Book Review: The Thames at War, Saving London from The Blitz by Gustav Milne

The Blitz remains a defining moment in the more recent history of our capital city, a time when Londoners found themselves under almost nightly attack from September 1940 to May 1941 and following a welcome intermission in the second half of 1941 and 1942, were once again under fire during the Little Blitz of late 1943 to early 1944 and rounded off by Hitler's so-called "Vengeance Weapons" from June 1944 right up until late March 1945, barely six weeks before the Nazi capitulation signalled the end of the war in Europe.

This new book by Gustav Milne and the Thames Discovery Programme, a community based archaeological project that surveys the Thames and it's foreshore, tells the story of the London County Council's Thames-Flood Prevention Emergency Repairs Service, or "T-F" for short, one of the lesser known facets of London's Civil Defence organisation during those wartime years, which was largely the creation of Sir Thomas Pierson Frank, the LCC's Chief Engineer from 1930 to 1946 - a classic case of "Cometh the hour, cometh the man" if ever there was one.

The River Thames is London's raison d'etre and then as now, feeds a major port, which during the Second World War was the largest and busiest in the world. But whilst acting as London's life blood, an enemy bomb, doodlebug or rocket could breach the river's embankments at high tide, or fracture one of the many tunnels running beneath it and instantly turn the Thames into a terrifying monster which could kill thousands, paralyse the capital's services and cripple a major part of the British war effort.

As we learn from this book, the embankments were breached on numerous occasions, as were at least two of the tunnels running beneath the Thames but thanks to the superb work of the T-F teams, coupled with a certain amount of good fortune, a major flood disaster in the capital never followed.

The book begins by telling us something of the history of the various floods to affect London in the years prior to the Second World War and of the establishment of the T-F Service. A detailed summary of the works undertaken by the various Rapid Response Teams of the T-F Service then follows, which explains how their work was undertaken of necessity always with one eye on the clock and the state of the ever changing tides. We then learn something of the other emergency services on the river, such as the Auxiliary Fire Service and the Thames Division of the Metropolitan Police, as well as the efforts to keep London's river crossings open throughout the Blitz and the running repairs that were frequently required following heavy raids. We also learn of the work of the various engineers and labourers who worked for the T-F Service, many of whom remain anonymous to this day. Of course, the Port of London would be meaningless without the shipping that served it and the book finishes up with a section devoted to the ships lost on the river and in it's estuary, as well as examining the role played by the Thames during two pivotal operations of the war, DYNAMO and OVERLORD, both of which were crucial to the ultimate Allied victory.

I have one very minor complaint - the author insists on calling the V-1 Buzz Bombs "Rockets" - this is not correct, they were "Flying Bombs" which were not rocket powered (they were propelled by a pulse-jet engine) and I suspect that he has perhaps got them slightly confused with the subsequent V-2 weapons, which were indeed rockets designed by one Wernher von Braun and his team.

However, this is a minor gripe which did not detract from my overall enjoyment of this well-written, profusely illustrated and meticulously researched book and I have no hesitation in commending it to you, whether you are a guide like me, or have a more general interest in London's wartime history.

THE THAMES AT WAR: Saving London from the Blitz
By Gustav Milne

Published by Pen & Sword

RRP: £19.99

Hardback, pp208

Book Review: City of London at War 1939 - 45 by Stephen Wynn

The latest in Pen & Sword Military's excellent series of "Your Towns & Cities in World War Two" covers the City of London, the "Square Mile" that was and remains the financial and business heart of the United Kingdom and comes from the author Stephen Wynn, who has contributed many books to this series.

Several books have been written on the subject of the City of London during the Blitz, concentrating on specific raids, more usually the great fire raid of 29 December 1940, which became known as "The Second Great Fire of London" but in this new offering, Mr Wynn has sensibly decided to look at all aspects of the Square Mile during the conflict and does so in a chronological, year-by-year basis and covers such events as the establishment and organisation of the Civil Defence Services in the City and the Home Guard, as well as Parliamentary and local authority representation. The book also looks at how various establishments and institutions fared during the war, such as the Tower of London and St Bartholomew's Hospital.

As we travel through the years to 1940 and 1941, the focus inevitably shifts to the Blitz and it is with this aspect of the book that I have some issues. For example, in several of the larger raids, the author details the casualties but rather than just providing us with a list of those who lost their lives and perhaps their ages, Mr Wynn feels the need to attempt to provide details of each person; this is fine where the individual has an interesting past or has an intriguing story behind them but merely repeating "the author has been unable to confirm exactly where he/she was buried" becomes tedious in the extreme after in excess of fifty repetitions. Surely it would have been better just to list the names in an appendix and just mention some of those individuals in the main text whenever they had an interesting story to tell.

Another gripe - and one that suggests more than a little laziness in the author's research process - concerns the terrible incident at Bank Station, when he mentions a casualty who was serving with the Women''s Voluntary Service which warrants the comment from the author "This also suggests that the Bank Underground Station was being used as an air raid shelter at this time." This statement beggars belief as even a cursory check with the London Transport Museum or of the official London Transport wartime history would have revealed this to be a fact and indeed, it was the fact that the station was being used as a shelter which accounted for the high casualty figures.

