MEMORIES
by John William
Moore 1876 to 1968
Talking
to a friend one day, I said I was miserable having nothing to do, he
said why
not write the story of your life. I said I do not think that would
interest
anybody. He said well it would pass your time, I thought it over and
came to
the conclusion it was not a bad idea to leave some record behind,
because the
younger generation seem to forget that their elders were once young,
and were
not always the nothings they take them for. If one wishes to speak of
old days,
they do not want to listen. Well I will
do the best I can.
I was born at 60 Beadnell Rd, Forest Hill,
on May 31st 1876. My father and grandfather were both John Moore and
were
Londoners. My father at 18 years went to
My mother was Georgina Fullford and her
mother was Elizabeth Fullford (nee Childs) who came from Fareham Hants. Her father was John Fullford who came from
I went to Dalmain Rd School. there was no
free education at that time we paid so much a week, I forget how much,
when I
was 11 years of age my father insisted I should go for a labour
certificate, at
that time you could leave school at any age providing you passed the
7th
standard. I passed the 5th at Dalmain Rd, the 6th at Clark's school,
Sunderland
Hill, and 7th at Holy Trinity Dartmouth Rd.
I started to learn my trade at once and
was a full blown workman at 16. I worked for my father until 18 then
for
several firms. At 21 I was offered the job as a foreman for a firm
Stidolph of
Dartford. I then got married and went to live at Dartford.
I married Amy Russell, who I had courted
since she was 15 and I was 17. We had a
furnished room at first but afterwards a house at 21 Tower Rd.
When I was 14 we moved from Forest Hill to
Fransfield Grove, Sydenham. I then joined the church lads Brigade, a
sort of
cadet corps, and became Colour Sergeant. At 16 I joined St Bart's
gymnastic and
boxing club, I was no good on the bars, but I took to the boxing. I won
their
10 stone and over annual competitions for 3 years running the last
before Lord
Chelmsford at Park Hall, Sydenham. At 17 I joined the 2nd Vol Battalion
West
Kent Regiment. I served with them for a
number of years. I took part in the
attack on
I
also took part in the Great Review on Laffin Plain Aldershot. When
80,000 men
marched past the German Emperor (Kaiser Bill). Laffin Plain was all
deep sand,
we looked like Millers when we were done, rifles clogged right up. The
artillery & cavalry smothered us as they went past, still it was a
great
sight. I was also guard of honour to Duchess of Albany . I overstated
my age to
join the West Kents, but I was big & I looked older than I was.
Now for Dartford, my job was a good one
but I got a bit of a surprise, although Stidulph were not undertakers,
they
made coffins for a firm of Wine Merchants who did funerals. I found that the foreman polisher and the
foreman decorator had to deliver the coffins and put the bodies in, I
soon got
used to it. We also had to go to the
funeral which we did not mind as we got 10 shillings over wages. I
worked at
Dartford for over 3 years.
Then my father in law, Horace Russell who
had a general shop in Upper Ground St, Blackfriars was taken with what
proved
to be his last illness. I left my job,
and we warehoused our furniture and went to live with my wife's
parents, so my
wife could help her mother in the shop. I got a job at the Westminster
Palace
Hotel. It was a good job, but I had only been there a month, when I got
the
offer of a foreman polisher for Batchelors of Croydon and Beckenham. I
took it and
got my brother Alf the job in my place.
He was there for some years. I
travelled daily from Blackfriars , to Beckenham. When Mr Russell died
and the
shop was sold, I got a house at 140 Parish Lane, Penge.
We got our furniture from Dartford and moved
in. My mother in law went to live at
Westerham where she had a shop.
While working for Batchelors, I canvassed
other shops, We had a very large kitchen in
Soon after that I gave up Batchelors job
and started on my own. I gradually built up a fairly good business, but
it was
hard work, because I had very little capital then just as I was going
well came
the 1914 war and things were bad.
The first job I had after the war broke
out was at Eastbourne, a big job for Boots, when that was finished, I
came back
to do another big job at the Penge Empire. which was just being built,
I wrote to
my brother Bill and told him if he would give up his job at
I enlisted for 3 years. Short service in
the West Kent Regiment, I passed the medical A.1. was given the usual
I was fitted out with Eastern Kit several
times, at Xmas week 1917 I was sent to Winchester for discharge. We
were there
three days and were practically starved, a bit of tinned salmon and a
lump of
bread for dinner, tea in a basin, not a cup or a mug. When I got before
the
M.O. I said I do not want to be discharged, I came in this of my own
free will
and I want to stay till the end. He shook hands with me and did not
trouble to
examine me, the next morning we all paraded and I was called out. The
Officer
(one of our temporary gents ) said "You are a funny b....." did you
tell the M.O. you did not want discharge?" I said "Yes" He said
"Well look at this lot every one praying for discharge, Well you go to
the
orderly room at 9.00 am, they will give you a railway warrant and tell
you
where to go" I did and they gave me all my papers and a railway
warrant, I
could have gone home and no one would have known I had to go to Lark
Hill. It
was lights out when I got there, but I found a hut and slept there, in
the
morning I reported to Orderly Room and was given a company. I carried
on until
1918 when without any warning I was again sent to Winchester this time
I let
them get on with it.
