To look back in time we searched the British Newspaper Archive to see what the papers said happened in Kilburn in 1920.
Some of the stories are tragic, others are comic and we present them in chronological order across the year.
The attack by the Kilburn Lads
While on patrol in the Kilburn High Road at 10.30pm on New Year’s Day, PC Burrows came across two men and two women who were quarrelling. When he asked them to stop, John Henley a 23-year old carman, hit the policeman in the face and called upon the ‘Kilburn Lads’ ‘to do him in.’ A large crowd of about 300 people had gathered and about 40 men attacked Burrows as he lay on the ground. Fortunately, PC Wright came to the rescue and saved his colleague from being kicked to death. He picked him up by his belt and at the same time managed to grab hold of Henley’s hair. The mob then turned on PC Wright and Henley escaped. Henley was known as a member of a local ‘gang of roughs’ and was arrested at his home in Granville Road Kilburn. In court he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three months hard labour.
The mother who killed her baby
In a very sad case, Mrs Julia Baker was charged on 12 January with the murder of her baby at 265 Harvist Road in West Kilburn. She gave birth to the boy on 17 December and then suffered a fit from dropsy (a buildup of fluid), in the legs. The same day, a doctor found her in bed with the dead baby who had a cord around its neck. Her husband Henry had been missing for three years while serving in the Royal Army Service Corps in France and Julia was living with five children at her mother-in-law’s house. At the inquest Detective Sergeant Hall said he had found a corset at the house with laces that matched the cord round the baby’s neck. Julia said she remembered nothing but admitted the father of the baby was the lodger, William Cresswell. In February she was found guilty of manslaughter at the Old Bailey and sentenced to eight months imprisonment.
The mistaken marriage
Also in February George Edward Ridewood, an aircraft fitter, of 56 Esmond Road Kilburn, was summoned for desertion by his wife Ada Elizabeth. They had married in 1917 and they were both aged 19. Their first attempt was stopped by George’s father. He went the church and interrupted the wedding ceremony, saying his son had falsely declared his age to be 21, but the couple succeeded in secretly marrying at a registry office on the 23 July. Soon afterwards George discovered a letter addressed to Ada from a man called Bill, saying that after the good time they’d had together, he could go to the Front with a better heart to face whatever was before him. Ada said it was all perfectly innocent and George promised to forget about it. Their son Thomas was born in late 1919.
On 1 January 1920, George wrote a letter to Ada saying it was absolute madness for them to stay together as they were making life a misery for each other: ‘I have no intention of ever living with you again.’ He told her he would agree to divorce and offered to provide evidence that he had ‘been carrying on with at least two other girls.’ When he was summonsed for desertion, George told the court he had been forced into marriage by Ada’s family and produced a letter where Ada had written, ‘I would rather die than live with you again, and I only want your name for our baby.’ The magistrate asked George if he was prepared to live with Ada and provide a home. George told him that was impossible as Ada had sold their home, to which Ada replied she had needed the money for her and the child. The magistrate said he could not understand what ‘these hot-headed young fools of nineteen’ could possibly expect from a marriage, and he adjourned the case. Subsequently the couple divorced, and George remarried in 1929.
The fire in Kilburn High Road
A fire broke out on 23 February in No.213 Kilburn High Road. The shop was rented by the Anzora Perfume Company for the sale of their men’s hair cream. Two local girls, Alice Bishop 14, and Winnie Webb 16, who worked at the shop, were taken to hospital with burns to their hands and feet, but after treatment they were allowed home. A gas radiator had set fire to a partition and the flames spread rapidly gutting the premises.