A fault in the research process is also suggested when the author mentions another casualty, this time at Cannon Street, when he mentions "William worked as a fireman and in the circumstances, it was more likely that he was at Cannon Street working rather than just passing through at the time." Once again, this shows a lack of proper research, as an inspection of the London Fire Brigade Roll of Honour, which is readily and easily accessible, reveals that the person in question was indeed on duty. Incidentally, the author speculates over this particular fireman - William Frederick Knight - but then completely overlooks his colleague Stanley Thomas Conniff - who died with him at the same location on that same night. At least one other London fireman who died in the Square Mile on the same night, albeit at a different location completely fails to warrant a mention, so one has to wonder at the completeness of the casualty lists that the author provides.

My final complaint concerns one of the photographs, which is captioned incorrectly; a photo that purports to be The Guildhall is clearly the Mansion House and should be corrected.

Notwithstanding these shortcomings, the author relates many interesting anecdotes and facts during the narrative, which leads us through the slightly quieter years of 1942 and 1943, before we reach the momentous events of 1944 and 1945 which set the country firmly on the road to victory, against a home backdrop of the Vengeance Weapons campaign of those years, both of which affected the Square Mile, although curiously, the author fails to mention the V-2 attack on the City of London Corporation owned Smithfield Market of 8 March 1945, which caused heavy loss of life.

This book is an interesting resource which should appeal to the general reader but which in this reviewer's opinion, requires a carefully revised and updated second edition.

Published Sources:

London Fire Region Deaths on Duty During the Second World War - WF Hickin, The Watchroom 2006

London Transport at War 1939 - 1945 - Charles Graves, London Transport 1974

The Shelter of The Tubes - John Gregg, Capital Transport, 2001

Books, Books and more Books!

A "shelfie" of one of my new alcove shelves (author's photo)

Regular readers of this blog, together with anyone who knows me well, will testify to the fact that I am something of a bookworm and have a house full of books, mainly covering military history but also with a sizeable number on transport history, film and a decent sized cricket library too!

This hobby/obsession (depending who you listen to) had threatened to get out of control, as towards the end of 2018, I had simply run out of space and as well as two overflowing and inadequate bookcases, books had begun to pile up on the floor, on chairs and tables. 

Some of those who clearly don't know me suggested that I either sell some of those "that you hardly read" or that I have an even bigger clear out and transfer the lot to electronic format!

I must confess that I have disposed of a few, a very few titles that were either duplicates, didn't fit in with my general theme of interest, or frankly weren't very good but any idea of a mass cull just wasn't going to happen and towards the end of last year, I finally got around to getting some larger capacity, heavier-duty shelves installed. The idea for them came from a Twitter friend of mine, David J.B. Smith, aka @NavalAuthor whose own shelves I had inspected when paying him a visit a couple of years back. These were re-purposed scaffold boards, easily sturdy enough to carry the weight of books, sanded and cut to size to fit the space available. In Dave's case, these were located along one wall of his office but in mine, they were to fit in two alcoves, either side of the chimney breast and each arranged in a run of six shelves. This would give me ample storage for everything I currently have and also provide room for expansion, if necessary. I am useless at anything remotely connected with DIY, so apart from purchasing and preparing the scaffold boards, the actual installation was entrusted to a good mate of mine who is a professional handyman.

Installation took slightly less than an afternoon and once this was done, I was able to start re-stocking the shelves, as well as having a general sort-out and placing the books in some sort of order. The photograph at the top of the page shows mostly the naval side of things, with a section devoted to Dunkirk, another to individual ship or action histories and a further one to the Battle of The Atlantic and submarine warfare, before moving into the subject of military high command, with a few "unclassifieds" thrown into the mix!

Shelfie two, showing the air war section (author's photo)

On the other side, the second alcove shown above contains all of my transport books, together with air war, Blitz and Home Front titles, plus once again a few that don't really fall into any of these categories. The books you see in these "shelfies" aren't always continually being read but they are important sources of reference when writing this blog, when planning new walks, preparing talks and when undertaking research, which is another important source of income for me.

LCC Bomb Damage Maps (author's photo)

The 'London County Council Bomb Damage Maps 1939 - 1945' was reviewed by me in October 2015 and although anything printed on paper has been disparaged by some who should know better, this work often provides a useful first insight into a question that has been posed to me by a customer who needs general information into the wartime history of a specific area in London. Obviously, the maps cannot help with bomb incidents in the parts of London that fall outside the then LCC area and neither can they give dates of incidents but they do provide valuable clues from which to start

Another invaluable source of reference is William Kent's 'The Lost Treasures of London', published in 1947 for 12/6 (about 63 pence in today's money), which I found at a car boot sale for 50 pence about ten years ago. This book proves that no idea is new and indeed, William Kent was giving us Blitz Walks some seventy three years ago and indeed, this work often accompanies me on my City walks, where some of the personal accounts prove invaluable and insightful.

Title paper of The Lost Treasures of London (author's photo)

Another fascinating book that is long out of print but which forms part of my collection, is Richard Collier's 'The City That Wouldn't Die', published in 1959 and which concentrates solely on one raid during the London Blitz, the night of 10/11 May 1941, the heaviest raid of the campaign and what proved to be last against the capital for some eighteen months. The book provides many eye-witness accounts and looks at the events of the night from many viewpoints - members of the public and Civil Defence workers on the British side and from airmen on the German side. I use some of the personal accounts from here in my "Thames on Fire" walk.

The City That Wouldn't Die (author's photo)

With Malice Toward None (author's photo)

Another work which contains an excellent account of the events of 10/11 May 1941, mainly in and around Fleet Street, is 'With Malice Toward None', written by Cecil King and published in 1970. The Fleet Street connection immediately falls into place when one understands that King was the proprietor of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Pictorial newspapers and the book is written in the journalistic style that would be expected of the author.

