BECCLES NEWSPAPERS 1943

1943    Beccles & Bungay 2 Jan        POST OFFICE WORKERS: About a dozen senior boys at the Sir John Leman School were temporary workers at Christmas.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 2 Jan        CHRISTMAS CARD: Mrs Tubby, of 17 Newgate received an airgraph from her husband in India, Pte William Edward Tubby, showing a soldier in heavy boots and protected from the sun by his topee and a coconut palm. On the signpost is written “Beccles 6,000 miles.  He has a small son, Gordon, and his father is Mr W Tubby of Ingate. He was called up on the outbreak of war as a reservist, he went to France with the BEF, was evacuated from Dunkirk. His wife has a brother and sister in the Middle East, AC1 Arthur Borrett, of the RAF, & Miss Ellen Borrett, who is in Queen Alexandra’s Nursing Services.

 1943   Beccles & Bungay 2 Jan        DEATH of Miss EMMA DARBY, in her 91st year, late of 15  Smallgate, sister of the late Alfred Darby. She was born in London, but has spent most of her life in Beccles. In her younger days she was a keen church goer.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 9 Jan        DEATH of Lady Tedder, wife of Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder killed in an air crash west of Cairo. She was an Australian and was returning from a tour of welfare centres and hospitals on the eve of her return to England with her husband.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 9 Jan        CANON MILLAR: a tribute by Canon EFP Durnford, his successor as Rural Dean: “Though our angles of Churchmanship were different (for he was broad Evangelical and I am ‘High’) he was very tolerant and would always listen to other views different from his own. In our deanery he was a valued and respected leader, a very well read man, a good speaker, a good preacher. He had strong religious convictions, but was never controversial.”

1943    Beccles & Bungay 9 Jan        WEDDING: Mr RG Jolly, only son of Mr & Mrs G Jolly of Elmer Cottage, Upper Grange Road and Miss Naomi Taylor of Billingham, Stoke-on-Tees. He works at the Chaucer Press, Bungay having completed his apprenticeship at the Caxton Press.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 9 Jan        METHODIST PREACHERS to receive Long Service Certificates: Mr WE Downing & Mr FE Balls.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 9 Jan        FATE OF SMALL BOROUGHS: The County Councils Association favoured the doing away with the small Boroughs: Beccles, Southwold, Aldeburgh and Eye. This was still in its discussion stage.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 9 Jan        EXHIBITION by Lt-Col B Granville Baker, DSO, of the Cage, St Mary’s Road, of 72 water colours of British Uniforms at the Castle Museum, Norwich.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 9 Jan        POLICE: Inspector W Bryant has been transferred from Lowestoft to Beccles. Supt SJ Hopes has been promoted to Halesworth Division.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 9 Jan        SOCIETY for PROPOGATION of the GOSPEL: Miss C Johnson, of Meadowcroft, Ringsfield Road to be local Secretary in place of the late Miss Robinson.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 9 Jan        PIGEON DRIVE: The sole object is to kill off as many pigeons as possible to safeguard the 1943 crops.. Shooting should take place every Wednesday & Saturday from the beginning of January to the end of March.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 16 Jan      DEATH of Mr Laurence T Clarkson, second son of Rev LT Clarkson, Rector of St James, South Elmham from 1855 to 1877. Born in 1857 represented the parish on the District Council & was Chairman of the Wangford Rural District Council and Board of Guardians. He built the last windmill in Suffolk, the post mill at St James in 1879, which was dismantled 18 years ago. He married in 1879 Annie , a daughter of Rev WJ Payne, who died in 1890, and by whom he had one son, Mr Roland LT Clarkson. In 1890 he went to live in Beccles until 1924, when he moved to the Ipswich district.

                                             Together with his brother, Mr A Townley Clarkson, Mr Laurence was well known in yachting circles. Owning the barge, Spider, which he had built in 1899 and the houseboat Coot. He was a member of the Royal Norfolk & Suffolk Yacht Club from 1886.

                                             By profession he was a surveyor and estate agent, and was agent for several estates in East Suffolk and also farmed land at St James’ & Geldeston. Recently he has been living with his son at Felixstowe.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 16 Jan      JAM MAKING PROFITS of £28, not allowed to go to local charities, but to the Ministry of Food – by their directive!

1943    Beccles & Bungay 16 Jan      SIR JOHN LEMAN SCHOOL still using the Peddar’s Lane temporary accommodation, although some classes being taught at Ringsfield Road. Movement between the two sites, slow, sometimes unnecessarily so! Headmaster: “Walk briskly and don’t loiter.”

1943    Beccles & Bungay 16 Jan      SON of Dr RG Parsons, Bishop of Hereford, Captain JM Parsons is a prisoner of war in Malaya. The Bishop is a nephew on Miss de Best, of Hillside, London Road.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 16 Jan      Mr WAIDEMAR SCHAPIRO, of 81 Grove Road, elected a Fellow of the Institute of Linguistics. He has been head of the British Museum department of the Caxton Press since moving from London.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 16 Jan      MISUSE of PETROL: Mr George Meed of Ballygate fined £3 for misusing petrol. His car was outside a farmhouse at Aldeby, and when questioned he said he was doing repair work, but there were no repairing materials in his car. He was granted petrol for work on Government sites.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 23 Jan      APPEAL on Assault Charge: Harold R Wilson, of 21 Pound Road, found guilty.

