A Super Family Photo

 

Some years ago George BARKER was interviewed for a great piece on the on the campaign to save the Marquis of Lansdowne.  I re read it recently and noticed that it included a great photograph of my 'half' siblings' with their 'half siblings' - the latter of course not being (technically) relatives of mine.  It reminds me of how families are a lot more than lines on a chart and that many families are really quite complicated!  It is alway demonstrates the importance of 'place'.  This pub was common to all of us having been run by the Barkers/Wilsons and Trendalls for over half a century.

This photograph was taken around 1957 in the back yard of the Marquis of Lansdowne 32 Cremer Street London E2.

Does anybody remember it being taken?  Who took it?  Was it a special occasion?  

From Left to Right:  Maureen TRENDALL, Frederick (Freddy) TRENDALL, Eileen BARKER, Christine TRENDALL and George BARKER.  The wall was the large (and eventually unsafe) boundary wall of the Marquis of Lansdowne - note the Charrington beer crates on the left

Blogpost May 2025

Of Knife Crime, Gangs and Poverty

 

Fig 1:  The Marquis of Lansdowne in the 1930s.  When built it was in Thomas Street, later renamed as Harwar Street and, in the 1910s, re-named as Cremer Street.  It stood on the junction with Maria Street, now Geffrye Street.  Note the cobbles.  The murder took place just behind the photographer's position near the railway bridge.

The Marquis of Lansdowne (the ‘pub of my birth’ rather than the aristocrat) regularly appears in this blog.  The area is now seeing a slow process of gentrification but its past is resolutely one of poverty.

At the very beginning of the twentieth century the Shoreditch and Bethnal  Green districts saw a significant rise in crime and violence – to the extent that concerns  were frequently raised in the national press.   We tend to think of that the problems of gangs and knife crime in London is of more recent date but in the early Edwardian period the streets around the Marquis of Lansdowne saw many instances of violent crime.  Some of the victims were members of rival gangs but also innocent members of the public.  The scourge of domestic violence was also ever present.

Street names change.  Cremer Street London E2 was, in this period, called Harwar Street and in earlier times it has been Thomas Street.  Geffrye Street was Maria Street.  Harwar Street linked the Kingland Road to the Hackney Road and although something of a back street it became associated with street crime.

Fig 2:  OS Map 1897 Showing Harwar Street, Maria Street and the North London Railway (Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland)

In 1900 the Eastern Argus and Borough of Hackney Times reported that “pedestrians walking along the side streets at night are being ruthlessly shot at in some cases and in other cases the knife is resorted to” (1) A mile up the road a man walking down Brick Lane was shot by a stranger.  A nearby police constable chased the suspect who escaped after dropping a revolver.  Another victim was stabbed from behind in Bethnal Green and in Vallance Road a large gang fight took place which caused injury and damage as well as much alarm to local residents.

One evening in October 1900 a 16 year old carman was undertaking an errand for his employer when he was seen to be talking to two or three youths in Harwar Street, near the junction with Maria Street and the railway bridge, and not far from Wilson’s Iron Yard (another family connection).  Witnesses stated that he walked away from the group.  A firearm was possibly discharged (missing the victim) and one of the men rushed up to him and stabbed him.  They made off and local residents went to the assistance of Charles HISCOKE, who was bleeding badly.  The police were on scene within minutes but by the time the divisional surgeon arrived (which was within 20 minutes) the youth was dead.  A 13 year old witness said he recognised the attackers as having been involved in recent street fighting in Hoxton.  An Inquest a couple of days later delivered a verdict of Wilful Murder by persons unknown.  The victim was not thought to have been involved in any instances of gang activity. (2)  There is no record of anybody being prosecuted for the murder.