The food was good, this time quite
different to the last, I never drank while I was in the army, but I had
a good
one when I got to Waterloo. I never could make out why I was discharged
because
I never once reported sick, I can only think that because our cars were
all
light, cars for the East, they were getting rid of men over 40. After I
got
home I wrote to London, asking to be put in touch with my nearest
branch of the
federation of discharged soldiers, I was put in touch with a branch at
Lower
Sydenham, who met in a room over a coffee shop on Sunday mornings. I
went a
number of times & I found it was a sort of mutual admiration for
the
secretary and Chairman, I was going to stop going, when I met a man who
had
known me when I was doing a bit of organizing for the Liberals. He said
can't
you do something for the branch. I went the next Sunday, and started
asking
awkward questions. I found there had never been a balance sheet. there
was no
committee, and the Secretary had given himself a salary without asking
anyone.
The result was they resigned and I was elected Chairman, I got them
into the
lower Sydenham Social Club for their meetings, then I looked about and
found a
large shop & house empty, I took it, borrowed money off brewers
&
formed them into a club. It soon was over 200 strong., I was elected
President
and was so for 7 years. After a time I got a grant from the United
Service Fund
and bought the place. Then borrowed more money off the brewers and had
the
place reconstructed, then I began to get all kinds of offices forced on
me.
Here is a list, President West Lewisham British Legion ( 7 years),
Chairman
Beckenham British Legion, member of Metropolitan Council (3 years)
Chairman
South Eastern area, Vice Chairman Lewisham Employment Committee,
Chairman of
Rota Committees, member of Kings Roll Committee, member of Courts of
Referees,
I stuck this lot for seven years, then
packed up. I had enough. Then came the second world war. I was too old
for the
army, so I joined the civil defence as Air raid Warden, at first
Voluntary, but
afterwards I was engaged and given charge of a station. In a pretty
lively spot
a factory estate.
1940 was a bad year for me. 1st my son who
was one of the defenders of Calais was reported missing. He meant a lot
to me,
we did not know where he was but in October we heard he was a prisoner
of war.
He was for 5 years, I kept on the Air Raid Wardens job doing 14 hours
duty per
night, until October. Then I went as a sort of bomb expert wherever a
bomb
dropped I had to examine the place and report the damage to the
Lewisham
Borough Council. That was a day time
job. I had only been doing it for a few weeks when my own great
disaster occurred.
A disaster which altered several lives on Nov 18th 1940 I came home at
5.30 pm
and said to my wife "We think it is going to be a bad night. Get down
the
shelter as soon as possible and I will come with you" I had never been
down
the shelter before, because if ever I was at home at night I slept on
the floor
in the passage, ( a good job I did not that night)
We put on some old clothes and went down
the shelter at 8.00 pm, the Germans dropped a bomb (estimated at 13500
pounds)
Right in the centre of my house. The house fell on the shelter and we
were
buried. they did not get us out until
I shall never forget my wife as long as I
live when the bomb struck she never made a murmur, when they got us out
she
looked at the debris and said, well that’s our home gone, but I have
still got
you, I said to myself as long as I live whatever you say to me I will
never say
a cross word to you, and I can say on oath that until she died I never
did.
On the Saturday we were both too shaken to
travel, I left her with someone while I saw the authorities. At night,
I said
where are we going to sleep tonight she said lets go down the shelter.
We did,
on Sunday morning someone let us have a wash and then I took her down
to my
daughter Kath at Hemel Hempstead. I came back, found another place, an
empty
shop and got my salvage in to it. I was about Penge for several weeks
seeing
about various things, during which time I slept on the floor in my
fathers
house. I went down to Hemel for the week
end and when I got back I found the Germans had blown my second place
up. I
then rented 2 garages and got my salvage in them and then went back to
Hemel
and stopped there. We lived with Kath until she took it into her head
after 14
years to have another child. We had to get out, so my daughter May,
took us in,
and gave us a room, she already had someone living there, but she got
rid of
them for us to come. We were very happy with May, we now knew our son
would
come back to us some day. May did not mind me working in our room and
how I did
it. I don’t know, but I did. I only had a small table and a wood vice,
but I
made a 4 ft hall robe a 3 ft bureau and lots of other things, I could
not have
done it if I had not found a friend, Mr Austin, who did machine
planeing for me
and another who supplied me with oak. I had no pension until I was 72,
we lived
on our own money
Then came my second bad blow without any
warning my daughter and son in law came in one Sunday morning and said
she had
bought a business and they were moving out at once, leaving us
stranded. I was
desperate we had nowhere to go, and what was worse no home for my son
to come
back too, then I did the only thing I could do. We were holding 200
pounds of
my sons money in trust for him. I saw the solicitors and made an offer
for the
house, they accepted it, so I got a mortgage, paid 200 pound deposit
and
borrowed 550 pounds, the solicitors fees about 40 pounds.