                                             About 10 o’clock on Christmas Day Edwin Hembling, a gardener of the Hermitage, Bridge Street, was going to his allotments near the Gas Works, when he saw defendant cut one of his Brussels’ sprouts. He said he would report the matter to the police. As he passed Wilson’s house, Wilson came out and knocked him to the ground. There were witnesses supporting both sides.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 23 Jan      HEADMASTER of SIR JOHN LEMAN SCHOOL, Mr Gordon Humphreys, of Wendy, Upper Grange Road, appointed Headmaster of the Surrey County Boys’ School at Woking. [PHOTO page 1]  which has 350 pupils.

                                             He was born at Chingford, began his teaching career in 1927 as English & Scripture master at Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone. In 1929 he moved to Chiswick County School for Boys, then as senior English & Scripture mater at Hornsey Co-education County School. In 1936 he became Headmaster of Callingford Mixed County School near Plymouth. He Became Headmaster of the Sir John Leman School in 1940 in succession to Mr RR Hancock.

                                             In the last two years examinations have had 100% success. The number on the register is now 325, whereas the school was built to cater for 160 pupils. During his Headmastership the fire occurred in the school, but without loss of life. In March 1941 he formed a flight of the Air Training Corps, and he is in command of the unit as a Fling Officer. Two successful hobbies exhibitions have been held.

                                             Mr Humphreys has devoted much time to lecturing to members of the Forces in East Anglia. He has also done a lot of religious work, particularly at St Mary’s Church, Ellingham. Mrs Humphreys comes from Reading, and is a member of the WVS, and works for the National Savings Movement.

1943    Beccles & Bungay30 Jan       SERIOUS FLOODING occurred as a result of heavy rain on 13 January. Between Bungay & Beccles the valley looked like a great inland sea. The flooding was the worst since 1939. Happily the water got away without causing any serious damage.

1943    Beccles & Bungay30 Jan       GOLDEN WEDDING of Councillor & Mrs Albert Jordan of 18 Ballygate. They were married at the Baptist Chapel on 25 January 1893. He was elected t the Town Council in 1926 when he received the highest number of votes ever given to a candidate. After some years break, he was co-opted in 1940. He has been a member of Suffolk County Council for 9 years and as a county magistrate since 1937. He was a member of the old Wangford Board of Guardians, and after the Shipmeadow House had been taken over by the County Council in 1930, until its closure in 1938 he was Chairman of the Management Committee. He is in charge of the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, which has helped many people since its inception at the start of the war.

1943    Beccles & Bungay30 Jan       MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE’S principal targets: 1.) Turning over of all gardens to vegetable production 2.) Providing as many allotments as can be managed and leaving no area untilled. 3.) To secure as many women & older children as possible for garden or allotment cultivation. 4.) Self sufficiency among local institutions, schools and industry. 5.) Planning for winter vegetables, compost making and control of pests and diseases.

                                             Beccles has more than 60 acres of allotments – over 600 in all. Nearly all are cultivated, but the number of female allotment workers is small. More are needed. Admiral Johnson welcomed the Mayor who, he said “In spite of his multifarious civic duties manages to run a small poultry farm, ‘dig for victory’ on two plots of land and has carried off a first prize at two of our exhibitions.”

1943    Beccles & Bungay 23 Jan      FIRE WATCHING: The town now divided into 14 areas. There were 552 volunteers, 334 men, 218 women. Teams of three are to go no duty once a fortnight and rotas had been prepared. In some areas the organiser had a depot where watchers could report, sign on and off and store the fire-fighting equipment. – This is for fire watching primarily – watchers of both sexes of varying standards of physical fitness - and in the event of enemy action, those who are physically fit will be alerted and will deal with the actual fire.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 23 Jan      CZECH DANCE held in the Public Hall. Music was played by the Czechoslovak Army Camp Band. Proceeds of the dance were devoted to the British Red Cross.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 23 Jan      5 NEW MARKET: Tercentenary of the building, the home of Mr & Mrs AW Rayner. The property is one of the oldest in the town.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 23 Jan      ROOS HALL FARM: 80 rats were killed when two corn stacks were threshed on Wednesday.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 23 Jan      CHOIRBOYS’ PARTY: 50 choirboys from St Michael’s, Ingate & Ravensmere Missions had a New Year’s party at the Rectory Room.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 23 Jan      RECTOR of Ellough with Weston, Rev Ernest G Clowes, appointed honorary Canon of St Edmundsbury.. He was born at Woodbridge in 1867, went to the Fauconberge School and the London College of Divinity & Durham University. He was ordained Priest in 1890. He was Curate of Enfield and in 1904 became Curate of Wangford & Reydon. In 1911 he succeeded his father, Rev Josiah Clowes (who had become Rector there in 1870) as Rector of Weston.. In 1930 the livings wre united.

