In the Workhouse, Christmas Day [Poem]

In the Workhouse, Christmas Day by George R. Sims ( 1847 – 1922 ) It is Christmas Day in the workhouse,And the cold, bare walls are brightWith garlands of green and holly,Ad the place is a pleasant sight; For with clean-washed hands and faces,In a long and hungry lineThe paupers sit at the table,For this is the hour they dine. And the guardians and their ladies,Although the wind is east,Have come in their furs and wrappers,To watch their charges feast; To smile and be condescending,Put pudding on pauper plates.To be…

Women to Help Home guard

Women to Help Home Guard Casualty Service Training More volunteers wanted in Bromley Arrangements have now been completed for the training of women to assist with the Casualty Services of the Home Guard in the Bromley area.  It is not intended that these women shall go out to attend to casualties in the fighting positions, but that they shall staff shelter points in selected houses to which casualties will be brought to await removal by ambulance to hospital. As, under invasion conditions there may be delays in procuring evacuation by…

Cross Country Run, 1942

Air Training Corps take part in Cross Country Run A.T.C. in Hard Test Forty-two members of the Bromley Squadron of the Air Training Corps took part in a cross-country run at Hayes [Bromley] on Sunday morning.  It was organised by Flying Officer W.M. Ogden, who is in charge of the sports side. The course was a four-mile one, starting from the top of Station Hill by the fountain, then going across the Common to Croydon Road. along to the Fox at Keston and Leafy Grove then down the hill to…

Night’s Heavy Blitz – April 1941

Night’s Heavy Blitz – April 1941 This report describes the aftermath of a heavy night of bombing on the town of Bromley in Kent on 16th April 1941. Due to government censorship of newspapers at the time, no exact location is given, other than a South-East residential location, but we now know this location to be Bromley, St Peter’s and St Pauls’ as the parish church which was destroyed, and the furniture depository being Dunn’s of Bromley which was located on Market Square. Heavy Bombs and Incendiaries in a residential…

Nurse K.E. Stacey

Nurse from Green Street Green awarded for her services to The Red Cross during World War One The Royal Red Cross The distinction of being the only trained nurse to go abroad from the village of Green Street Green during the war belongs to Miss K.E. Stacey, eldest daughter of the late Mr James Stacey of Green Street Green, and on Wednesday last week, at Maidstone, in recognition of very valuable work, she was decorated with the Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class. Sister Stacey, who served in Malta and Salonika,…

Mrs Fraser-Harris joins Munition Making at 62

62 year old lady proves she’s just as capable as her younger counterparts Munition Making at 62 Lady Workers’ 10 Hours a Day At a local factory engaged on Government work, a well educated and widely travelled lady of 62 has, for the last five months, been working from eight in the morning until a quarter to seven at night on a drilling machine. She is Mrs Eleanor Fraser-Harris, who has left her charming home in Maresfield, Sussex, in order that she may live near near work. In an interview…

Albert Henry Jennings

Leading Stoker A. H. Jennings Leading-Stoker Albert Henry Jennings, aged 22, who is among the missing, is a brother of Mr C. Jennings, newsagent, of Russell Place, Horns Cross, with whom he made his home. He was home on leave shortly before Christmas, having served for the previous ten months without leave. Source: Bromley & District Times, 

Girls Being Called for Service

Bromley’s W.R.N.S. Cadets Young girls who are approaching the age when they will be called for the Service, and whose preference is given to the W.R.N.S., have formed themselves into the Girls’ Naval Training Corps., with headquarters at Bromley. Their uniform is a white blouse and dark skirt and a “Chic” sailor’s hat, and on parade they are a smart little group. The corps gives them the rudiments of the training required to fit them out as Wrens, under the supervision of Commander C.L.A. Woollard, R.N. Picture shows a smart…

Wedding: Edgar Hewett and Miss Harrington

The wedding of Lieutenant Edgar Alfred Robert Hewett, only son of Mr and Mrs Alfred Hewett, of Woodlands, Swanley, and Miss Ethel May Harrington, eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs Samuel Harrington, of Hextable, Swanley, took place very quietly at Hanover Square W., on Wednesday 5th, inst. The bride was married in her going-away costume of navy blue with black velvet hat, and shortly after the conclusion of the ceremony the bride and bridegroom left for Brighton, where the honeymoon is being spent. Mr Edgar Hewett saw war service for…

Private AG Sales

Killed in Action Private A.G. Sales, of the 3rd Monmouth, who enlisted on August 30th, 1914, went to the Front on May 11th 1915, and in the engagement at Ypres was badly wounded, sustaining fractured ribs. After being treated in hospital in France, he was sent to Herne Bay, and on becoming convalescent was at his home in Dartford in June for a fortnight’s furlough.  He returned to France in August, 1915, and met his death on December 29th, being killed by a shell. His widow, who lives at 6…