Westminster in War (author's photo)

William Sansom was an author and travel writer in peacetime but during the Blitz, was a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service and so his book, 'Westminster in War' published in 1947, must have contained at least some of his own personal experiences. Once again, it has proved an invaluable source of reference over the years and has often accompanied me on my travels around the streets of the present-day City of Westminster. I was lucky enough to pick up this copy, signed by the author, for the princely sum of £5, from a Chelsea antiquarian bookshop some years ago.

Bomber Command War Diaries (author's photo)

Apart from guiding walks, another important source of my income these days is researching family history enquiries, often from the descendants of Allied airmen. This usually entails at least one visit to the National Archives at Kew to examine operational record books from the relevant squadrons but for those who served with RAF Bomber Command, a useful first point of reference can be to check out 'The Bomber Command War Diaries; An Operational Reference Book 1939 - 1945' compiled by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, which was first published in 1985. Putting this work together must have required many visits indeed to the then Public Records Office to go through the various squadron records and RAF archives. Obviously, this book doesn't provide a squadron-by-squadron guide as to who bombed where and when but it does provide details of every single operation mounted throughout the war by Bomber Command on a daily (or nightly) basis. From this information and from the service histories of the individual airmen, it can then usually be ascertained from a follow-up visit to Kew, exactly how many missions a particular airman flew, to which targets and even in which individual aircraft.

The Blitz (author's photo)

Bomber's Moon title paper (author's photo)

Returning to the Blitz, two of my earliest second-hand purchases remain amongst my most prized possessions, partially because of the illustrations contained therein. These are 'The Blitz' by Constantine FitzGibbon, published in 1957 and 'Bomber's Moon' by the journalist James Negley Farson. These wonderful books contain illustrations by no less than Henry Moore in FitzGibbon's book and some beautiful, evocative pencil drawings by Tom Purvis in 'Bomber's Moon'. The book is themed on Purvis and Farson's travels through London in the Blitz, including various nights spent in air raid shelters and a trip down river to Greenwich. One of the drawings relating to the Thames trip is shown below - 'Old Ron' the Billingsgate Fish Market porter - '45 years in the market' and one of those London faces instantly recognisable to one who grew up in the capital when it was a working city, rather than the somewhat bland place that it has increasingly become.

'Old Ron' the Billingsgate Porter by Tom Purvis (author's collection)

Both Negley Farson and Constantine FitzGibbon were Americans, although both spent much of their time on this side of the Atlantic and indeed, in FitzGibbon's case, served in the British Army until 1942, when he was commissioned into the US Army. The American contribution to the literature of London at War cannot be overstated and I am fortunate enough to possess several of them, including 'Ernie Pyle in England' a 1941 work by the eponymous author, 'I Saw England', another 1941 publication, this time by Ben Robertson, 'A London Diary', also from 1941, written by Quentin Reynolds and finally 'Hell Came to London', a 1940 work by Basil Woon which concentrates on the author's experiences of two weeks living in London starting on 7 September 1940, the first day of the Blitz, which became known to Londoners as 'Black Saturday'. Woon's personal accounts have been much-quoted by other authors and still make remarkable reading to this day.

Title paper from 'Hell Came to London' (author's photo)

It is fair to say that all of the books mentioned above and indeed all of those that you see in the 'shelfies' shown at the beginning of this article, are much-loved by me and have become very much part of the furniture here at Blitzwalker Towers, whether they be old or new publications. I couldn't possibly write about all of them here but will perhaps return to the subject in the future and look at some of the other subjects covered in my library.

All of the photographs used to illustrate this piece are copyright to the author and may not be reproduced without my express written permission.

Books referred to in this piece:

The Blitz - Constantine FitzGibbon, with illustrations by Henry Moore, published in 1957 by MacDonald.

The Bomber Command War Diaries: An Operational Reference Book 1939-1945 - Martin Middlebrook & Chris Everitt, published (paperback) in 2014 by Pen & Sword.

Bomber's Moon - Negley Farson, with illustrations by Tom Purvis, published in 1941 by Victor Gollancz.

The City That Wouldn't Die - Richard Collier, published in 1959 by Collins.

Ernie Pyle in England - Ernie Pyle, published in 1941 by Barnes & Noble.

Hell Came to London - Basil Woon, published in 1940 by Peter Davies.

I Saw England - Ben Robertson, published in 1941 by Jarrolds Limited.

The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps 1939-1945 - editor Lawrence Ward, published in 2015 by Thames & Hudson.

A London Diary - Quentin Reynolds, published in 1941 by Random House.

The Lost Treasures of London - William Kent, published in 1947 by Phoenix House.

Westminster in War - William Sansom, published in 1947 by Faber & Faber.

With Malice Toward None - Cecil King, published in 1970 by Sidgwick & Jackson.

Book Review: Little Ship, Big Story: The adventures of HMY Sheemaun and the amazing stories of those who have sailed in her by Dr. Rodney Pell

The latest book to land on the doormat at Blitzwalker Towers is this fascinating account of the life and times of one of the many "little ships" that served, not in this case at Dunkirk but one which took part in another equally important, although perhaps unsung role as part of the Royal Naval Auxiliary Patrol on the River Thames and it's estuary. 