                                             In 1913 he was elected a member of the Wangford Board of Guardians, and for 16 years until its demise in 1930, the Chairman of the Board. At the last meeting of the Board at Shipmeadow he was presented with a silver salver subscribed by fellow members..

                                             For 20 years he was Vice-Chairman of the old Wangford Rural District Council and its successor the Wainford RDC. His knowledge of the district is probably unsurpassed.

                                             Since 1931 he has been a member of the County Council, and in 1941 he was elected an Alderman. He is a County Council Governor of the Sir John Leman High School, Bungay Grammar and Lowestoft Secondary Schools.

                                             He was a special Constable during the last war, is a keen cyclist and covers many miles during the year. He won colours at Durham University for lawn tennis. He is a life member of Southwold and Beccles Golf Clubs and has captained both. He and his brother (a retired schoolmaster) cultivate an acre and a quarter of garden.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Jan      ALLOTMENTS: “Local institutions such as hospitals, schools & industrial establishments are hoped to become self-supporting in vegetables. All able-bodied people, including women & older children must realise the necessity of supplying their own needs. It is vital for the national health that every garden and allotment should produce green vegetables to supply their own needs. The Ministry of Agriculture had the targets: 1.) The turning of all private gardens to vegetable production 2.) The provision of as many more allotments as possible, leaving no suitable land untilled 3.) to secure the recruitment of as many women & older children as possible as garden or allotment cultivators. 4.) To secure self-sufficiency among local institutions, schools and industry. 5.) Plan for winter vegetables, compost making & the control of pests & diseases.

                                             Beccles now has 60 acres of allotments, more than 600 in number – practically all are tilled, but the number of female workers is very small. The Mayor, “in spite of his multifarious civic duties manages to run a small poultry farm, ‘dig for victory’ on two plots of land and has carried off a first prize at two of our exhibitions.”

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Jan      GOLDEN WEDDING: Councillor & Mrs Albert Jordan, of 18 Ballygate, were married on 25 January 1893. Elected to the Town Council in 1926, he received the highest number of votes ever given to one candidate. After some years break he was co-opted in 1940. For nearly 9 years he has been a member of East Suffolk County Council, and a county magistrate since 1937. For many years he was a member of the old Wangford Board of Guardians, and when it was taken over by the County Council in 1930 until the closure of Shipmeadow House eight years later he was Chairman of the Management Committee. He is in charge of the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, which has helped many people since its inception at the start of the war.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Jan      SERIOUS FLOODING occurred as the result of heavy rain on 13 January.. Between Beccles & Bungay the valley looked like an inland sea., but happily the water got away without causing any serious damage.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Jan      PRISONER OF WAR: Lieut EA Sawyer, of 9 Station Road, of the Royal Artillery, who had been missing since the fall of Singapore, his wife was informed. He is the younger son of Mr & Mrs A Sawyer of 51 Caxton Road. He was a member of the Beccles Section of the East Suffolk Constabulary.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Jan      CANCER DANCE held at the Public Hall. Music was played by Mr Punchard’s Band from Halesworth.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Jan      HOME GUARD: A Civil Defence Platoon is being formed with “G” Company of the 1st Battalion, Home Guard. They will undergo training in the use of Home Guard weapons. They will only be required to attend one parade each week. Lads of 16 can now be accepted for training as runners & signallers. They will not be expected to do guard duties until they are 17.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Jan      DEATH of Mr Charles Dennington, of 43 Castle Hill, the former City & Bradford City professional goalkeeper. He was 43, youngest son of the late Mr & Mrs Alfred Dennington of 40 Ingate. He was educated at Peddar’s Lane Council School. After giving up professional football he returned to Beccles & for 10 years was employed by the Anglian Electricity Supply Co. Two and a half years ago he went to the Ingate Iron Works of Elliott & Garrood.

                                             Dennington made his mark in amateur football with Beccles Town, keeping goal for the reserves, and then in the first team. In 1922 he joined Norwich City as a professional and was promoted to the first team in 1924, with whom he stayed for 7 seasons, leaving in 1930 for Bradford City, for one season, making 18 appearances in Second Division matches.

                                             He leaves a widow, 2 sons & a daughter. The elder boy is Gunner Leonard Dennington serving with an anti-aircraft unit in the Middle East. [PHOTO page 1]

 1943   Beccles & Bungay 6 Feb        ROAD FATALITY:  11 year old boy cyclist fell in front of bus on Ingate Hill, Dennis Bryanton, son of Frederick Bryanton, a labourer of 51 Ellough Road. The boy was going to collect a wireless accumulator and a bottle of disinfectant.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Feb        RABBIT CLUB: Membership now over 200. President: Rear Admiral Johnson; Secretary: WDG Bartram.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Feb        HISTORICAL SOCIETY: Rev RF Fleming, who has recently taken up residence at Cliff House, Ballygate, was for many years Rector of Chedgrave, talking about “Experiences of Ireland”.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Feb        DEATH of Mrs Isabel Plumbly, aged 83, at Burnham Hall – an institution for the blind. She was the widow of a local tradesman.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Feb        BLACK-OUT: Miss Ethel Smith, of 28 Station Road, fined £2 – alight shining in her home.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Feb      DEATH of Dr HENRY WOOD-HILL: GREAT LOSS TO BECCLES: Sudden passing of Dr Henry Wood-Hill, the Deputy Mayor. An Outstanding Citizen. “It is with profound regret that we record the death of Dr Henry Wood-Hill, Deputy Mayor of Beccles, who was chief citizen from 1935 to 1938.