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Profiteering
It was not long after the First World War had ended, and the authorities were concerned with profiteering when traders sold goods at inflated prices. A Profiteering Act was introduced in August 1919. Messrs. H. Palmer Furnishing at Nos.73 and 75 Kilburn High Road were charged at the Willesden Police court on 17 March 1920 with selling a fire fender for £2 2s. to Mrs Emslie, a widow whose husband had been killed in the War. An inspector of the Profiteering Committee told the court he was able to buy a better-quality fender for 14s 11d while the pre-war value of Mrs Emslie’s fender was only 2s 11d. The magistrate said this was the worst case of profiteering he had ever heard of and he fined the company a substantial £100 (worth about £4,100 today), with 10gns costs. In Parliament in October 1920, the President of the Board of Trade said the Central Profiteering Committee had investigated 378 alleged cases. In the event, the majority were found not to be overcharging, and only 41 cases were prosecuted.
Macready’s Hounds
On 18 March three so-called ‘Macready’s Hounds’, or plain-clothed policemen, arrested two burglars. Sir Nevil Macready was the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and had set up teams of officers working undercover to detect crime. Robert Garrett and William Hawkins both of Granville Road, were arrested and charged with burglary of the flat of Mrs Florrie Freedman, who lived at 49 Leith Mansions, Grantully Road in Maida Vale, near Paddington Recreation Ground. The officers saw Garrett and Hawkins leaving the block of flats and thought they were acting suspiciously. When searched the men were found to be carrying clothing and goods worth about £50. They told the police ‘we live here,’ and they led the detectives to a flat, but the occupant said she didn’t know them. Only then did Garrett and Hawkins admit they had broken a window and entered the flat below. Hawkins said, ‘You have beat us this time’, while Garrett said it was his first job. Hawkins was sentenced to 12 months. We could not find what happened to Garrett and he may have been released without charge.
The Kilburn Empire
The Kilburn Empire music hall which stood on the site of today’s London Marriott Hotel, was very popular in 1920 and great stars such as Marie Lloyd regularly appeared here.
In April 20-year old Alice Jones sued her husband Robert (Bobby) James Rayment, a fishmonger of Malvern Road Kilburn, for cruelty and desertion. This was a very strange story which the papers called ‘Bride for a Day’.
At Willesden Court Alice said she had known Bobby at school and that her brother, who had been friends with him for a long time, re-introduced them a few weeks ago. The very same day Bobby asked her to go riding with him in his pony and trap, and he proposed to her straight away and even more surprising, she agreed. They set the date for Easter Sunday and he gave her money to buy her wedding dress. But the day before the wedding, Bobby told Alice, ‘we had better not be married; I think we are too young. We shall probably meet someone we like better. You should not have taken my proposal seriously; it is only a way I have. Whenever I met a girl, I suggest that we marry.’ Alice said she was so unhappy that she put on her wedding dress and took what she called ‘poison’ - something which made her very ill. But then Bobby changed his mind and they went ahead and married on 4 April as planned.
On the morning after the wedding, Bobby came out with the astonishing statement, ‘I am fed up with married life – we have to get a separation.’ He went to work at the fish shop as usual and sent an assistant to tell her they should part. Then a solicitor arrived with a deed of separation which he asked Alice to sign. She did as she was asked but was very unhappy when she found out what she had agreed to. Bobby told her to return to her mother who lived at Ruckledge Avenue Harlesden. A week or so later a reconciliation took place through a magistrate in court, but subsequently Bobby was brutal to Alice and brought other girls to the house. The magistrate granted the separation order and Robert was required to pay Alice 25 shillings a week.
That June Mr H.A. Barnett of Rayleigh Road Hammersmith appeared in court on a summons from the Law Society for falsely representing himself as a solicitor when Alice signed the deed of separation. In fact, he had been struck off in 1913. He pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay a £10 fine with £3 13s costs.
