History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

This is the story of a largely forgotten IRA campaign which was carried out in England just before the outbreak of World War II.  In April 1938 the IRA in Dublin drew up a document called the ‘S (for Sabotage) Plan’. It was decided, for the sake of diplomatic correctness, that a formal declaration of War should be presented to the British Government. The ultimatum, which demanded the removal of all British troops from Ireland, was delivered to Lord Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, on 12 January 1939. Scotland Yard’s Special Branch and the Government unwisely treated it as just another idle threat. This was a mistake. Carrying out the S-Plan On the 16 January eight bombs exploded simultaneously in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Alnwick in Northumberland.  Suspects in known centres of Irish population, such as Kilburn, were subjected to intense questioning and their homes searched by the police and Special Branch. But the IRA was one step ahead, having deliberatel...

In April 1898 three boys appeared at the Harlesden police court. They were Henry Wills (16) no fixed abode, Frank Griffin (16), 90 Roundwood Road, and Thomas Chinnery (14), of 9 Rucklidge Avenue.  In a field at night, they had used a stolen spade to dig what they called a ‘cave’ which was five feet, by 4ft and 3ft deep. The hole was covered by a roof of corrugated iron and zinc sheets with the earth from the hole piled on top.  They had stolen food valued at £1 11s 3d, from Joseph Bayley grocer’s van parked at 94 Burns Road Harlesden. The haul consisted of, condensed milk, tea, coffee, sugar, jam, tinned salmon, sardines, golden syrup, rice, cocoa, oatmeal, candles, and matches.  Then they raided a dovecot in the garden of 20 Charlton Road belonging to Francis Amos Willett, and stole 20 of his pigeons. The boys lived in the cave for over a week, dining well on the stolen food and cooking pigeons in a bucket over a fire.  On Saturday morning 24 March, Francis Willett ...

 In 1971 Edward Heath, the Conservative PM, had lunch with his friend Alastair Hetherington, the editor of The Guardian newspaper. There had been some publicity about the security of information held by various government departments, such as the Inland Revenue. Heath had told Parliament this was not an issue, and the security of such information was beyond question. Hetherington was not so sure, and the two men made a friendly bet. Edward Heath, 1971 Alastair Hetherington, 1978 (WikiCommons) After the meeting, Hetherington contacted Ian Withers and invited him to The Guardian office. He gave Withers four names and asked if could find as much information as possible. He assured him the men had done no wrong and knew all about it – it was completely above board. Ian Withers (with kind permission of Ian Withers) Ian Withers and his brother Stuart ran Nationwide Investigations, a private investigation company.  In 1971 they had moved their office from Carshalton in South London t...