Can anybody add names to the following photographs on the Laindon Home Guard and ARP’s
Back Row, from left
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 |
Middle Row, from left
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
Front row, from left
| 1 C. Rubery | 2 Albert Edward Poulten | 3 A W Cannon | 4 |
| 5 | 6 |
Back Row Standing, from left
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 Albert Edward Poulten | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | Cecil Emson |
| 13 |
Middle Row
| 1 | 2 | 3 Stanley Thomas Burr | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 |
Front Row
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 |
Back two Rows
| 1 | 2 | |||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
Middle Row, from left
| 1 Alexander Norman | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 Mr Toomey | 6 |
Front Row
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 |
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Ken. I found Laindon Ponds on the 1939 Register. In residence were; Frederick K W Seward, date of birth 13.03.1885 (Heavy Engineer Master) also. Alice Seward and Muriel Seward.
On the 1949 Electoral Register, residenent at Laindon Ponds were, Gertrude E Griffin, Frederick W Seward and Frederick B Seward.
I have been reading the following book ‘WARMEN COURAGEOUS’ The history of the Essex Home Guard – 1940 – 1945 – Laindon was No. 4 Company of the 5th Essex Battalion and its captain was F.W.Steward, Laindon Ponds, Wash Road telephone number Basildon 276 does any body remember him?
Top picture outside Fortune of War. Third in front from right I believe is my Father, Henry Clark, known as Joss Clark, a lightweight boxer in Laindon.
First row, standing with spectacles is my Grandfather, Tom Jenkins OBE.
It’s a great picture which typified the life of most men during WW2.
Most of them, bless em had already fought a terrible war.
My Grandfather included, in 1916 he was captured and was a POW in darkest Germany. The horrors of all this was to stay burned upon his memory for the rest of his life. Like many men of his era he never spoke about his experiences of WW1.
He passed away in 1969.
Elizabeth Cannon. Is your aunt Pat still in contact with her girlhood friend Joyce Carey? They were always together. Inseparable. At least so my memory says. The Carey’s lived a little west of the Cannons on the other side of the road on Berry Lane. Not as far down the slight hill as Ferndale Avenue. In fact quite possibly on the same piece of land that Paul Gibson’s house now stands. Please give my regards to Pat although she may not remember me. We were at at Langdon Hills School together. I think she was a year younger than I.
James Cannon. A real suprise finding all this information and photographs, and then finding my Uncle Jim on here. I spent the first 11 years of my life in the place shown in these photographs, and remember them well, but by the time we moved to Billericay, the shops were all empty, and some had already been pulled down. I still can’t understand why they had to flatten our High Road, just because they were building a new town somewhere else. Regards, Liz
Alan Davies. Yes, my father Ken Cannon does remember you, and sends his regards. The bungalow (“Stevenage”) is on the corner of Shelley Avenue. The last Cannon to live there was my Aunt Win who moved out in about 1988. She moved near her sister, my Aunt Jean, in Norfolk. Sadly, neither of them are still with us, but my Aunt Pat is alive and well. My Grandfather Arthur William Cannon in the home guard picture died in 1954, and is buried in the little church down near where the army camp was. I believe it is now a house?
Laindon Home Guard, No. 12 I believe is my uncle Cecil Emson.
Jim Cannon. Last June I was in the UK and spent time in Laindon. One day I was walking along Berry Lane with my cousin, Tony Davies, who used to live at the foot of Lincewood Park Drive. We stopped outside what we both thought was your old bungalow. A young woman in a bikini, no less, was working in the front yard. We stopped and asked her if she knew if that was the old Cannon residence. Yes, she had heard of the Cannons and confirmed that was the house. Whether hers was the next family after the Cannons or whether there were other prior residents over the years was unclear. She confirmed the house was unaltered except for the addition on the west end of the house. I thought it a little unseemly to ask if the plumbing was also unaltered so that question remains unanswered!
I remember Billy Seager lived a few houses west of you on the corner of Ferndale Ave and Johnny Holland a few houses east of you beyond New Ave. They were a few years younger than you but Ken probably knew them.
Yes I lived in Berry Lane on the corner of Shelley Avenue. When I next see Ken, I will mention you to him.
Jim Cannon. When you next see Ken please remind him of the following. Ken was a year older than I and, at his urging, went with him to the Berry Athletic Club located down the road that ran between the Winston Club and Churchill Johnson. The BAC was located in what must have been an old church social hall. Most of the space was taken up with a boxing ring. Fred Nunn put two boys of about the same size and age in for one round. Eventually my turn arrived and I was put in against Ken. Within ten seconds he had caught me with a tremendous (so it seemed at the time) blow to the midriff. I spent the rest of the round on my bicycle. That was my first and last occasion in a boxing ring. Perhaps Ken may remember the occasion.
Regarding the top picture of the Laindon Home Guard outside the Fortune of War, the first person on the left, front row, is Mr C Rubery (Officer), and the third person on the left, front row, is my father, Mr A W Cannon (Lieutenant) who lived in Berry Lane.
