Next Sunday all sections will meet at Marcilly Road, Wandsworth Common, at 8.45 a.m. The socials and tandems are booked for "A day out with Gertie," tea being at Mickleham. The hard-riders will have a surprise run led by Len Coldwell, and the intermediates will embark on "Phil's chalk chase," tea for them being at Hookwood, near Povey Cross.
Air Raid Precautions were uppermost at the Battersea Council meeting on Wednesday evening. A resolution moved by Councillor J. T. Lane junior condemned "the failure of the Government to initiate adequate measures to protect the citizens from aerial attack" and requested the Government to take over the whole financial responsibility for ARP, "with a view to providing for the people air raid shelters which shall be protective in war and useful in peace."
South London residents should not be alarmed on Wednesday evening if they hear air-raid sirens at full blast. In conjunction with Fire Brigade ARP exercises, sirens will be tried out at Balham, Wandsworth Common, Earlsfield, Lavender Hill, Tooting, and Streatham Police Stations at 8 p.m. and again at 10.38 p.m. On previous occasions the police have been inundated with telephone calls from terrified householders — so this time they are letting you know in advance.
Shots were fired into a crowded business train near Wandsworth Common on Thursday evening. Two holes were blown in a compartment window and passengers were sprinkled with glass. No one was hurt. The train was the 5.38 p.m. from Victoria to Epsom Downs.
The Wandsworth Common district has lost one of its oldest residents by the death at her home in Brodrick Road on Saturday of Mrs Sarah Watling, aged 85.
Richard Ray (32), a barge trimmer of 321 Brussels Road, Battersea, pleaded guilty at the South Western Police Court to stealing 1,040 cigarettes and half a pound of tea from the Temperance Billiard Hall, 66 Battersea Rise. He had concealed himself on Friday night after the hall was locked, taken the cigarettes and tea from the office, and escaped by forcing a lavatory window. He was seen the next day and admitted the theft.
Stanley Baron's Saturday article addressed an open letter to Mr Burgin, Minister of Transport, protesting against a proposed arterial road that would cut through commons in Surrey near Oxshott and Esher. It argued the broader case for the defence of common land:
The Battersea Communist Party published a penny pamphlet making "a plea for real ARP in Battersea," demanding "complete protection for 143,000 Battersea people." It argued that Battersea was "particularly easy for an enemy bomber to locate from the air, as there are two outstanding landmarks — the river and the power station — which can be seen from an aeroplane for many miles and cannot be camouflaged." A bomb aimed at the power station might easily fall as far away as Lavender Hill.
On Wednesday evening, while vaulting the iron railings surrounding Wandsworth Common, West Side, Maurice Pimm of 36 Eltringham Street, Wandsworth, slipped and cut his hand. He was taken by ambulance to Bolingbroke Hospital.
Sean O'Casey's four-act tragi-comedy The Silver Tassie, which had a long run in the West End a few years back, was presented at the Church Institute, Wiseton Road, Wandsworth Common, last Friday and Saturday by the well-known local dramatic society "The Players." The play is an anti-war piece with dramatic scenes reminiscent of Journey's End — a young man goes to war full of ideals and returns disillusioned and crippled. The players did excellently; realistic scenery was designed by A. C. Ratcliffe. The producer was Bertram R. Ratcliffe.
Mr E. Shinwell (Seaham, Labour) asked in the House of Commons whether the Lord Privy Seal could explain the reason for the unfinished condition of the air-raid trenches on Wandsworth, Tooting, and Clapham Commons.
Professor S. Brodetsky, head of the English Political Department of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, addressed a meeting of the South-West London Zionist Society at the Synagogue, Bolingbroke Grove, Wandsworth Common. He stated that Italy and Germany had supplied money and arms to terrorist Arabs in Palestine in an attempt to break the British Mandate. He gave a résumé of the negotiations at St James's Palace and of the position of Jews across Europe: in Vienna, where 180,000 Jews had lived before the Anschluss, half had been expelled by the Nazis, 33,000 existed on soup kitchens, and the remainder lived a terrible existence. In Palestine, Jews formed 30 per cent of the population but paid 70 per cent of the taxes; it was only a small band of Arabs who caused trouble, terrorising the others.
Eric Kemp (21), paper maker, of Sittingbourne, Kent, and Lionel Joseph Woolridge (21), clerk, of Northolt Park, Middlesex, were charged with stealing a handbag on 22 April from Joan Wallace, a telegraphist of Kyrle Road, Battersea, and with other offences.
A protest meeting against conscription and against the tax on sugar and tobacco was held at Battersea Town Hall on Sunday evening, attended by about 300 people. Mr T. Harrison, chairman of the Battersea branch of the Communist Party, presided. The speakers were Clive Branson, late of the International Brigade in Spain (who had been a prisoner of war), and Mick Bennett. They deplored conscription as designed to interfere with trade union conditions and democratic rights, demanded a pact with Russia as the surest way to peace, and called for deep bomb-proof shelters for every citizen and the complete abolition of profiteering in the armaments industries. A collection amounted to £4 6s.
On Sunday night many people, especially those walking across Wandsworth Common and other open spaces, saw the meteor which flashed across the sky about nine o'clock. It was green with yellow and white sparks and was shrouded in what looked like a mist. It has been stated that the meteor was probably about 50 to 100 miles from the earth.
A characteristically discursive column in the South Western Star touches on Wandsworth Common in passing.
Reginald Spong, aged 15, of 49 Strathville Road, Earlsfield, slipped when climbing some iron railings on Wandsworth Common on Saturday morning. A spike penetrated his body. His mother took him to St James's Hospital.