                                             Dr Wood-Hill, who would have been 68 on February 20th, passed away suddenly on Sunday night at his residence, Staithe House, Northgate, following a heart attack in the evening. On Sunday morning he had done a long round of visiting his patients and in the afternoon lectured to the Red Cross. Throughout his life he had enjoyed good health.

                                             As the news of his death spread, in every home there was a feeling of personal loss, and the deepest sympathy went out to Mrs Wood-Hill and the three daughters in their bereavement. Dr Wood-Hill was loved by all who knew him. He was indeed an outstanding citizen.

                                             TO BECCLES FORTY YEARS AGO: Forty years ago, as a young man, Dr Wood-Hill, who held the degrees of MRCS and LRCP, Lond, first came to Beccles from London to join the medical practice conducted here for a century and a half by the Crowfoot family. He then lived in Ballygate, but after marrying a daughter of the late Dr William Crowfoot in 1908 took up residence at Staithe House, which has been his home ever since. Senior partner in the firm of Wood-Hill, Grantham-Hill and McLaren, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the discharge of his professional duties and gained the esteem and affection of people of all classes. As he went about his work he performed countless acts of kindness. Since the war his duties had been particularly strenuous, especially during the last year, when the junior partner in the firm, Dr William C McLaren was absent on military service.

                                             In the last war Dr Wood-Hill was with the RAMC, serving at Gallipoli, and retired with the rank of Major. During the present conflict he had a great deal of time to training local people in first-aid, etc.

                                             WORK FOR HOSPITAL: No one had done more for the Beccles and District War Memorial Hospital than Dr Wood-Hill, its senior honorary medical officer. To him in large measure was due its inception, and ever since its opening just 19 years ago he has taken the keenest personal interest in its welfare. On its behalf he was a tireless worker. It was always his proud claim that this hospital is a model institution second to none among those in towns of similar size throughout the land. He had done much to make it so.

                                             Only a few hours after his passing there took place on Monday afternoon the monthly meeting of the Committee of Management. Alderman E Johnson Hindes who presided in the absence of the Mayor (Alderman Allden Owles), made sympathetic reference to the death of Dr Wood-Hill. He said he was sure the committee would desire to place on record the deep sense of the great loss the hospital had sustained. Mr Hindes spoke of the doctor’s untiring efforts for many years in the welfare and advancement of the institution.

                                             The Secretary, Mr AE Bunn, was asked to convey to Mrs Wood-Hill, who is also a devoted worker for the hospital, and the members f the family the sincere sympathy of the committee in their bereavement.

                                             Another cause very dear to Dr Wood-Hill’s heart was the local division of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade with which, too, he had been intimately identified since its formation 15 years ago. Attending the annual meeting on Friday evening he expressed his personal gratitude to all members for their devotion to duty and readiness to undertake training to meet any emergency.  He spoke also of the fine work of the ambulance car in the town and district. In the days before the borough had an ambulance he used to convey patients to and from hospital in his private car. For several years Dr Wood-Hill had been the divisional surgeon. He took over the office when serious illness caused the late Dr Christopher Helsham to retire. All good causes had in him an advocate and supporter.

                                             ELECTION AS MAYOR: History was made in the borough on November 9th 1935, when Dr Wood-Hill was unanimously elected by the Town Council as Mayor for the following year. Although he had not actually assisted in local government, he had always followed closely the activities of the Council. The unique character of the occasion was due to the fact that he was the first person from outside the ranks of the authority to be chosen as chief citizen since Beccles was made a mayoral borough in 1835. Proposing his election, the late Alderman Copeman, then ‘father’ of the Council, spoke of the widespread pleasure the choice had given, and referred to the immense work Dr Wood-Hill had done for the hospital and the keen interest he had taken in other public activities. Dr Wood-Hill , whom he described as a “thoroughly impartial gentleman” had done a great deal more of which none of them were aware. Mr Copeman added, but which at the same time had been intensely good work.

                                             Responding to the toast of his health at the Mayoral banquet the same evening, Dr Wood-Hill said he could not help feeling that the Council was not uninfluenced by the desire to render tribute to a very honoured tradition of the past in that he was connected to the Crowfoot family which was associated with much that was of value in the civic life of the town. His father-in-law held the same office in 1875-76 and again in 1881-82, and other members were Mayors in earlier years.

                                             ‘Those are things nearest to my heart’ remarked the Mayor, when telling the record gathering that he would endeavour to preserve in the borough those old-world distinguishing characteristics which were left to them and to enhance as far as might be possible, their distinctive features.

                                             TRIBUTE TO HIS WIFE: The occasion was memorable too, for a remarkable tribute which Dr Wood-Hill paid to his wife, without whose support, he said, he could not have accepted office. ‘We have roamed together through a span of time and space’, he remarked, ‘When the sun shone and the way was easy, when the sky was overcast and the going rough, we have travelled together as good companions.,’

                                             The year of office was to prove momentous in the nation’s history. On January 20th, 1936, King George V passed away at his Sandringham home. And two days later Dr Wood-Hill read in the New Market the proclamation of Edward VIII as monarch.

