If there is one thing that we, living in the twenty first century, will leave behind us it is a shed load of photographs, either in print, or digitally on a computer, or in cyberspace. Many of these pictures of us, posing and pouting will remain there until somebody deletes them. And that might not happen because relatives and offspring will have forgotten that they are still there. Then somebody who decides to do some serious researching will find some of them and will struggle to put a date and reason for the photograph being taken. That also happens with old black and white photos. Who are they, where are they, what was the occasion.
I grew up knowing that there were few if any photographs of my maternal grandfather, William Wilcox. There is a famous one that my mother had a copy of. He was walking his daughter Dorothy up the path to the church for her wedding. She in her wedding dress and he in a suit. He was wearing white gloves if I remember correctly. That was in 1943.
I know where William was born, where he lived during his childhood and when and where he was married. I know when he died. These are all facts that I can discover from archives and family history resources online. I cannot see him in these records but I can get to know him a little bit. But, it is a challenge to know what he looked like during the various stages of his life because there are very few photographs of him.
This is an early photograph of William aged 27. At this stage he had been married for three years and his eldest daughter, Grace was two years old.
William looks at the camera as if he were sitting in the room opposite us. He has a gentle, slightly smiling face with a kindness that was often mentioned to me by my mother. The permit book entry describes him as thin with fair hair and grey eyes. William is only 5ft 7inches tall. I had always imagined him taller.
This document also shows that he has moved from Essex Road in Acton, where he and his wife Grace Walker moved to when they married and where Grace Carver was born, and they are living at 39 Seaford Road, West Ealing.
The question asked by this permit book entry is, what its purpose was. The answer is DORA. The Defence of the Realm Act.
When introduced the Defence of the Realm Act 1914, or DORA for short, was a simple act. It was passed in order to control communications, the nation’s ports and subject civilians to the rule of military courts. It was amended six times during the course of the war, eventually being used for everything from banning narcotics to censoring the press. It introduced a wide range of changes in society including prohibition, rationing, the introduction of British Summer Time and the widening of police powers. It was even used to ban bonfires, whistling in the street and flying kites! (from the UK Parliament website)
DORA was introduced to control the population and protect the country from espionage and anything that might interfere with the British progress in the First World War. A noble thing, but it was martial law. Anti war activists such as Bertrand Russell, were imprisoned and the press was censored from reporting anything other than reports given to them by ministers. The architect and artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh was arrested on the beach at Walberswick in Suffolk because it was noticed that he spent his evenings walking by the sea with a lantern. The police thought he was sending messages to the enemy and put him under house arrest.
Therefore any citizens who were not fighting in the war and who needed to go about lawful activities in their daily lives needed an ID book known as the Permit Book. This had several pages including the photo identification page. Here the police could record what activities the holder could perform and also where they could travel to do it. One example from the Imperial War Museum is that of Dorothy Sweet who lived in North Finchley who was permitted to travel and paint and sketch in East Sussex, for business purposes. Another example shows a page of the book giving specific permission to visit a family member on the Isle of Sheppey. (Cartoons,Close-Ups blog)
There is only one page in our family possession for William Wilcox. It does not record the permissions that he needed and where. On his marriage certificate, three years earlier, William was described as a Dairyman. At this stage he did not own his own business and he was living in a suburban housing area.
But is that correct ?
I’m looking at the house that William and Grace are living in, on Google Street View. It is a really good mid terrace house with plenty of rooms. Was it rented or purchased ? If William owned it, is this what he could afford as a milkman ? Or was he on his way to being the independent Dairyman and grocer that he became in Acton, Caterham and Edmonton ?
One answer to this lies in the 1921 Census return where William is now living in and working in Haringey.
My grandfather is now the manager of Bennetts Dairy in Green Lanes, Harringay and my grandmother is his assistant. Bennett sold the dairy to Welford and Premier Dairy which in turn was swallowed up by United Dairies.
I found this interesting post on a Harringay Community Blog. It has the background to Bennett’s Dairies and it’s shop in Green Lanes. Meanwhile, my Grandfather and Grandmother are managing and living in another Bennetts shop at 307 West Green Road.
I shall return to the stories that come out of this Census return in the future.
I met my Grandfather only once. He died when I was a few months old. My Mother’s story is that when he met me he asked my Mother to have his surname given to me when I was Christened. In my branch of the Wilcox dynasty, the name continues.