The book is entitled "Little Ship, Big Story" and to quote directly from the cover, it tells of "the adventures of HMY Sheemaun and the amazing stories of those who have sailed in her." It is written by Sheemaun's current owner, Dr. Rodney Pell and his obvious affection for this doughty vessel is apparent on every page.

The author has taken a novel and quite clever approach to telling Sheemaun's story and rather than just writing a standard account of the vessel's building and subsequent service in peace, war and peace once again, which could appear somewhat "dry" to the general reader, he has told the story by skilfully interweaving the history of the Sheemaun through the eyes of those who have owned her, sailed aboard her and those whose lives have been affected in one way or another by her. Not content with that aspect alone, Dr Pell expands on the life stories of her various owners, telling us what they did before and after Sheemaun came into their lives. In the case of some of the other characters who feature in the Sheemaun story, a few names have been changed in order to "protect the innocent" as the saying goes!

The story is all the better and more entertaining because of this approach and to give the reader further perspective, the author writes the story in a logical, year-by-year basis with a timeline added at the end of each chapter so that the reader can look at Sheemaun's history against the wider background of what was going on at any given time in the rest of the world.

Sheemaun came into this world in 1934 in a place that is just about as far from the sea as it is possible to get in the United Kingdom - Matlock in Derbyshire. She was the dream of one Ernest Richards, manager of the local branch of the erstwhile Williams Deacons Bank, later to become part of Williams & Glyns Bank and nowadays a constituent part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group. Richards had a love of the sea and of sailing and indeed was the owner a motor boat called the Gypsie, which fulfilled his dream up to a point but which rolled uncomfortably when at sea and was somewhat cramped for the needs of his family. Ernest, perhaps with an eye on his future retirement, decided to commission something altogether more suitable for his needs and approached a company of naval architects, Messrs GL Watson & Company in Glasgow to design a 25 ton auxiliary ketch rigged yacht. She was to be built from pitch pine and larch on sturdy oak frames and had a comfortable teak deck house to boot. 

The new yacht was to be built at the yard of James Noble & Company in Fraserburgh, some 450 miles north of Ernest Richards' home in Matlock. She was Yard No. 561 (all ships are initially known by their Yard Number) and was of a sturdy construction typical of this yard. A ship might have a predestined name but is only christened at launching, or when substantially complete. The idea for the name of Yard No. 561 came to Ernest Richards from his then fourteen-year-old daughter Helen as she sat at home one evening reading aloud Henry Longfellow's poem, "The Song of Hiawatha"  which refers to Cheemaun, a war canoe. Helen loved the name and it was quickly decided upon, with the proviso that the spelling was amended by substituting the 'C' for an 'S', giving the softer spelling of the name that the ship carries to this day. She was launched in spring of 1935 and christened by Helen with a bottle of white wine.

Following successful completion of sea trials, Sheemaun was delivered to her owner by the shipyard to Colwyn Bay, the nearest convenient port for Ernest Richards but one which was still some 75 miles distant, a daunting prospect, especially as Richards did not drive. The realities soon hit home to Mr Richards and reluctantly, in September 1935, after just one summer of enjoying Sheemaun, he decided to put her up for sale. It was inevitable that such a fine new yacht would find a new owner and sure enough, after being on the market for about one month, she was purchased by a Mr LSL Saunders for £1,100.00, which ensured that Ernest Richards had at least made a modest profit on the amount he had paid for the initial construction. Incidentally, £1,100 in 1935 equates to around £72,500 at today's values, so we can see that the commissioning and building of a yacht such as Sheemaun, was not something to be taken lightly.

From these beginnings, Sheemaun has gone on to lead an eventful life in wartime and in the subsequent peace. Today, she is part of the National Register of Historic Ships, a similar accolade to a Grade One Listed Building on land and as such, rubs shoulders (or perhaps rubs gunwales) with vessels such as HMS Victory, HMS Warrior HMS Belfast, the surviving 'Little Ships' of Dunkirk and many others, all of which are listed online on the National Historic Register's website.

Rodney Pell has owned Sheemaun since 1987 and thus was her custodian when she was included on the National Register in 2003 and when she took part in the Grand Thames Pageant for HM The Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and acted as Flagship of the historic vessels taking part that day.

I've given some modest details above of the birth of Sheemaun as well as some of her more recent highlights; in between, there are many fascinating tales of the ship herself and of the many characters who have owned her and featured in her life, as well as the sometimes world-shaping events that she has witnessed, which Rodney Pell has very skilfully interwoven in this fine book. Unfortunately, in the edition sent to me, there were one or two very minor errors of omission and commission in the text, which was down to the absence through illness of the original editor of the book. These have been corrected in a subsequent edition, so further mention is pointless and in any case did not detract from my enjoyment of this book, which I most highly recommend to you.

Little Ship, Big Story by Dr Rodney Pell is published by Conrad Press at £9.99 and is available at all good bookshops and also direct from the author via his website as per this link.

Two Villains and a Hero in Wartime London

The original version of the article below first appeared on this blog in June 2010 but as we approach the seventy-fifth anniversary of this notorious wartime crime, it seems a good time to revisit this piece, which has been updated to take into account some corrections and additional information that has come to light.

Memorial Plaque in Birchin Lane (Author's Photo)

During 2019, we have seen the seventy-fifth anniversary of some significant events during the Second World War, such as D-Day, Operation Market Garden and the advent of the German Vergeltungswaffe or V-Weapon attacks on London and other towns and cities across the United Kingdom, as well as parts of Europe that had then been recently liberated by the Allies. The anniversaries of these events have all been rightly commemorated and will no doubt continue for the remainder of the year.