I paid out of my war damage compensation. I
then got our broken up furniture from Penge, which cost me another 8
pounds and
I set to work to repair it. It took me 8
months to do it so I now had a home for my son to come to. My son came
home and
soon after he married Joy ******, they lived with us for a time, then
moved to
After they left my granddaughter Pat lived
with us. then a young couple named Perkins, and after them we
unfortunately got
a pair of real wrong ones, who took me 6 months to evict.
During this time my daughter May decided
to go to Australia. It was a sad day for me when she went. It is hard
when one
you love leaves you and you know you will never see them again. But she
has
been good she keeps in touch with me. Then came my worst blow, my wife
developed heart trouble and could do nothing for 3 years. Then all of a
sudden,
without any warning she had an attack and died within 5 minutes. It was
an
awful shock to me and I have never got over it.
I loved my wife more after 57 years than I did when I first knew
her.
Because I knew what a good woman she was. She was buried with her
mother at
Elmers End. After the funeral I was persuaded to get rid of my home and
come to
live with my son. I did so, but it did not work, and I am now an inmate
of an
old peoples home for the unwanted. This home is a good one, and the
Matron is a
good and kind woman, but life here is a miserable existence, bossed
about by
women and one of them a black. Always be kind to the blacks , they cant
help
their colour but they should never be given authority. they do not know
how to
use it.
I am 87 now and very fit, except I cannot
walk well. I put my long life and fitness to the hard training as a
youth.
There was very little transport in those days and it was nothing to
walk 7 or 8
miles, do a days work and then walk home again carrying a heavy kit.
Also our
food was pure, not adulterated as everything is now. As a lad I used to
go
every Saturday to Fleeters market and get a whole leg of beef, average
weight
28-30 lbs at 2 1/2d a lb., my mother used it in all kinds of ways, and
the
bones made good soup.
There are a few Incidents in my life I
would like to record.
I remember the 15 week frost, everything
frozen, no outside work.
When I was a boy I belonged to the
Juvenile Lodge of good Templers. At 12 I won the 4th prize for an essay
on
Temperance, open to all lodges in England. The prize was a book and a
set of
regalia.
I joined the Prince of Wales Lodge of the
Buffaloes in 1919, a bit steep the entrance fee, but no further
payment, and
you are a Buff for life. I never took any interest in it because I
regard all
their ceremonies as childish, but they have two good things, one
Poverty Corner
for helping members and their ladies nights.
I have had four narrow escapes from death
or serious injury . At Crayford the horse's bolted and I was thrown off
the top
of a pantecnicon van and hit the road with my head and came up on my
feet, no
bad effects. Another time I was walking on a facia on a fairly high
scaffold,
it gave way and flung me on my back in the middle of the road. I got
up, got
someone to put the scaffold up again, went up and finished the job, no
particular hurt. One Sunday in 1940 I was on duty, there had been a big
air
raid. The All Clear went at 4am. I sent the other men home and I
carried on. I
was standing looking at a factory when a
German, that had been missed came over and dropped a bomb right through
the building
not 10 yards from me. The blast blew me a good way but again I was not
hurt. Then came one that did hurt, on
Nov 8th 1940, the Germans dropped a large bomb on my house, had that
bomb
dropped only a few yards nearer, my wife and I must have been killed.
Fortunately we were in the air raid shelter which was below the surface, had it been on ground level, the
blast would have killed us.
We had 3 daughters and a son, all have
been a credit to us. Mother and I loved them all and were proud of them
.
Now as to the times we lived in, you hear
talk of the good old days, well they were not all good
. They were good for those with an
income of over 3 pounds a week, but there was an awful lot of poverty.
I have
seen queues stretching right down the street, waiting outside the
Relieving
Office to get tickets for bread, grocery, meat but no money. Most shops
had
cards in the windows saying 'Relief Tickets taken' , but in spite of
this, life
was more peaceful, and the people were much happier. Rents and living
were
cheap, you could get a seat for very little at a Music Hall and hear
1st Class
Artists. We made our own amusements, now there are Pictures, Radio,
Television
etc, none of these can compare with the family gatherings and the
musical
evenings and a great thing you could walk the roads in safety, now you
do so at
the risk of your life.