                                             Unanimous re-election for another term came in the following November, when Mr Hindes observed that Dr Wood-Hill had completed 12 months training and passed with flying colours The townspeople, he said, must feel grateful to him for coming forward to assist in the conduct of municipal business and taking such a large part in the public activities of the borough. Proposing the health of his worship at the Mayoral banquet in the evening, the late Col GCK Clowes aptly remarked that Dr Wood-Hill’s motto was the same as the British Legion, ‘Service not Self..’ He thought that not only would the Mayor retain that extraordinary trait in his character of giving kindness and acts of kindness wherever he could, but that the whole of his time would be devoted entirely to the service of the borough and not to himself.

                                             SECOND ROYAL PROCLAMATION: Just over a month after his re-election Dr Wood-Hill had the unique experience of being called upon to read a second Royal Proclamation in one year. This related to the succession of our present King on the abdication of Edward VIII. It was a busy year of office, but nothing was too much trouble for him to undertake and in both Council and social duties he carried out to the full the highest traditions of the Mayoralty. Outstanding event of the year, of course, was the Coronation celebration on May 12th 1937, when despite heavy rain, everybody in the borough spent a happy time. Months of preparation under the Chairmanship of the Mayor had been necessary in order to ensure the smooth working of an attractive programme of events. Who among those who participated will ever forget the unique scene in the New Market that night when there was a fancy dress dance with illumination provided by fairy lights? The Mayor, himself, was in costume, and led the dancers. For two days in the ensuing month Beccles was the scene of the Suffolk Agricultural Association’s annual show, which was being held in the borough for the first time since 1921. Again there was dancing in the Market Place at night.

                                             Among ordinary matters which occupied a good deal of attention during Dr Wood-Hill’s second year as Mayor were local housing and the question of the most suitable site for the Area School which the East Suffolk County Council had decided to erect in the borough. It was a great joy to the Mayor, when, in October 1937, the Council decided to purchase a beauty spot of two and a half acres at the corner of Bungay and Ringsfield Roads to ensure its preservation in a natural state. The sylvan slope, which bears the name of Wood-Hill, will, like the picturesque town sign near by, long serve as a reminder of an outstanding Mayoralty.

                                             THREE TIMES MAYOR: There was great satisfaction when in November 1937, Dr Wood-Hill accepted the Mayoralty for a third term, being only the fourth person to be chosen to continue in office for such a period. Proposing the Mayor’s health at the civic banquet a few hours after the re-election, Mr PC Loftus, MP, stressed Dr Wood-Hill’s keen interest in the preservation of the countryside. ‘Every citizen should be imbued with a desire to make our town a worthy expression of our public spirit,’ the Mayor replied, ‘and make our little corner of the world a more desirable place to live in.’

                                             At the banquet a year later there was a record gathering to do honour to the retiring Mayor and Mayoress. Col Clowes said Dr Wood-Hill had carried out and supervised the duties of his office with calm and unruffled dignity. ‘A matter that has impressed me during the period of my office’ the late Mayor replied ‘is the recognition that these ancient boroughs, whose rights and powers were conferred on them by Kings and Queens of England and in many cases date back to the time of the Conquest, now find themselves as the years pass, having to accept diminishing authority. Piecemeal and little by little, County Councils and other bodies have usurped their functions and sapped their ancient privileges.’

                                             ELECTION TO THE COUNCIL: A few days after he went out of office Dr Wood-Hill contested his first municipal election and as was anticipated, was returned at the head of the poll. His successor in the Mayoralty, Mr Allden Owles, appointed him his deputy, and ever since then both have carried out their respective duties. When he acknowledged the Council’s thanks to him for his services as Mayor, Dr Wood-Hill said that he would like to see among the citizens a strong desire to make the town as beautiful as possible and to destroy those things that were ugly.

                                             For several years Dr Wood-Hill had been a member of the East Suffolk Magistracy, and had sat on the Beccles Bench whenever his official duties allowed.

                                             The local branch of the British Legion had derived benefit from his services as a vice-president. For a long time he had held office as president of Beccles and District Conservative and Unionist Association. On various occasions he had lectured to the Historical Society, which had enjoyed his hospitality in his beautiful garden. Among many other bodies in which he displayed a keen interest was the Cage Bird Society of which he was president.

                                             Mrs Wood-Hill has also done much for the borough. Since the war she has been busily engaged as leader of Beccles and District Centre of the Women’s Voluntary Services. Dr Wood-Hill also leaves three daughters, Miss Penelope Wood-Hill, who is the Overseas international Secretary of the Girl Guides Association, Mrs AS Philps, of Radlet (Herts) and Mrs RWB Burton, of Oxford.

                                             The funeral service at Norwich Crematorium yesterday (Thursday) was private. On Saturday afternoon there is to be a memorial service at St Michael’s Parish Church at 2.30. The choir will be in attendance, and the Rector of Beccles (Rev Harold L Birch) will give an address.

