again cancelled.5 Oct 1926 HMI report: Since the previous report, the head master has affected a marked improvement. Classification is now normal, the accumulation of old boys in the lower classes has disappeared ... the teaching of French to boys who have not passed through to Standard 7 is of doubtful value.

27 Oct 1927 A concert was given in the Town Hall, Stratford, by the scholars, in aid of the school's sports fund. The programme took the form of a minstrel entertainment. The town hall was crowded and the concert was most successful. The profit exceeded £38. Great credit is due to Mr May and Mr Deville.

10 May 1928 Godwin school won the Dewar Shield and thus became champion school in London and district for football. The boys have also won the West Ham senior and junior championship.

23 Oct 1930 40 boys were taken on an educational visit to the Houses of Parliament this afternoon. Councillor Groves MP conducted the party round the Houses.

7 Mar 1931 Mr May and Mr White took a party of 24 boys to the British Museum.

22 Apr 1931 Reginald Newall, a scholar at this school, was awarded an international cap for football.

27 Nov 1931 A Nigger Minstrel Entertainment was held at the town hall, Stratford. ... The hall was crowded and the concert a great success. The funds of the school will receive a very welcome addition.

25 Apr 1933 Mr W How, the newly appointed head teacher, visited the school this afternoon. (ed: William How moved from Gainsborough Road school, and took up duties at Godwin on 2 May 1933).

23 Oct 1933 I and Mr Penfold left school at 3.15 this afternoon to visit the new baths in Romford Road, relative to holding a gala there.

5 Dec 1933 A man tried to steal my overcoat from my room today was given in charge by me after assaulting me. A doctor examined me and recommended that I go home to rest for the afternoon.

9 Jan 1934 I, with the caretaker, Mr Bailey, attended the Old Bailey today as witnesses in the trial of Alfred Wilson. He was sentenced to 8 months hard labour for the theft and 3 months hard labour for the assault.

Stratford Express account of the court
 case over the theft and assault
(13 Jan 1934). "Mr How executed
 a "rugger tackle" and brought the
 prisoner down. He was struck two
 or three times on the side of the face
 "The Recorder sentenced the
 prisoner to eight months hard labour
 for stealing, and three months
 hard labour for the assault on Mr How
 - eleven months in all"

6 Sep 1934 20 boys in the charge of Mr Deville and myself went on an educational tour of the London Docks, under the aegis of the Port of London Authority, in the SS Catherine. As the boys had to catch the train at 12.18 from Forest gate, I sent them home for dinner at 11 am.

17 Dec 1934 The boys assembled at 3pm for a fancy dress party, followed by tea and entertainment ... Miss Read and Miss Tear assisted by the vicar of St Marks judged the fancy dress costumes and selected the winners.

3 May 1925 The boys were assembled in the hall this afternoon for a short talk about HM the King's silver jubilee. Each boy was presented with a new 6d - the gift of the mayor. Others were given free tickets to attend the Grand Cinema in Forest Gate on the 7th. The proceedings were closed with the national anthem.

29 Sep 1935 The first swimming gala ever held by this school took place on Friday 20th inst. It was highly successful and wonderfully attended by both parents and scholars.  Among those present were His Worship the Mayor (ed: and half a dozen other local worthies).

1 Oct 1935 Arising from the financial success of the gala, His Worship the Mayor was asked to accept a cheque for 3 guineas from the school, as a donation to the boot fund (ed: the boot fund was a West Ham council initiative aimed at providing boots and shoes to "necessitous children". Up to 2,000 pairs footwear were supplied each winter, for the duration of the fund).

20 Nov 1935 A party of 40 boys visited the Ford Motor Company this afternoon.

Near contemporary photo of Ford's
 Dagenham - one of a number of industrial
school visits laid on by school, as
 potential future employers for the boys.

16 Dec 1935 The new cinema projector arrived and was used for the first time today.

4 Feb 1936 This afternoon Mr Meldrum, a representative of Ford Motors called to give prizes to the successful essay winners on "A visit to Ford Motor Works". The final prize was awarded to R Basham and the 2nd prize to K Ingham. All other boys were presented with a token of their visit.

18 Mar 1936 At the invitation of the staff of the school, parents were invited to attend this evening to witness a demonstration of the new school cinema projector, to show its educational worth.

4 Dec 1936 Four boys - PT, LP, SH and SW were guilty of stealing from the barrow of a helpless cripple a packet of cigarettes and afterwards sharing them out and smoking them. I dealt with them severely and informed the parents.

11 May 1937 Today, the eve of the coronation, is very rainy but the attendance is very good. Tickets from the cinema entertainment arranged by the council were distributed, as were also the sixpences - one to each boy ... The school closed this afternoon for the coronation and the Whitsun holiday.

22 Jun 1937 Mr Penfold reported to me this morning that one of the boys, M O'B on the way to the baths had shown gross respect to the dead. He punished him this morning with my full approbation.

30 Sep 1937 Mrs Holmes called at the school and without consulting me went straight to Mr Harper in a fury of temper and complained that he had struck her boy across the head. Mr Harper brought he to me, but she was so infuriated that I ordered her out.

21 Jan 1938 Mr Munro of the Telephone Development Association attended this morning and gave a lecture on the uses and methods of the telephone.

31 Mar 1938 Mr Penfold reported to me that a trolley bus ran through some boys crossing the road at a Belisha crossing (ed: road crossing introduced in 1934 and named after the then Minister of Transport, Leslie Hoare Belisha - a man most famed for a quip by 30's sex-symbol Mae West, who when visiting Britain, provocatively asked "So, just who is this Hoare, Belisha?").

9 May 1938 Mr Penfold and 3 boys had to attend West Ham police court this morning regarding the summons on a trolley-bus driver for negligent driving, as reported by me on 31 March. The man was fined £3 and 2 guineas costs.

Stratford Express (14 May 1938)
 account of the court case
of Arthur Bowie, the tram driver.

"It was alleged that the bus driver
 made no attempt to stop
(while 26 boys were on a
crossing on Romford Road,
on the way back from the baths).

The teacher "boarded the bus
 and spoke to the driver, who,
 however, would have nothing to do
 with him".

"Defendent would be fined £3
 and £2.2s costs, or 21 days
 on the summons for driving
 without reasonable consideration"

23 Jun 1938 40 boys visited the Gas Light and Coke Company's works this afternoon.

25 Jan 1939 Mr Munro of the Telephone Development Association attended and gave the boys of the upper class a lecture on 'How to use the telephone'.

14 Jul 1939 I attended a meeting at the Education Offices relative to the extension of the school age to 15 (ed: the application of this had to await the end of the impending war, and was introduced in 1947).

26 Jul 1939 Today is my last day here as Headmaster, on my retirement.

27 Aug 1939 Sunday. Members of staff were present from 9 o'clock until 4.30pm to interview and advise parents.

28 Aug 1939 Evacuation rehearsal successfully carried out. The children were assembled in their respective groups and marched around the playground into school.