Wedding of Hook & Ryan

Flight-Lieut Hook, RAF and Miss Ryan Flight-Lieutenant Robin Hook, RAF, only son of Mr and Mrs E.M. Hook, of The Croft, Beaconsfield Road, Bickley, was married on Monday at the Parish Church of St Jude, Mapperley, Nottingham, to Miss Mazie Doreen Ryan, only daughter of Mr and Mrs W. Ashwood Ryan, of Mapperley. The bridegroom, who took part in one of the first raids on Berlin, had as best man Flight-Lieutenant Eric Randall, D.F.C., his comrade in many raids over Germany. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. H. Taylor,…

William Page & Margaret Holder: Wedding

The perfect romance It seems this was the perfect romance.  In the 1939 Register, William Page, then living at 17 Cloisters Avenue, Bromley was listed as a Butcher’s Assistant, along with his younger brother David.  Margaret, on the other hand, who was living with her parents on Southlands Road, was noted as being a cashier in a Butchery department.  No details of the company they worked for are given, but it could very well have been the same place, and so was how they met. The couple went on to…

Rifleman Robert Leo Rockall: Wedding

Mr R.L. Rockall and Miss Elsie L. Williams The wedding took place on Saturday at St Mary’s Church, Plaistow, of a well-known local sportsman, Mr. Robert Leo Rockall (now Rifleman, Royal Ulster Rifles), third son of Mr and MRs B. Rockall, of 20 Gilbert Road, Bromley, to Miss Elsie Lilian Williams, youngest daughter of Mrs T.H. Williams, for many years resident at 8 Florence Road, Bromley, now of 20 Arundel Drive, South Harrow, Middlesex. The Rev. W.R. Crichton officiated, and Mr Leslie Ellis, the organist, played Mendelssohn’s Wedding March, with…

Mooney & Cooney

The Canadian soldiers and airmen were very popular with the girls of the area . I don’t know whether the girls are ‘snapping up’ the boys or the boys are ‘snapping up ‘ the girls. There were a lot of such marriages during the war years. Captain John Hodgson Mooney was born in 1914.  He was later Lieutenant-Colonel, E.D.,C.D. of Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery & Canadian Army Intelligence Corps.  He died in 2000. Mollie (sometimes spelt Molly) Eileen Cooney was born on the 4th December 1920.  After their marriage…

Refugee Wedding: Pittock-Buss to Gross

Geoffrey Pittock-Buss was born in Croydon in 1919, the son of civil servant James John Adam Pittock-Buss (1885–1962) and Marion May Battishall (1881–1961), who was a professional singer. He attended Whitgift School in South Croydon between 1931-35, before starting a career in journalism and publishing. He set up the New Vision Publishing Company and in 1944 published Vera Brittain’s “Seeds of Chaos: What Mass Bombing Really Means” for the Bombing Restriction Committee. He edited or worked on local newspapers in Kent and south London as well as The Illustrated London…

Marriage of Surrey Cricketer, 1941

Surrey Country Cricketer Weds Bride daughter of Bromley Town Cricketer Corporal J. F. Parker and Miss Kathleen M. Miller A Surrey County Cricketer was married to the daughter of a member of Bromley Town C.C. at St Mary’s, Shortlands on Saturday morning. Considerable interest was aroused by the event both in Bromley and Catford.  The bride’s parents, Mr. and Mrs J.A. Miller live at 25 Beadon Road, Bromley.  For many years Mr. Miller has been a member of the Bromley Town Cricket Club, even for a longer period he has…

Decorated Soldier marries Sweetheart, 1940

It’s always exciting to read about military personnel who were awarded honours for the services in the war. Here I found Pilot-Officer Frank Henderson Denton who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (D.F.C.).  The D.F.C. is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers of the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force and other services, and formerly to officers of other Commonwealth countries, for “an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against the enemy” DFCDistinguished Flying CrossDFCDistinguished Flying Cross Wedding After Decoration Pilot-Officer’s D.F.C.…