Two weeks after the attack on HISCOKE, another man was assaulted by a group in a nearby coffee shop and slashed in the face.  The gang had been trying to provoke a sailor into a fight and the victim had gone to his assistance.  A 17 year old suspect, described as “a dirty lad of 17” was arrested and charged with wounding and was committed for trial from the police court.  In the same week the Coroner, Dr Wynn Westcott, told a jury that  “There seems to be an outbreak of crimes of violence in the streets at the present time.  I have three cases on hand where persons have been fatally assaulted in the streets”  (3)

Despite the efforts of the Metropolitan Police (who were quickly scene within minutes of every incident) it remained a violent area.  A few years later a woman stabbed her partner to death in Maria Street, the latest instalment in a violent relationship. (4)  A women was stabbed by her lodger in Hawar Street in 1906.   In 1905 a group of ratepayers petitioned the council  asking for something to be done: 

              “We beg to make a complaint against a gang of boys who make night after night in Harwar Street, a nuisance and a terror to passersbys and an annoyance to shopkeepers; one of the gang went to the extent of stabbing a shopkeeper in the head”  (5)

One of the ratepayers may have been the landlord of the Marquis of Lansdowne.

As late as 1913 a woman was stabbed by her former boyfriend and his new partner as she was talking to friends in Harwar Street. (6)

Notably in this period only one case is mentioned that directly involved the pub and that was a simple case of damage caused during a dispute between a man and wife.  It was a busy pub with no fewer the 13 residents (7) in 1901 – perhaps the landlord ran a strict house.  By the outbreak of war in 1914 the street gang issue seemed to disappear – never to fully return.

Booth's Poverty Map shows the area as being a mix of 'very poor, casual, chronic want' and 'fairly comfortable'

Fig 3: Booths Poverty Map (LSE Collections).  These maps colour code the areas of London according to poverty

In the years after the Great War the area calmed down – it became more respectable and the shops that lined Cremer Street (as Harwar Street had become) became a little more up market.

The link between poverty and crime is a well established one but the outbreak of ‘hooliganism’, as the newspapers called it, in the area was the cause of a mini moral panic.   The next time I sit and have a £5.00 coffee in the refreshment house that now occupies the former pub I will reflect on some of the goings on in the area in the first decade of the 20^th century and remind myself how lucky I was to be born half a century later.

 

Philip Trendall

May 2025

 

NOTES

(1)    Eastern Argus and Borough of Hackney Gazette 13 Oct 1900 p3

(2)    Hackney and Kingland Gazette 15 Oct 1900 p3

(3)    Ibid

(4)    Illustrated Police News 06 Feb 1909 p11

(5)    Shoreditch Observer 11 Feb 1905 p3

(6)    Morning Advertiser – 02 June 1913 p6

(7)    The 1901 Census, 32 Harwar Street:  Head of the Household: William PEAD, Publican’s Manager.  Downloaded from Find My Past – 26 May 2025

 

(A)    The stabbing of F R James FRIEND by his partner in Maria Street resulted in Emily DOLAN being sentenced at the Old Bailey for 12 years penal servitude for Manslaughter, a charge of Murder being withdrawn – See The Proceeding of the Old Bailey 1909

 

 

A Little About Aunt Rene

 

Fig 1: parish Register for All Souls Cawnpore 1921 showing the baptism of Irene Nellie TRENDALL

Most people know their Aunts and Uncles, and in most working class families there are (or were) generally, lots of them.  But my Father had only one sibling – and I never met her.

Irene Nellie TRENDALL (1921-2012) was born in India where her Father, my Grandfather, (Frederick TRENDALL 1890-1940) was serving with the British Army.   I know nothing of her life growing up in the sub continent or about her schooling when the family returned to London in 1932.  It would be fair to say that she has remained a mystery to me and has resisted attempts at finding out much more.  Most of this blog will therefore be highlighting what I don’t know rather than what I do.

It has long been known in the family that she had become involved with a much older man who was a well known band leader and that she had later emigrated to the United States.  It has been suggested that she never fully got over the ending of that first relationship.

One thing that has bothered me has been my inability to discover where she was at the time of the creation of the 1939 Register.  The Register was compiled in the first months of the war.  It was a mammoth undertaking and was put together with much speed and considerable accuracy.  It was used to issue national Identity cards and after the war it formed the basic database of people entitled to NHS treatment.  It continued to be used for more than 20 years, being updated as necessary.  Because an ID card was essential part of wartime living the Register successfully captured virtually all of the civilian population. 

