History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

This is a long forgotten Edwardian crime, but the astonishing story is worth recalling. We found it while researching Harlesden but the scam concerns banks around south London.   The Scam On the morning of 23 September 1908, a smartly dressed young man with a top hat and gold rimmed glasses hired a motorised taxi at Victoria Station and asked the driver, Albert Pendrith, to take him to a branch of the London and South-Western Bank and wait outside. In all they visited eight branches around South London: Vauxhall, Clapham, Balham, Streatham, Tulse Hill, Dulwich, Forest Hill and Catford. The fare was 22 shillings, and he gave the driver a sixpence tip. Each bank manager had received an advice note from Edwin Leopold Cox who had been manager of the Harlesden branch for about six years. The note said Mr Davitt S. Windell of 93 Craven Park Harlesden was transferring his account from the Harlesden branch to the other bank. The notes were on headed paper, stamped with the Harlesden branch...

The famous child actor, Freddie Bartholomew, was born on 28 March 1924 at 17 Radcliffe Avenue Harlesden. His father Cecil Llewellyn Bartholomew had travelled to Canada in 1913 and joined the Canadian Army in November 1915. He was sent to fight in France and Belgium where he was injured and had his right leg amputated. He was discharged in January 1918 and returned to his parents in Warminster Wiltshire. In 1919 Cecil married Lilian May Clarke. They first lived at 300 Earlsfield Road Wandsworth and had two daughters, Eileen born in 1920 and Hilda in 1922. A year later they had moved to Harlesden where Freddie was born. When Freddie was three and a half, he was sent to live with his maiden aunt Millicent (also spelled as Myllicent), who had pleaded to be allowed to bring him up at Carlton Villa Warminster, the home of his grandparents. ‘Aunt Cissie’ encouraged Freddie’s acting and he appeared in local amateur shows. She enrolled him at the Italia Conti children’s theatre school in Lamb’s...

The charismatic, but controversial politician Sir Oswald Mosley was born in Mayfair in 1896. He came from a wealthy aristocratic family in Staffordshire who until 1846 were lords of the manor of Manchester. After serving in WWI, he married Cynthia ‘Cimmie’ Curzon, daughter of the Foreign Secretary in 1920 and their wedding guests included King George V and Queen Mary. After a period in the Conservative Party and then the Labour Party, Mosley started his own New Party in March 1931, but it failed to secure any seats at the general election that October.  Following the rise of Fascism in Germany and Italy, and after meeting Mussolini, Mosley set up the British Union of Fascists (BUF) on 1 October 1932 at 12 Great George Street. That year he began an affair with Diana Mitford who was married to Bryan Guinness. After the death of Cimmie in April 1933, Mosley married Diana in Berlin on 6 October 1936 at the home of Josef Goebbels, with Hitler as the guest of honour. However, Mosley look...