Two homeless labourers, William Baker (25) and Eric George Rickard (19), pleaded guilty at the South Western Police Court to being found in the County Council Sports Pavilion, Wandsworth Common, for an unlawful purpose. PC Borkett (2W) had kept observation on the two men at Bellevue Road, Wandsworth Common; Baker climbed the gate, dropped into the enclosure, and after a few minutes whistled — Rickard threw two sacks over the fence. "Very little property there," the witness confirmed, "but there are 32 brass taps and a quantity of lead." The next morning Baker said: "I was after the taps to get a few coppers to buy something to eat."
Mr H. Drummond of Stockwell, a Southern Railway parcels van driver between Nine Elms and the City, is dreaming of the day when he will match his own football team of eleven sons against another family of eleven. "I have a complete football team of my own. The eldest player is 34 years old and the youngest 13. The team includes twins of 20, and the missis and I gave them the same names — one twin is called Victor George, and the other George Victor. So far only seven of them have played together, chiefly on Clapham, Streatham, and Wandsworth Commons."
In view of the amount of sub-soil water in the trenches on Wandsworth Common and the decision of the London County Council not to permit drainage of trenches on open spaces to be connected to sewers, the original scheme of lining with pre-cast concrete units had been abandoned. The Home Office had now approved revised proposals to make the trenches permanent with in situ concrete, approving additional expenditure not exceeding £917 in excess of the tender sum of £7,084 14s. 9d., covering both Wandsworth and Clapham Commons.
Jack Goldsmith (19) of Wimbledon Road, Tooting, and Hawke (16) of Waldron Road, Houndsfield, were summoned for discharging a firearm or missile to the danger of persons at Lyford footpath, Wandsworth Common, on 26 June. PC Willis (208W) saw both lads running about behind some bushes and on the footpath; one was firing a Diana air pistol. Goldsmith said "I didn't think I had to have a licence." No one was hit; both had surrendered their pistols and 200 lead shots each. Mr Wilson: "They are dangerous things. It will be sufficient if the boys pay 2s. 6d. each."
Police of South London are trying to track down a gang of dog-stealers active on the commons and open spaces of the district, particularly on Wandsworth, Tooting Bec, and Streatham Commons. Among the victims is the manager of Balham Pavilion, Mr F. W. Andreas of Ormeley Road, Balham. His five-year-old pedigree Airedale "Mick" — whose sister won a 100-guinea prize at Crufts, making him worth more than £25 — disappeared on Wandsworth Common on Sunday 16 July. Mr and Mrs Andreas were sitting in deck chairs when he was, they believe, decoyed away and stolen. He is a black and tan dog, recently clipped, with operation scars beneath both eyes. A reward of £5 is offered. "Although 'Mick' is worth so much money, I should feel just the same if he were a mongrel," said his wife. "It is intolerable that these thefts should continue."
Councillor Evan Rees, chairman of the Wandsworth Civil Defence Committee, appealed to the public to be more helpful with the Anderson steel shelters. Many thousands had refused to take advantage of the accommodation offered, or had accepted shelters and then asked for their removal. Cases had also been reported where, after a shelter was erected and surplus soil banked round it, some soil had slipped in the recent wet weather and householders had applied for reinstatement without making any attempt to restore it themselves. Tenders were accepted for the completion of the trenches at Garratt Green, Wandsworth Common, and two sites on Clapham Common.
Between 12.30 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Thursday morning (10 August), London is to have a "black-out." This is not an ARP try-out, but an Air Force exercise to find out how effectively London can be blacked out. In Wandsworth, posters have been printed and are to be distributed to air-raid wardens, asking the public to extinguish or screen lights during the black-out. Wardens are suggested to patrol their sectors and show their warrant cards to "offenders," asking that lights be extinguished or screened.
William James Lewis (21), bottler, of 36 Demster Road, Wandsworth, and three boys aged 15, 15, and 14 admitted using insulting words and behaviour at Wandsworth Common on Thursday evening and were charged with damaging two deck chairs belonging to M. W. Shanly (Park Chairs) Ltd.
[I've already done a lot of work on this issue elsewhere. The OCR is very difficult — the text was printed across multiple columns. The following is a partial extraction of the most legible and relevant passages.]
The honorary secretary of the Balham and Tooting branch of the RSPCA appealed to owners of domestic animals to spare them as long as possible. It was most unfortunate that many people had appeared to think there was a compulsory order for destruction at the outbreak of war; this was merely a humane measure advised in cases where whole families were evacuating so that pets should not be left to starve. "There were over 1,000 animals humanely destroyed in the Balham and Tooting branch and its auxiliaries (Wandsworth Common, Streatham Vale, and Long Thornton) during the first few days of September." The question of finance was now serious, as heavy extra expenses had been incurred and several fund-raising arrangements had had to be abandoned owing to the black-out and so many supporters leaving the neighbourhood.
Mr J. R. B. Branson of Battersea — brother of Sir George Branson (a judge in the King's Bench Division), a graduate of Trinity Cambridge, ex-captain and coach of the First Trinity Boat Club, former solicitor in Madras, GC clothing officer at Aldershot in the last war, and now retired to think out his philosophy — has adopted a full grass diet.
A pom-pom shell, measuring about six inches long and two inches in diameter, was found in a lavatory on No. 10 platform at Clapham Junction railway station on Monday morning. The discovery was made by a porter about 10 o'clock. The Southern Railway's head office at Waterloo was notified, and they in turn informed the local police, who took charge of the shell. It is believed to be a souvenir of the war, though whether it is a "live" relic is not known. The shell had obviously been subjected to repeated polishing. "One has to be wary at the present time," said an official. "It would be very easy for a person with knowledge of explosives to place a time bomb inside a shell case to allay suspicion." No. 10 platform serves one of the down suburban lines — Wandsworth Common, and so on.