My Dad was born on 16th November 1913 and lived in Jeddo Road in Hammersmith.
Born George Eric, as far as I know, he was only ever known as ‘Eric’.
His Parents
His Dad was George William Henderson, a rather stern looking man, perhaps
and his life and photos can be traced on my ancestry site.George William Henderson
In theory you can trace all his family and their ancestor’s back to George Henderson born in Durham in about 1690.
However, there is a story here, as yet unexplained. I found him eventually as the son of John Harvey Henderson and Mary Ann Potts. Mary Ann was the daughter of a coal mine manager near Newcastle and when I investigated I found they married on 5th October 1874 while my grandfather was born on the 29th of December 1872. Two years earler!
You can find the marriage certificate and birth certificate on the website. The birth certificate says ‘father unknown’ It could have been John Harvey at 19 was considered too young and had to wait until he was 21. However, I believe this unlikely and my grandfather was born to a different father – so I’m not an ancestor of the Henderson clan!
To add interest to this tale my first wife, Valerie, whose parents lived nearby in the North East found out that in the early 1870’s many Spanish miners worked in the local mines.
This may of course raise a question and perhaps answers why my father always took the sun and was very brown (see below) with my Mum. As am I. Perhaps a DNA test may throw up something?
As my grandfather died in 1932, aged 60, so unfortunately I never met him.
The maiden name of my dad’s mother was Ada Mary Humphrey and you can find out about her life with lots of photos and also the generations of her family on the Ancestry site back to John Humphrey who was born in Norfolk in 1756. The family lived the rest of their lives in Norfolk where grandma was born .
Here is a photo of her when she was a governess in about 1901.
it is obvious that my daughter, Diana, looks very much like her great grandmother. Her full name is Diana Mary!!
I can remember grandma very well and often visited her in Ealing, sometimes when I was there to visit my uncle Tony Ashton who was my dentist!
Now back to my Dad’s life
I have no idea when I first remember seeing my Dad although have a vague recollection of meeting him at a London train station when he returned after the war in 1945 when I was four.
My Mum kept his call up letter but I don’t recall him at 15 months old. Only 5 days notice seems a bit harsh
Dad’s Call Up Paper when I was 15 months old
I had virtually no photos from him of his early life and some I got from a relative who I found and met for the first time while researching my ancestry. Diana and I found the house he was brought up in, Jeddo Road in Hammersmith, and took some photos, which are on the website
The only possession I have from my Dad is the coconut head that he brought back from Africa after the war, My mother kept it and I still have it as I write this in 2022 – I wonder if I can find a replacement eye. However, this is how I will always remember this little African chap.
Uncle Jimmy says my dad was a good footballer, and I know from watching him normally win the annual tournaments at Littlestone Holiday Camp, he was an excellent tennis player.
He started as an office boy at Gibbons & Moore in Holborn and when he had to retire due to ill health he had become Company Secretary. They are still a private company, now called GMS and more of their history and my Dad’s relationship with the company can be found under GMS. Their history on their website included when I last looked, mention of the large plot of land in Kent Gardens in Ealing where my parents lived for a few years in a large apartment in a number of beautiful Georgian buildings owned by the company. My relatives, the Bussicott’s, lived next door and Dusty Springfield, the singer, lived above them and I travelled to Ealing Station on the 65 bus sometimes with her all those years ago. More relatives, Ray and June Tanner lived further down Kent Gardens.
During the war years he was stationed in the British colony of the Gold Coast in Africa, now Ghana. He claimed he never saw a German the whole time and the only things he brought back were a suntan and occasional fits of Malaria. He did however bring back a number of photos in a smart album and the fellow above of course.
He sent some letters and cables from Africa and some are copied
As you can see he caught the sun there and strangely in later years went brown very quickly when out in the sun in the UK, a trait I inherited. I remember friends at school thought he was coloured! People with coloured skin were a rarity in those days and I remember my mother saying she and her friends ran home crying and frightened when they saw a coloured man in Chelsea. My dad never quite recovered from malaria he picked up in his years out in the Gold Coast, now Ghana.
I was called back from working in Barcelona when I received a letter from my uncle Jimmy and flew home to be with my mother as my father, slowly but bravely, died from lung cancer on 30th March 1966 at 27 Greenwood Road Thames Ditton.
Sadly, he was just 52.