In February the following year Alice summonsed Bobby, who was now working for a fishmonger in Fulham, for £28 15s in maintenance arears. He said he could not pay and was sentenced to one month in prison. After his release, Bobby was convicted of a series of petty crimes in different parts of the country. In May 1921 he was sentenced to one month with hard labour for theft in Derby. When he was again arrested in July 1924, this time for burglary in Chichester, the Police Gazette showed he had several minor previous convictions for larceny and stealing a bike. Bobby gave his occupation as labourer, living in Portsmouth and he served six months. He was back in London when he was sentenced in August 1934 to a year in Wandsworth for stealing jewellery from a private home. In October 1937 he was in the Willesden area, and police saw him acting suspiciously looking in houses in Walm Lane. In court Robert said, ‘I have been pulled up six times since I came out of prison. I have been frightened to walk about in London. I was going to Hendon for a job in the building trade.’ The police said he was married but living apart from his wife, and had a bad record of fifteen convictions for larceny, burglary etc. The magistrate did not believe Rayment and he was sentenced to another six months.
A Broken Jaw
In May Charles Gregory 43, an ex-pugilist of 79 Granville Road, saw his wife leaving a local pub after having a drink with William John Fraser. Incensed, Gregory hit Fraser and broke his jaw. He fell on the pavement in a pool of blood. Dr Adams of Carlton Vale was called, and Fraser was taken to Paddington hospital where he was found to have lost a pint and a half of blood. What Gregory did not know was that his wife was Fraser’s sister-in-law. We have not been able to find a report of Gregory’s trial and the sentence he received.
The Fascinating Boyfriend
On the 26 June two young women appeared in the Willesden Police Court. Nellie Bolton of Kilburn Square, and Louisa Starkey of Bridge Road Kilburn, were arguing over an unnamed boyfriend. Louisa said Nellie had stolen her young man and had come to her house and threatened her. The magistrate asked if the ‘fascinating’ young man was here, as he would like to see him. But he was not in court. He said that Solomon would have solved the problem by giving half of him to each woman – but as he was not present this was not possible. He suggested that Nellie should give him back to Louisa as she had him first. Nellie said the boyfriend should be allowed to decide. With this the magistrate said, ‘Go away both of you. Be sensible and don’t quarrel anymore over this young man.’
A Country fit for Heroes
On 24 November 1918, Prime Minister David Lloyd George gave a speech in which he said the government needed to make Britain ‘a fit country for heroes to live in’. Unfortunately, so far as providing homes for the returning troops, the number of houses built fell far short of what was needed.
In July 1920, ex-serviceman Matthew Coleman appealed for help from Willesden magistrate Mr Godson. After demobilisation from the Royal Marines in 1919, Matthew had returned to London to find his wife and seven children living in what he described as a ‘small kitchen’ at 22 Hazel Road Kensal Rise, which was all they could afford. There was too little space for Matthew to join them so he rented lodgings at 10 Stuart Road West Kilburn, spending his time tramping the streets to find suitable accommodation for the family. In the meantime, his children fell ill due to overcrowded living conditions. With no Welfare State to help, Matthew was forced to send some of the children to the workhouse. His wife was in hospital recovering from a serious operation and was waiting to come home, but Matthew told the court that he had no home to bring her to. ‘My ship was mined in the North Sea and I would rather go through that experience fifty times than suffer the distress of mind I had to endure since demobilisation.’ The magistrate said while he had the deepest sympathy for Matthew’s plight, he was powerless to offer any assistance. But he suggested the Press might help by bringing the family’s case to the attention of the public, in the hope someone could provide a home for them.
Matthew was born in Lambeth in 1876 and was working as a baker’s assistant when he joined the Royal Marine Light Infantry in 1896. His military record consistently describes his character as ‘very good’. Matthew saw service in China and during WWI was present at the defence of Antwerp, managing to get back to England with a few comrades after evading internment in the Netherlands. Then followed time on North Sea patrols and two terms in Russia. In all, twenty-three years’ service.