                                             TRIBUTES: The flags on the Town Hall and parish Church tower have been flown at half-mast this week.

                                             A tribute to Dr Wood-Hill was paid by Flying-Officer GS Humphreys, the Commanding Officer, at the meeting of the committee of Beccles and Loddon District Squadron of the Air Training Corps at Beccles Town Hall on Wednesday evening. The CO said that when the Sir John Leman School Flight was inaugurated Dr Wood-Hill, as the senior surgeon in the borough was approached with the object of getting his advice as to the appointment of an honorary medical officer. In view of the public importance of the matter he insisted on undertaking the work himself, although quite aware of its onerous nature. Since then more than 150 cadets had passed through his hands, and each had been given a very thorough inspection.

                                             Flying-Officer Humphreys added that on every occasion he had received a report as to the pleasure with which those inspections were carried out. To each cadet Dr Wood-Hill gave a word of encouragement and inspiration. He had been to them an inspiration, physician, scholar and gentleman.

                                             The Mayor (Alderman Allden Owles) endorsed the tribute, and on the motion of Paymaster Rear-Admiral CS Johnson it was agreed that the secretary (Mr BW Goodin) should write a suitable letter of sympathy to Mrs Wood-Hill and family and enter a suitable record upon the minutes.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Feb      SCHOOL DINNERS: Hundreds of hot school dinners for elementary school children are being prepared by a former chef at leading catering establishments in London. The centre of this service is a large building at Beccles, which has been erected in recent months on an open piece of ground that once served a useful purpose in connection with a former tannery [20 March 1943: This was in Ravensmere & 1,400 meals a day provided, soon it will be 2,000]. Vans took the meals to many villages in the area. It had only been functioning for a fortnight, when last week 3855 meals were despatched. On one side of the hall are five big coal ovens. On the other side are big coppers, whose contents are heated by steam. At one end of the building is a room with a refrigerator. Nearby are two store rooms and another for confectionery. There are cloakrooms for males and females. At the other end, next to the entrance, is the office of the chef supervisor, Mr JT Neep. His deputy is Mr ER Lunn, of Gosford Road, who for eleven years was head baker for Beccles Co-Op.  There are 13 members of kitchen staff, plus 3 van drivers. [PHOTO, 27 March – page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Feb      DEATH of Mr Alfred Jeffery, aged 79, of Camoquhill, London Road. He joined the Congregational Sunday School staff in 1892, and became Superintendent in 1914, and Deacon of the church 1895 to 1913. He was born in Ipswich, came to Beccles in 1892 to open the local branch of Stead and Simpson, Ltd, and continued as Manager until his retirement in 1927. Prior to coming to Beccles he was in business at Brighton & Northampton.

                                             He was one of the founders of the Adult School in 1909 and for several years he was vice-president and class leader. For a number of years he was secretary of the local branch of the League of Nations. A widower for 5 years, he leaves two sons and a daughter. Miss Freda Jeffrey, an assistant teacher at Peddar’s Lane County Junior School.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Feb      FOOD OFFICES are merged.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Feb      ANGLO-SOVIET FRIENDSHIP. A week of events starts on Sunday to raise money for medical supplies for the Red Army. ‘The sufferings of the people of Soviet Russia during the past two years has been terrible.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Feb      WEDDING of Pte Robert Turner, Royal & Sussex Regt, of Raynes Park and Miss Joyce Coggle, only daughter of Mr & Mrs Coggle of 11 Common Lane. The Coggle family is closely associated with the Salvation Army..

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Feb      BOMBING OF MALTA: A description by RW Folkard, of Lowestoft, formerly employed at Beccles as a printer.

1943       Beccles & Bungay 20 Feb      Dr WOOD-HILL a TRIBUTE:

                                             Big Congregation at Memorial Service at Parish Church. Life’s work for fellow men:

                                              No man in our town was more respected and loved," declared the Rector of Beccles (the Rev. Harold L. Birch) when paying a pulpit tribute to Dr. Henry Wood-Hill, Deputy Mayor of the borough, at a memorial service at St. Michael's Parish Church on Saturday afternoon.

                                             Dr. Wood-Hill, who was 67, passed away suddenly at his residence, Staithe House. Northgate. during the previous Sunday night. He had been in practice in the borough for forty years. From 1935 to 1938 he was Mayor of Beccles, since when he had held the office of Deputy Mayor.

                                             People from every walk of life in town and district streamed to the service to pay their last respects. The congregation, which practically filled the large building, was the biggest seen on an occasion of this kind at the church for many years.

                                             REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY

                                             By the wish of the family the service was of a quiet and informal character. In compliance with this desire the Mayor and fellow members of the Corporation attended in a private capacity. Included in the congregation were representatives of the many organisations with which Dr. Wood-Hill had been associated, and there were, too, numerous old patients who had experienced his skill and kindness.

                                             Mrs. Wood-Hill was accompanied by her three daughters, Miss Penelope Wood-Hill, Mrs. A. S. Philps (Radlett) and Mrs. R. W. B. Burton (Oxford), and Dr. Wood-Hill's brother, Col Charles Wood-Hill.