However, there is another far more sinister anniversary approaching that will almost certainly not make the headlines and so should be mentioned here. It is easy to look back on life in London during the Second World War through slightly rose-tinted spectacles and imagine that the populace were as one, all pulling together with the sole aim of defeating the common enemies and returning to more peaceful lives. Despite this somewhat romanticised image, it has to said that by 1944, the citizens of the United Kingdom were becoming distinctly war weary, although most people continued to abide by the law. There was also a much shadier side to London and our other large towns and cities in the form of a significant criminal population, which due to the sheer size of the capital city, was perhaps much more prevalent in London than elsewhere in the country. It is sometimes forgotten that 'normal' crimes took place in wartime Britain but in fact, it was a real problem, made easier for the criminal fraternity by many factors, the blackout, the depleted size of wartime police forces with many war reservists filling the positions of younger men serving with the forces, rationing which helped the so-called 'Black Market' to thrive and an influx of many overseas service personnel were just some of the factors that made life easier for criminals.

One particularly notorious wartime crime in December 1944 made the headlines in both the national and local newspapers and horrified the law abiding citizens of London in particular. Today, in Birchin Lane in the City of London, many people must have walked past the unassuming black plaque on the wall of what is now a sandwich shop without giving it a moment's thought. Closer examination of the plaque reveals that it marks the scene of one of London's most notorious wartime crimes and celebrates the memory of one of the heroes of wartime London, a Royal Navy officer who died not in action with the enemy but in trying to thwart this violent crime.

Capt Binney pre-war wearing the uniform of a Commander, RN (Caroline Brodrick)

Ralph Douglas Binney was born in Cookham, Berkshire on 14th October 1888 and joined the Royal Navy as a Midshipman in 1903. Promoted to Sub-Lieutenant in 1907, he served in the Great War most notably as Gunnery Officer in the battleship HMS Collingwood and postwar in the battleship HMS Royal Sovereign before eventually taking his first command, the monitor HMS Marshal Soult in 1930. In 1934, on the completion of a final shore appointment at The Admiralty he was promoted to Captain and placed on the retired list, marking what seemed the end of an honourable career in the Royal Navy. From 1934-39, he served on secondment to the Colombian Navy and was instrumental in the setting up of their naval cadet and officer training system. He was extremely well thought of in Colombia and indeed today there is still an annual "Binney" Class within the Escuela Naval Almirante Padilla's intake of cadets.

A portrait of Captain Binney (Caroline Brodrick)

On the outbreak of war in 1939 in common with many retired officers, he was recalled to the Royal Navy and on 9 June 1940, was appointed as Flag Captain of HMS Nile, the naval base at Alexandria. On 11 June 1942, he was appointed CBE in the King's Birthday Honours List and by late January 1943 was back in the UK serving as Chief of Staff to the Flag Officer in Command of the London Area.

So it was on 8 December 1944 whilst turning into Birchin Lane from Lombard Street, perhaps on his way to or from a meeting with one of the many merchant shipping companies then located within the Square Mile, the 56-year-old Captain Binney came across an armed robbery in progress at Thomas Wordley's jewellery shop. A man had swung an axe, smashed the shop window and was rushing across the road to a waiting getaway car carrying a tray of jewellery worth £3,795 at 1944 values (approximately £167,000 in 2019), including a pearl necklace valued then at £1,700. As the car pulled away, Binney ran into the road in an attempt to jump on the running board to stop the getaway but instead of stopping, the driver merely accelerated, running over the Captain. Onlookers said that the car momentarily reversed but by this time, a member of the public had blocked the road behind them with another vehicle, so the desperate men drove forwards again with Binney caught under the car as it turned left into Lombard Street. As it sped away, horrified onlookers could hear the Captain calling for help but he remained trapped beneath the car until after it had crossed London Bridge, when he was thrown free of the vehicle as it swerved left into Tooley Street, on the south side of the bridge. Taken to nearby Guy's Hospital, Captain Binney died three hours later from multiple injuries but before he died, the getaway vehicle was found abandoned further along Tooley Street.

How the Daily Herald reported the story on 9 December 1944 (author's collection)

The Police launched a massive operation to apprehend the perpetrators and felt certain that the robbers were local men and after a three week manhunt, during which some two hundred criminals had been hauled in for questioning, they arrested two local men. Thomas James Jenkins, a welder aged 34 from Rotherhithe and Ronald Hedley, a 26-year-old labourer of no fixed address appeared in court at the Mansion House on Friday 19 January 1945, along with "two other men not in custody" and were charged with the murder of Captain Binney, who according to Mr Lawrence Walton for the prosecution "was killed while doing his duty as a brave citizen." The accused had previously been charged with shopbreaking at the jewellers and of the theft of jewellery to the value of £3,795.

Although both men denied any involvement in the robbery and subsequent murder of Captain Binney, witnesses had identified Hedley as the car driver, with Jenkins as the man in the front passenger seat of the car. Another witness, a motorist, said that he had followed the car, sounding his klaxon to alert them to the man trapped beneath but the car failed to stop and the motorist ceased his pursuit once the Captain rolled from beneath the car as it swung left from London Bridge into Tooley Street.