James Cannon! Did you live on the corner of Shakespeare Avenue and Berry Lane? Brother Ken (who was a friend of mine) and a younger sister Pat? Pat was never seen without her friend Joyce Carey who lived a few doors down on Berry Lane, on the opposite side of the road.
I am almost certain the 3rd person from the left in the middle row middle picture of the Home Guard is my father, Stanley Thomas Burr. Always known as Bunny.
He was in the Home Guard and I have enlarged the photo to check, if that is a cigarette in his mouth it most definitely is him.
The rural background is possibly the Langdon Hills group?
My grandfather Albert Edward Poulten is second from left in front row of the 1st home guard photo and in the second photo of home guard he is in the back row sixth from left. Albert and his Australian wife Ethel Dorothy lived in Laindon with their four children Marjorie, Dawn (my mother), Beris and Brian.
Concerning the photo of the ARP on the steps in front of the Radion, I know my Grandfather Fred Waters was in the ARP and I think he is No. 3 in the photo. Please cross reference to the photo I submitted of the Lee Chapple Social Club dated 1955. Thanks Trevor.
Editor’s Note. Which row is your Grandfather in please Trevor, back, middle or front?
Sorry I didnt make it clear, I meant the ARP photo.
Editor: Thank you Mary.
Further to Harry Rossiter’s remarks on the ARP, the family living pre-war at Barleylands was named Fisher but locally it was referred to as Fishers Farm rather than Barleylands.
Apropos your query Bill Diment, the rifles used by the LDV’s later the Home Guard, I would expect that they were the American Springfield P14. 300 calibre. My younger brother was in the Home Guard in 1943 and he was armed with one of these.
Whilst I was serving for a short while in 1941 on ground defence in the RAF, we were issued with these too. They were rather cumbersome and although very accurate, no match for the good old British Lee Enfield.
Thank you Harry Rossiter for your information of the US 300 Springfield Rifle as it was a weapon I had never seen, I mistook it for the Ross as the barrel extended beyond the wooden stock, unlike the short Lee Enfield. Presumably the US gun was used as the British could not manufacture sufficient 303 ammunition which is probably why the British tanks used the Czechoslovakian designed Besa machine guns in their tanks, the theory being that the rimless 7.92 mm ammunition was consistent with that of the german army and that captured ammunition would be available for use, whether this ever actually happened I do not know, as for the greater part of the war I was on US tanks where the machine guns were Brownings 300 inboard and 500 on turret top.
I was interested in the photo of the Home Guard (originally called Local Defence Volunteers) and was somewhat puzzled by their weaponry. The two in the middle of the second row appear to be holding the Canadian Ross rifles but I cannot hazard a guess as to those held by the men on the extreme right, but I do not have a comprehensive knowledge of infantry weapons. Can any of the subscribers say what they were?
Concerning the cyclist messenger service. The ARP was renamed Civil Defence and the messengers were issued with CD armbands, steel helmets and civilian duty respirators.
In August 1939 the district cyclist messenger service of the ARP was formed by two brothers who lived at ‘Barleylands’ (I forget their names). There were branches formed, based usually at local schools but the Laindon branch was based at Toomeys garage in Laindon High Road. I was there on duty when from across the road was the Primrose cafe, where I with others heard Mr Chamberlains fateful radio broadcast on 3rd September, ending with those spine shivering words ‘We are now at war with Germany’. Most of those lads like me enlisted in the fighting services and several of whom never lived to return home.
The incendiary bombs fell thick and fast on my Nans house in Barking. Twelve in one day – one through the wardrobe in the front bedroom, ruined suits the order of the day. Mum was 14 then and was told by the ARP not to touch any of the bombs – bloody hell, as if!!
Another time, Mum was coming out of the cinema with a friend when they were followed up Goresbrook Road by a V1, which luckily kept on motoring into East London, before smashing a row of houses near Canning Town.
All through the early 1950s when I was at Cambell primary and junior schools I can clearly remember the air raid siren (out of action by then) being in place near The Fanshawe Pub, Becontree Station.
So, no time for keeping bomb mementos on the mantelpiece for my family!!
My father, George Davies was in the ARP. He was stationed at the ARP post which stood on the corner of the High Road and (I think) Lee Chapel Lane. Up Langdon Hills on the left just before the last steepest ascent of the Crown Hill.
On either side of the clock on our mantlepiece, stood a pair of de-fused German incendiary bombs. Perhaps fifteen inches high, screw off bottoms revealing a small inside where the nasty stuff was packed, the whole thing metal, perhaps aluminum. Not the sort of thing one would see in Country Life!!
In the above photo of the ARP’s outside the cinema middle row 1 is my Grandad Alexander Norman! So pleased to see this!
Middle row 1 Alexander Norman who survived being blown up by a bomb with Mr Clements Middle row 5 Mr Toomey of garage fame, and leader of the group.
Editor: Mary can you please let me know which photograph you are referring to.
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