                                             The service was conducted by the Rector, with the assistance of the Rev. Wm. R. Barnes (curate). The entire music had been selected by the family. Singing was led by the robed choir, Mr. A. E. Groom being at the organ. The hymns were " For all the Saints," sung to Dr. Vaughan Williams' tune, and "Jesus lives! no longer now…”

                                             “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills” was the Psalm and the Nunc Dimittis was chanted at the close of the service. Mendelssohn’s “O Rest in the Lord” and “Jesus Joy of Man’s Desiring” (Bach) were played by the organist as the congregation assembled.

                                             Basing a short address on the text, “The beloved physician”, from Collossians, ch 4 v 14, the Rector said the designation given by the Apostles to a beloved friend and faithful companion, St Luke, was a fitting description of him for whose life and work they had met to thank God.

                                             HIS ACTIVE LIFE

                                             For some forty years Henry Gilbert Wood-Hill practised in this town as doctor,” observed Mr Birch. “During that period he won for himself, to a remarkable degree, the respect and affection, not only of his patients, but of a large circle of friends and acquaintances beyond them. It is true to say that no man in our town was more respected and loved. His fine, commanding presence, his cheerfulness, gentleness and sympathy made him ever welcome in the sick room and brought fresh courage and hope to the sufferer. Men and women felt that in Dr. Wood-Hill they had not only a skilful physician, but a true friend.

                                             "At a time when many men begin to lighten the burden of their responsibilities” the Rector continued, "Dr. Wood-Hill accepted the invitation to fill the arduous and distinguished position of chief citizen of this ancient borough, a position that he held for three years with marked success. Henry Wood-Hill was deeply interested in all matters that concerned the welfare of the community. His counsel, when given, was always wise and well balanced, and he was ever a lover and maker of peace among his fellow men. Our beautiful and well-equipped Memorial Hospital, which has repeatedly won high praise from the authorities, owes its creation, in very large measure, to the imagination, enthusiasm and perseverance of Dr. Wood-Hill. Whilst it is our town memorial to the memory of the men who fell in the Great War, it will be also to many people, for not a few years, a memorial to the far-seeing vision  of Henry Wood-Hill.

                                             AN   INSPIRING   EXAMPLE

                                             "Human nature is so constituted that it can only realise the meaning and reality of goodness when it is expressed in human lives," he declared. " The goodness of Henry Gilbert Wood-Hill, his courage, unselfishness and devotion to duty, his kindness and courtesy, will be for many days to come a fruitful and inspiring memory to the people of our town.''

                                             From Robert Browning the Rector quoted well-known lines which he thought were peculiarly applicable to "our dear friend": —

                                                                One who never turn'd his back but march'd breast forward,

                                                                Never doubted clouds would break.

                                                                Never dream'd, though, right were worsted, wrong would triumph.

                                                                Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better.

                                                                Sleep to wake.

                                             "We thank God to-day for the fragrant memory of Henry Gilbert Wood-Hill and for the fine work that he has done for the well-being of his fellow men," Mr. Birch concluded. "We thank God. Too, for the larger work, the higher tasks, which are now his, in the fuller life into which he has entered,"

                                             He felt that the closing sentence of the prayer for the Church Militant expressed the feelings uppermost in the minds of many of them: "We also bless Thy Holy Name for all Thy servants departed this life in Thy faith near; beseeching Thee to give us grace so to follow their good example that with them we may he partaker's of Thy Heavenly Kingdom."

                                             THE CONGREGATION

                                             The Earl and Countess of Stradbroke, of Henham Hall were represented. Included in the congregation were the Mayor and Mayoress of the borough (Alderman and Mrs. Allden Owles), Sir Arnesby Brown, R.A. (Haddiscoe), Mr. and Mrs. John Crowfoot and Mrs. Payne (Geldeston), Mrs. Nicholas Bacon, Raveningham Hall (also representing Mr. Nicholas Bacon and the Norfolk branch of the British Red Cross Society), Mr. Kenneth Metcalfe and Miss Metcalfe (Geldeston). Mrs. B. W. Blower (North Cove Hall), Mrs. R. M. Dowson and Miss Dowson (Geldeston), Mrs. Herbert Todhunter (Gillingham Hall), Mr. and Mrs C E. Hastings and ! Lieut. Francis Hastings (Adeby), Mrs. M. E. Trafford (Dunburgh). Mr. and Mrs. F. W. C. Chartres, Willingham (also representing Major and Mrs. M. E. St. J. Barne), Dr. and Mrs, TR. Grantham-Hill, Mrs. Wm. C. McLaren (also representing Dr. McLaren, who is on active service), Dr. and Mrs. Sidney Smith and Miss Smith, Alderman Dr. Howard F. Warner, Dr. Wm. Wyllys (Yarmouth), Dr. J. M. Taylor also representing Lowestoft Hospital), Dr. L. Gibson (Medical Officer of Health), Dr. and Mrs. H. Muir Evans. Miss Larkman. Barsham (also representing Mr. and Mrs. J. Preston Larkman and Miss Burton), the Misses Turney (Barsham). Mrs. A. L. Freeland and Miss Freeland (Toft Monks), Mrs. Keith Harrison (Geldeston), Mr. and Mrs. Stross.