The Liverpool Daily Post reports from the Old Bailey (author's collection)

The men stood trial at the Old Bailey on 6 March 1945 and whilst they both admitted to knowing each other slightly, they still denied all knowledge or involvement in the robbery and murder, despite the testimony of the eye witnesses that proved their involvement. The jury took only eighty minutes to find both men guilty; Hedley, the car driver was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging, whilst Jenkins was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years imprisonment. After the verdict was announced, Hedley was heard to mutter "Nothing I can say will make any difference."

Hedley was due to hang at Pentonville Prison on Saturday 28 April 1945 but the day before the sentence was to be carried out, the Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison announced a reprieve and commuted the sentence to one of life imprisonment. The reasons behind this are unclear but as another man sentenced to hang, one Phillip Berry, was also reprieved on the same day, it might have been part of a wider amnesty granted with the approaching end of the European war in sight, or it was perhaps connected with a lingering element of doubt concerning the two other men "not in custody" at the time of the original arrests, whose identities never seem to have been established. Whatever the reasons, Hedley could consider himself a very lucky man given the prevailing attitudes at the time. In the event, Hedley was released after ten years in prison and so could count himself doubly fortunate.

Hedley's reprieve reported in The Citizen of 27 April 1945 (author's collection)

The death of Captain Binney marked a double tragedy for his family, as his son Sub Lieutenant David Binney, aged just 20, had been killed whilst serving in the destroyer HMS Tynedale when it was torpedoed off the Algerian coast on 12 December 1943.

As a result of Captain Binney's selfless action, his fellow officers in the Royal Navy established a trust fund to enable an award to be made to members of the public who put themselves at great personal risk in attempting to intervene in violent crimes in the Metropolitan and City of London Police areas. For many years, Captain Binney's widow would attend the annual ceremony and present the award in memory of her late husband.

The Binney Award has today been absorbed into the annual Police Public Bravery Awards but incorporates the award of a Binney Medal which is proudly presented every summer by the Captain's great niece, Caroline Brodrick to "The Bravest in The Land" and thus keeps alive the name of a man who died upholding the finest traditions of the Royal Navy, albeit in extremely unusual circumstances and surroundings.


Published Sources:

Daily Herald - 9 December 1944
Essex Chronicle - 15 December 1944
Hampshire Telegraph - 19 January 1945
Liverpool Daily Post - 13 March 1945
The Citizen - 27 April 1945
Daily Mirror - 17 January 1973

Unpublished Sources:

Caroline Brodrick's family photographs

London Open House Weekend - Albert Speer's doorknob, Charles Holden's masterpiece, an air raid shelter and Civil Defence HQ in one day!

Firstly, for those readers outside London, or indeed the United Kingdom, let me explain what London Open House Weekend actually is!

It bills itself as "the world's largest architecture festival, giving free public access to 800+ buildings, walks, talks and tours over one weekend in September each year." The event has been running since 1992 and provides access to buildings that are not normally open to the public, as well as to the parts of well-known buildings that the public cannot usually visit. In short, it is a dream for any lover of architecture, history or of London in general!

This year, I set myself a target of visiting some sites with a wartime connection and as always, report on here what I had found. My first visit took me to Westminster and to a building with an interesting immediate pre-war history.

Number 6-9 Carlton House Terrace is now the home to The Royal Society, who have been resident here since 1967. The Terrace itself is the creation of architect John Nash and in addition to Prussia House, as the building was known in a former guise as the German Embassy, the Terrace has had many famous residents, including Lord Palmerstone, William Ewart Gladstone, Viscount Astor and Lord Curzon.

The small garden adjoining the former embassy is the home to a small grave marker, which is inscribed "'GIRO' EIN TRUER BEGLEITER! LONDON IM FEBRUAR 1934, HOESCH" and commemorates a pet dog belonging to the ambassador from 1932 - 1936, Dr. Leopold Von Hoesch. Translated, the inscription reads "'GIRO' A LOYAL COMPANION" and is also perhaps indicative of the good Doctor's personality - a cultivated, cultured man, who worked hard to improve Anglo-German relations in the inter-war years. The marker almost certainly doesn't indicate the actual resting place of Giro as it was rescued from oblivion by a worker engaged on excavating the underground car park during the 1960s. Giro had reputedly met his end by electrocution, when he carelessly chewed through an electric cable to a lamp but sadly today, there is no trace of the location of his exact grave.

Giro grave marker (Author's photograph)

Dr Von Hoesch had been appointed by the Weimar regime and by the time of his death in 1936 whilst still in post, he had found himself increasingly at odds with his new political masters back in Berlin. His funeral cortege in London had been full of Nazi pomp but tellingly, he was returned to Germany on a British destroyer, HMS Scout and at the funeral in his home city of Dresden, not one party member had bothered to attend.

I was aware that the interior of the building had been renovated by Hitler's architect Albert Speer and wanted to see if any evidence of this work was still visible. I had heard rumours of a Nazi Eagle mosaic hidden beneath a carpet somewhere in the building but if there was any truth in this, any views of it were not forthcomng but what we were able to see from this era were several doorknobs reputedly installed during the Speer renovation and also the main staircase, which now boast Travertine marble facings, also a remnant from the work carried out at this time.

A Third Reich doorknob! (author's photo)

Travertine marble installed during the Albert Speer renovation (Author's photograph)

A brisk walk across St James's Park took me to my next port of call at 55 Broadway, perhaps better known as the headquarters building for London Transport, designed by Charles Holden and constructed between 1927 and 1929. The wartime connection here is somewhat more tenuous but still merits a honourable mention. Holden himself was London Transport's "in house" architect and was responsible for the corporate style that led to the classic, airy station buildings designed on the Northern and Piccadilly Line extensions but he had perhaps first come to prominence for his work for the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) immediately after the First World War. Initially working as Senior Design Architect and reporting to such luminaries as Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, he had gone on to design works in his own right including memorials at Messines Ridge British Cemetery and the Buttes New British Cemetery at Zonnebeke.