The story did appear in several papers and it looked as if Matthew’s problems had been solved when the Sunday Post ran an article under the headline, ‘Help from Queen Mother for War Hero’. But a catastrophic misunderstanding meant Matthew was still homeless. He had been contacted by Queen Alexandra’s secretary and received some assistance. Even better, the Duchess of Somerset had offered the family a cottage in the country and work. Instead of accepting outright, Matthew wrote that he was concerned it might be hard to find the money for the nine fares to allow the family to travel to the cottage. The Duchess’ agent interpreted this as a refusal and replied that as Matthew had declined the job, the position had been filled. Matthew told the reporter this was a dreadful blow, ‘it would have been a perfect godsend to have all of us together again’.
After this, we lose sight of the Coleman family and we don’t know what happened to them. However, the Matthew Coleman, house decorator, shown in 1939 as a patient in Shenley Hospital Barnet is likely to be our ex-soldier. It was primarily a psychiatric hospital but also had some convalescent beds.
BB Evans was the largest department store in Kilburn
In 1920 the bicycle was an extremely popular means of transport. It may be hard to imagine, but Kilburn and Willesden then stood on the edge of open fields, and footpaths were in common use as short cuts. One old path (that still exists) started at the wall of Hampstead Cemetery on Fortune Green and ran through the Cemetery to Cricklewood. It was used by walkers and bikers alike.
The police mounted a campaign to stop cyclists and 10 people were prosecuted in July. After notices saying that cycling was illegal were torn down, further action by the police resulted in 67 cyclists being brought up before Hendon magistrates that August. While threatening heavier penalties in future, the magistrates fined juveniles 4 shillings costs and adults who pleaded guilty and promised not cycle the footpath again, were fined 1sh and no costs.
The First Air Disaster
Here is an early photo of a Centaur 2A flying over Northolt
On Saturday afternoon 25 September, a Centaur 2A eight-seat plane crashed at Northolt in what has been called the UK’s first air disaster. The plane had been built by the Central Aircraft Company at their factory in Kilburn on the site which later in 1937 became the Gaumont State cinema. The pilot and five passengers were on a complimentary flight around the Northolt airport. The plane had only been in the air for a few minutes when there was a loud explosion and it crashed in Shavell Lane Hayes, a mile from Northolt.
Of the six persons on board this flight, five were killed instantly. Captain Frederick P Goodwin Castleman, 24, from Wavedon Avenue Chiswick, was an experienced flyer from WWI. He was the chief pilot of the Central Aircraft Co. Imelda Trafford, 22, of Ruslip, was one of the first women to get an Air Ministry pilot certificate. Friends marveled at her skill and daring stunts, which included spiral nose-dives and loop-the-loops. Mary Wilkinson, 43, assisted her husband in the catering at Northolt. Fourteen-year-old Sybil Wilkinson was her daughter. They had never flown before. George Rowland, 43, was the caretaker at the airport. His daughter 14-year old Ellen was the only survivor; she was taken to hospital with serious injuries but died there on the 27 September.
At the inquest Charles Allen, representing the company, said this was the first fatal crash they had ever had. The jury recorded a verdict of accidental death. The reason for the crash was not established beyond doubt: possible causes included either the petrol tank or the engine had exploded.
The Kilburn Brewery closes
In October 1920, the auction of Kilburn Brewery was advertised with the building marketed for the special attention of ‘engineers and manufacturers’ as adaptable for a large engineering works or factory. The site of 54,000 square feet had a long frontage to Kilburn High Road. The brewery was built about 1832 by brothers William and George Verey and became one of the area’s major employers. By 1851 it employed 22 men, and from 1853 a wharf on the Grand Union Canal in Acton was used to bring in the large quantities of malt, hops and yeast it needed. The brewery had its own malt-house and two wells which supplied water. In 1866 the Verey brothers sold the business to Michell & Phillips (which in 1894 became Michell & Aldous) and retired. After a fire in 1891 severely damaged the Brewery, it was rebuilt, extended and improved, and was employing 66 men the year before it finally closed in 1920. Rather than being converted, the brewery buildings were demolished and replaced by Nos.293-313 Kilburn High Road, a range of shops with a distinctive first-floor red-brick façade and a balustrade above.
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