It was clear that Irene (often known as Rene) was not living with her Mother (her Father had already re-joined the colours) in the Autumn of 1939 – but where was she?  Years of checking back on the various transcriptions of the Register did not turn up a result.  She was only 18 at the start of the war and searching using just her date of birth in the London area failed to find her.  One day recently it occurred to me that she could have been using the surname of her older boyfriend but this too failed to produce a result.  In fact I couldn’t find him in the Register either!

Fig 2:  Billy TERNENT with a young Frankie HOWERD c1953

Frederick William TERNENT (always known as Billy TERNENT)  was a northerner who had made his name as a talented musician, arranger and a band leader, achieving a celebrity status by the late 1930s.  He was much in demand and later provided the band for stars such as Frank Sinatra when they visited the UK.  In 1939 he started to work for the BBC.  Reading about the war plans for the Corporation I noted that some of its functions were transferred to Bristol.  This caused me to widen my search, but still without a result until I discovered that the indexes to the Register had been mis transcribed and he was listed as TENNETT.   In the Autumn of 1939 he was living in Bristol (described as a Musical Director) with two other people.  One was a well known character actor, Sidney KIRKMAN, whose stage name was Syd WALKER.  The other was my Aunt Rene.  She had added a year to her age, presumably to close the age gap between her and Billy (who was 40 at the time).  She was using the name Irene TERNENT and was listed as doing  ‘unpaid domestic duties’ – the phrase usually employed to describe stay at home housewives. Billy’s wartime work for the BBC included providing the music for ITMA and a weekly slot on Music While You Work.

Fig 3:  The 1939 Register showing Irene TRENDALL as Irene TERNENT

Fig 4:  Syd WALKER the comedy actor who was living with Billy Ternent and Irene in Bristol when the 1939 Register was taken

The exact nature of her relationship with Billy TERNENT is unknown, but they were to remain together for several years.  It is not clear but he may have been married but estranged from his wife.  In 1943 Rene arranged for a notice to appear in the London Gazette confirming that she had changed her name to TERNENT.  Her address at the time was an up market flat.  Electoral Registers show that she shared various flats, mostly in the Marylebone area with Billy until at least 1952.  We do not know exactly when or why the relationship ended but in 1956 Rene married Delbert Allen BRUESCH.

Delbert was a divorced American airman (Master Sergeant USAF).  According to the marriage certificate he was living at the same address at Rene: 24 Stafford Terrace, London W8.  The marriage was witnessed by non family members.

Fig 5:  The Marriage of Irene TERNENT and Delbert BRUSECH in 1956

Around this time the couple went to the US where Rene was to stay for the rest of her life.  Her Mother (my Grandmother) emigrated to the US shortly afterwards.

Rene and Delbert divorced in 1967 after having two children.  In 1971 she married again to Joseph ADRAGNA in California.  They divorced in 1980. 

She then disappears from international view almost completely.  I had some correspondence with one of my cousins in around 1983 and in 2010 I tried to contact Rene but the letter was returned as she had moved from the address I had found for her.  She died in 2012 aged 91.  My Father did not leave a great deal of information about his family so I have always hoped that any family paperwork may have descended from my Grandmother (Nellie PARROCK) to Rene and thence to her children.   Perhaps one day I will be able to fill in some of the gaps.

Neither of Rene’s marriages lasted as long as her relationship with Billy TERNENT.  We do not know if they were in contact in later life.  A family story suggests that she retained a ring with his initials during her time in the US.  His career continued to flourish and for several years he was Musical Director at the London Palladium.  He performed until the mid 1970s.  His style was by then long out of fashion but he still had a strong following.  Not long before he died he married a woman who was 20 years younger than him.  She had previously changed her name to TERNENT and it looks as if they were together for many years, possible from around the time that he split with Rene.

I find that in studying families, both for clients as well as my own, that I am constantly reminded that there is no template.  Every family is different.  Every family is made up of individuals who chart their own path through life.  I will continue to research my Aunt Rene, together with many others and to celebrate the complex lives of those who came before me.

Note: If anybody has a picture of Rene (I only have one of her as a baby in India) then I will update this blog.

 

Philip TRENDALL

May 2025

NB:  There is a fan website for Billy TERNENT - this contains links to some of his programmes on the BBC and to recordings: http://www.mastersofmelody.co.uk/billyternent.htm