55 Broadway was when built, the tallest office building in London and is of a cruciform design, with wings that project from a central core which contain lifts, staircases and other services. The design allowed more natural light into the offices and was constructed directly above St James's Park Station. The building is supported by some 700 concrete piles and nineteen load-bearing steel girders span the railway, with special insulation used in order to reduce vibration emanating from the passing trains beneath. It is faced with some 2,200 cubic metres of Portland stone, one of Holden's favourite materials. Much use was also made of Norwegian granite for plinth facings and black Belgian marble for the column capitals, as well as Travertine marble for the reception areas.

55 Broadway still looking maginificent (Author's photograph)

Frank Pick, the Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman of London Transport, who commissioned the building and who was responsible for every aspect of London Transport's corporate design, also invited contemporary artists such as Jacob Epstein, Eric Gill, Henry Moore, A H Gerrard, Eric Aumonier, Allan Wyon and Samuel Rabinovitch to contribute sculptures to adorn the building but Epstein's work entitled 'Night and Day' provoked a considerable outcry at the time for the somewhat generously endowed child that forms part of the 'Day' section of the work. Pick and Holden, to their credit, stood by their artists and supported the installation of their works. The building suffered during the Blitz and received a direct hit from a high explosive bomb on the night of 10/11 May 1941, which was temporarily repaired in brick during the war but seamlessly repaired post-war using compatible Portland stone.

The original train describer that once could place every train on the network (Author's photograph)

The seventh floor executive suite (Author's photograph)

An 'Underground' embossed hopper at the top of the drain pipe (Author's photograph)

Sadly, many of the original office interiors were torn out in 1986/87 during a refurbishment and replaced with more contemporary materials, which are frankly, not suitable for a building of this stature. Despite this, some original features still remain, such as the train describer in the main reception, which when installed could reputedly locate the position of every train on the network by making a printed mark on the recording paper disks for each of the lines in existence at the time - this device predates the Victoria and Jubilee Lines by some years. The Executive Suite on the seventh floor, which once contained Frank Pick's office, together with that of the Chairman, Lord Ashfield, remains fairly unchanged with timber panelling abounding and the exterior of the building features drain pipes adorned with the "Underground" logo on the hoppers.

55 Broadway is deservedly a Grade One Listed Building. Sadly, the cash-strapped Transport for London have sold the building, which will become a hotel, no doubt out of the price range for ordinary Londoners. It remains to be seen whether this magnificent structure will continue to be open for future Open House Weekends.

I left 55 Broadway beneath rapidly darkening skies and made a quick dash by tube for Waterloo Station, from where I was to catch a train for my next destination and what for me, would be the highlight of my day.

The Shelter Entrance at St Leonard's Court (Author's photo)

Fortunately, I made a quick connection at Waterloo but by the time I alighted from my train at Mortlake, it was raining steadily but although the Open House brochure had warned me of potential queues at my next venue, a combination of the bad weather and my early arrival meant that only a short wait was necessary before I could descend below ground!

It was inevitable that if an air raid shelter formed part of London Open House, then I would be there and the private shelter at St Leonard's Court had been on my "must visit" list ever since I became aware of it a couple of years ago.

St Leonard's Court itself is a four storey, private apartment complex designed by architect F G Fox and constructed between 1934 and 1938. The idea of the shelter was no doubt spurred on by the Munich Crisis that came during the year the block was completed and although the immediate threat of war was averted then, planning permission for the shelter was sought in October 1939, just a month after war had been declared. Residents had been canvassed as to their interest in building the shelter and they had decided that a private shelter was far preferable to the public shelters on offer in the borough. Space could be assured for the price of £7 per annum and the original shelter consisted of two large sitting areas constructed below the courtyard and accessed from stairs in a turret-shaped structure. These sitting areas were segregated into male and female sections, each with two Elsan-type toilets and capable of holding 120 persons. Each sitting area had an emergency exit, consisting of a vertical ladder, in case of the main exit being blocked by rubble. Electric light was provided as well as bench-type seating. These facilities represented a considerable improvement on the public shelters, which were usually brick built, surface structures with little or no sanitation.

Going down.....(Author's photograph)

The route to daylight (Author's photograph)

Emergency Exit (Author's photograph)

Ladies sitting area (Author's photograph)

 

Gentlemen's sitting area (Author's photograph)

Each sitting section had two of these Elsan toilets (Author's photograph)

In 1941, a dormitory section was added and contained 48 bunk beds. This was probably limited by space constraints rather than any lack of demand. As with the sitting areas, the accommodation on offer here was vastly superior than could be found in any public shelters, with the possible exception of the London Underground (out of range for this area) and the Deep Level shelters (also out of range and yet to be finished in 1941). As with the sitting areas, the dormitory was divided but this time with a Children's section added too. Each bunk had it's own electric light above the bed for reading purposes and remarkably, many of these lights still have the makeshift shades made by the residents from pieces of fabric that they had to hand. As with the sitting areas, an emergency exit ladder was provided.

