Alan is Out & About

On Sunday, September 5th, 2010, Alan wrote to Hamilton

Hi Ham

Firstly, set back from the road is 41 The Village, Charlton which is the birthplace of Poppy Warren and Denis Warren (long before Pizza Hut arrived).

Pity it wasn’t No 43 or 45 which have been fully restored.

Next is 22 Bostall Lane, Abbey Wood where Alured Berkely Smith was living at the time of his death in 1973. His next door neighbour remembers Alured & Ethel as a lovely couple.

On the Alured trail, I have establised that his widow, Ethel did not re-marry but went to live with her son, Raymond Trevor Smith in Southampton where she died on 24/2/1987.

Raymond had married Margaret Allchin in 1960 in Dartford, Kent but that ended in divorce.

Further searches may show that he re-married and may still be alive…….he would be 76 years old (and not still about 2 years old as in Family Warren pic 1930’s no 394)

Thirdly, is all that is left of the old buildings in Commercial Road, Guildford where Beryl was born in 1927 (& from where Biddy would walk to her first job in Barts Toy Fair ). Another trip to Surrey Records in Woking should help me to identify whether old No 15 still stands.

Cousins

I did meet up with distant cousin Yvonne in deepest Suffolk at the end of June. She hasn’t got around to organising her family records but we did have quite a wide-ranging and most enjoyable chat.

I hope more will emerge about her grandfather (Henry Charles Warren) who served valiantly in France in WW1 and who, along with Thomas Samuel Warren, did not emigrate to Ontario,Canada. In July, Cousin Janet arrived from Oz and on a very showery summers day we met up with Cousin Dee (or still Daphne to some) deep in the Surrey Hills. They were both bridesmaids at the marriage of Ruth DuLieu to Dennis Bishop back in March 1958 so they had a nice lot of catching up to do !

Cheers

Alan W