There is not much more to write about
except my sport which I will write about separate but when I go I hope
it will
be said, I did more good in this world than I did harm.
CRICKET
I
first learned to play when I was 12. The
After we moved to Penge, one Whit Monday I
was at Beckenham to watch the cricket. There was a team called Ilderton
playing
a local club. Ilderton were a man short someone told them about me.
They asked
me to play. I did, and made a big score. At the end of the match, the
Captain
asked me who I played for, I said "No one at present, I have just come
from
After they broke up I Played for the Penge
& Beckenham Liberals. I was their Captain. I also played a good
deal for
Westerham . I played there until the 1914 war broke out. For the
Liberals I
once took six wickets in six balls, a record for Westerham against
Seven Oaks,
who had a number of County played . I
did what I think was my best, Seven Oaks scored 210 for 4, I
clean
bowled the four.
After the war I played
for West
Lewisham discharged soldiers up till I was 56.
I had some happy times on the Cricket field
FOOTBALL
At 15 I joined a youths team called the
Willberforce I played for them for years. When I was 19 the Vampires,
who were
one of the best amateur teams in the Country, wanted a left back. I was
recommended
and given a trial and I don't forget it. At half time I went into the
dressing
room, one of the principles said "Are you really a left back" I said
"Well in the class of football I have been playing, The South London
League, I could play anywhere, but my proper place is Left Half Back"
He
said "All right , you go there. We will put someone else at Back"
When the game was over I dressed, packed my bag & left. not one
person
spoke to me or said goodnight. I walked away, and when I got to a seat,
I cried
and thought I have had my chance and failed. But I had not, two days
after I
got a letter saying you have been elected a member of the Vampires and
can
purchase your shirt and badge from George Lewin in
I had not been in Dartford long before I
was approved by an Official of the Dartford Professional Club, and was
asked to
sign on for them. I did, but I never played for them. Instead I played
for the
Dartford Amateurs, until I returned to London.
I never played again although asked to do
so. I suppose I must have been fairly good, but I never liked Football
as much
as I liked Cricket.
..................................................................................................................................................
There are many other incidents in my life
but I have only written essentials.
Now
I have received another shock, my daughter in law, John's wife has
died. I cannot
realise it. It seems to me it cannot be true, a young woman of 40. I
knew she
had been ill but I never thought of anything fatal. Had I known what
she was
suffering from I would have been prepared. She was a good Wife and
Mother In
spite of everything I was fond of her, it has hit me hard.
EPILOGUE
This
is the last I shall write of the events of my life, but until my life’s
end I
shall regard with loathing the years 1963 and 1964, for they have
brought me
nothing but sorrow. My only son has died, he was all the world to me.
I have been accused of making him my idol.
If I did, is that not more reason for me to say it is the worst blow of
my
life? He had been in hospital on and off
since the death of his wife. On Whit Monday May 18th I received a
letter from
him saying he was better and would return to business in a fortnight.
Two days
after my son in law came to tell me he was dead, leaving two children
no mother
or father.
What a shock, but although it was a shock
it was not quite a surprise, because for some time I had a bad feeling
that
something would happen to my son. Although no Bible puncher, I have
always
thought a lot about religion , because without religion of some kind
there can
be no law. No human being can say there
is a God, and no one can prove there is not.
It is the Clergy’s job to tell you all kinds of things but they
know no
more than anyone else. I have always
believed there is something not given us to understand, so I have
prayed night
and day that my son should be restored to health, if only for the sake
of his
children. My prayers were not answered,
what have I got for them all that I have worked and hoped for? Turned
into a
handful of dust.
My son and his wife were cremated at
Elmers End, and their ashes are buried together in the Garden of
Remembrance at
Bromley Parish church.
I
have 3 daughters, 3 Grand-daughters, 4 Grand-sons, 4 Great
Grand-daughters and
one Great Grand-son. I love them all and am proud of them.
In spite of my prayers not being answered,
I still believe there is something not given to us to understand. There
is so
much in the world that we cannot account for. What gives life, a child,
an
animal, or bird is born with all its organs and faculties. A bird loses
its
feather, another grows in its place the same shape and colour. No human
can
understand it, so I still pray for my people.
This
is my Swan Song, so I want to leave my thanks to all who have been good
to me.
To my daughter Doris, my love and
gratitude for all she has done for her brother and his children. My
thanks to
her husband Bill
To my daughter Kath and her husband
Charlie, my love and thanks for all their kindness.
To my daughter May, who to my sorrow I
will never see again, I give my undying love and thanks. and to my
grandchildren
who have all been kind to me; and now thanks to all other friends for
their
kindness.
Goodbye - But
I cannot realise my son has gone.
Written in an old
exercise
book, all but the Epilogue is hand written.