Each bunk had a light - here with original improvised lamp shade (Author's photo)

Recreated bunks, with numbered coat hangers (Author's photograph)

Fortunately, although the shelter was used on numerous occasions during the Blitz and subsequent V-Weapons campaign, St Leonard's Court was never seriously damaged by bombing and suffered just one incendiary bomb on the roof in 1941, which was quickly dealt with by the Air Raid Wardens.

Leaving the shelter and saying my goodbyes, I was now racing against the clock, as I needed to get from Mortlake back to my own neighbourhood in southeast London before it was too late. Once again, the train connections were kind to me and I was able to quickly dash home and collect my car in order to make the final visit of the day.

Shrewsbury House sits almost on top of Shooter's Hill in southeast London and was built in 1923, replacing another house of the same name dating from 1789 and located slightly further up the hill. The earlier building has been built for the Earl of Shrewsbury but in 1799 had come into the ownership of the Prince Regent, later King George IV. The house had been used as a convalescent home during the First World War but in 1916, the house and it's grounds had been purchased by Fred Halse, a former Mayor of Woolwich and owner of a construction company. He demolished the original Shrewsbury House in 1923 and the new building bearing the same name was intended to be a family home for Mr Halse. Things obviously didn't go to plan and in 1930, Halse & Sons went into voluntary liquidation and it is far from clear whether Halse or any members of his family ever lived at their new home. The house is today Grade II listed and is described by Historic England as "A handsome and substantial early C20 country house with varied and well-articulated external elevations and interiors in a Jacobean, early C18 and Adam style."

The main entrance of Shrewsbury House (Author's photograph)

In 1933, the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich purchased the house, together with an acre of grounds for £9,000, with the intention of using the building as a library and museum, although the museum usage never actually materialised, perhaps due to the gathering war clouds. By the time war came in September 1939, Shrewsbury House had been established as the Civil Defence control for the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, in preference to Woolwich Town Hall, a magnificent Victorian building but one which was considered unsuitable for this purpose, due to a combination of the age of the building and the associated expense involved in converting the basement for this use and also because of its location in the centre of a Garrison Town which was also fairly adjacent to a prime target for the Luftwaffe - the Woolwich Arsenal. Shrewsbury House, in contrast is in a far more isolated location and less likely to attract the attention of hostile aircraft.

By the time I arrived, the final guided tour of the day had started but I was able to tag along just in time for the parts of the tour that interested me most, covering the building's wartime past. The tour was guided by the excellent Andy Brockman, a local historian and professional archaeologist, who is also a trustee of Shrewsbury House. I joined Andy and the group in a room that now is used as a meeting room in the house's current guise as a community centre and which also contains the bar. Andy explained that during the Second World War, this room was the nerve centre of the Civil Defence network for the borough and would have contained representatives of the various services that constituted the wartime Civil Defence, or Air Raid Precautions as it was known in the early years of the war. Andy told us that there were few clues remaining as to this former use but invited us to look more closely at the main door to the room. On closer examination, the outline of the words "MAP ROOM" could just about be made out and were in fact, slightly clearer the further back from the door one stood.

The words "MAP ROOM" can still be faintly seen on the door (Author's photograph)

Moving on, Andy then took us outside the building with a promise to show us more of the building's Civil Defence past and we paused outside a large brick and concrete structure, reminiscent of a Second World War surface air raid shelter but one which looked too large for this purpose. Andy then explained that this was in fact the Civil Defence Control for the Cold War era but that initially, these structures had been based on Second World War technology and experience, hence this structure looking like a "beefed up" version of a 1939-45 shelter. Closer examination revealed strong buttresses at floor level, the purpose of these being to steady the walls against the much larger blast waves expected from nuclear weapons, which would exert enormous pressure on the walls, no matter how thick they might be. Speaking to us from within the confines of the main Control Room area, Andy went on to tell us that experience gained from subsequent weapon tests rendered these surface buildings obsolete almost as soon as they were constructed. The blast wave from even a moderately sized nuclear bomb dropped in the vicinity of the Royal Docks, just across to the north side of the Thames, would have been more than sufficient to have flattened a structure such as this. Subsequent control rooms would be built below ground to give them a chance of immunity from the effects of an atomic bomb.

The Cold War Civil Defence Control Room (Author's photograph)

Civil Defence Control - Cold War style (Author's photo)

Andy explains the use of the building to the group (Author's photograph)

We then moved back inside the building and completed our tour by looking out at the magnificent view across the Thames Estuary and East Kent from the upper floors. It was whilst checking out this view that I noticed that the garden of an adjacent house contained a small, concrete shelter. This would have been privately built instead of the then occupier accepting the more usual Anderson Shelter. Perhaps the proximity of the garden to the Civil Defence Headquarters had swayed the thinking of the householder!

Private shelter visible at centre of photograph, behind wooden fence (Author's photograph)

The view to the east (Author's photograph)

So ended an exhausting but highly enjoyable Open House experience. Where else could one experience an Albert Speer doorknob, see the work of one of our foremost architects, visit a remarkably well-preserved private air raid shelter and learn about the Civil Defence arrangements for a London borough, all in one day?

Thanks are due to all of those organisations taking part in London Open House Weekend 2019 as well as to all those volunteers who willingly gave up their weekend time in order to show off their wonderful buildings. The London Open House 2020 event will take place over the weekend of September 19 and 20, so reserve these dates in your diaries as there are sure to be some more architectural gems on display.

As always, all of the photographs in this piece are my images and may not be used or reproduced without my express written permission.