                                             Mrs. E. Hartlev and Mrs. Bankes, Miss de Best, Mrs. R. H. Brown, Canon E. F. P. Durnford, RD, and Mrs. Durnford (Sotterley). Canon and Mrs. C. W. Baron-Suckling and Mrs. Eggington (Barsham). Canon E. G. Clowes and Mr. W. S. Clowes (Weston), the Rev. and Mrs; R. F. Fleming, the Rev. and Mrs. H. S. Verrells (Ringsfield), the Rev. J. Colwell Smith (Thurlton), the Rev. W. L. McCormick (Gillingham), the Rev. Alfred W. Paulson (Beccles Congregational Church), the Rev. Harold Bullough (Methodist superintendent minister), Major and Mrs. George Wright (Salvation Army), Mrs. E. E. Messenger (chairman of Bungay Urban District Council and Bungay W.V.S. centre leader), the Misses Tracy, Ald. E. Johnson Hindes, Coun. Paymaster Rear-Admiral C S. Johnson, Mr. Stephen Johnson and Miss C. Johnson, Miss Hellyer, Mrs. J. Gilbertson, Mrs. Walmsley, Lt.-Col. R. F. Lush, Lt.-Col. B. Granville Baker, D.S.O., Coun. Capt. and Mrs F. C. Poyser, Mrs. H. Frederickson, Mrs. G. A. B. Boycott (Dunburgh). Mr. A. E. Tedder, O.B.E., and Mr. O. H. Tedder, Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Thompson, Mr. John Clowes, Mr. S. W. Rix. Miss P. E. Sutton (matron of Beccles War Memorial Hospital) and Miss Raikes (masseuse), Sister Cock (Beccles Nurses' Home), Mr. and Mrs. Frank A. Clatworthy, the Misses Pocock and Miss Burslem (Geldeston Red Cross), Mrs. C. H. Winter, Mrs. Gilbert (Beccles Red Cross). County-officer W. C. Watts and Divisional Superintendent C. W. Chiddel (St. John Ambulance Brigade), Miss Brown and St. John Ambulance girl cadets, Miss Winifred  Simpson   (Kirby  Cane).

                                             Messrs. A. E. Bunn (secretary of the War Memorial Hospital) and W. Fowler (churchwardens), Ald. W. H. Simmons, Mr W Bryan Forward, (Town Clerk), Mr CL Hamby (Borough Surveyor) and Miss Hamby, Mr WS Clark (Borough Accountant and Deputy Town Clerk) and Mrs Clark, Mrs Oscar W Owles, Mr and Mrs CW Puzey (Shadingfield), Miss G Smith (Secretary of Beccles and District Centre of the WVS), the Misses K and EJ Smith, Councillor and Mrs AE Pye, Mr and Mrs WAG Hardy, Mrs Frank Clarke, Councillor AE Jordan, Mr EL Thrower (Thurlton Rectory), Mr and Mrs John Snowling (also representing Mr HA Hardy), Councillor and Mrs AT Bent, Mrs AE Bunn, Mrs W Fowler, Mr and Mrs JM Murray, Miss Gertrude Hamby, Mr and Mrs BW Goodin, Mr BS George, Mr O Lloyd Smith, the Misses Bowles, Mrs I Pagan, Mrs H. L. Birch, Mrs. G. Watson, Miss Sargent, the Misses Allen, Mr. and Mrs G. S. Humphreys, Mr. W. E. Downing. Mr. W. J. Money. Councillor G F. Robinson Mr. and Mrs. Phillip L. Ashford (Aldeby), Mr. and Mrs. J. Brian Ashford. Mr. D. C. Smith, Councillor H. A. Taylor. Councillor and Mrs. G. S. Odam (the latter, as chairman, representing Beccles Townswomen's Guild), Mr. A. W. Rayner, Miss Foster, Mrs Redit, Mr. W S. Green and Mr. A. S. Green, Col. and Mrs. R. W. Brooks, Major and Mrs. A. R. M. Darby, Capt. A R. Bremerton (representing the Army Quartering Commandant), Adjutant A. H. Moyes, Mr. C. Wilfred Durrant, Mr. C. R. Manning, Mr. D. G. Reeve (secretary, representing the Beccles Committee of the National Council Anglo-Soviet Unity and Friendship), Mr. F. F. Garrood. Miss Garrood, Mr. Chas, Skevens, Mrs. Youngman and Miss Youngman. Mr. L. H. Burman.

                                             Mr. P. Button (dispenser at Dr. Wood-Hill's surgery) and Mrs. Button, Mr F. J Meen, Mr. W. C. White (secretary, representing Beccles Amateur Dramatic Society, of which Dr Wood-Hill was the senior vice-president). Miss Ellis, Mr. and Mrs. B. D Shenfield and Mr. H. Pilling (all from Shadingfield), Nurse Read, Mr. and Mrs A. A. E. Smith (Beccles and District Historical Society), Mrs. A. E. Groom, Miss Fiddy, Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Grayston, Mr and Mrs. W. Ward, Mr. and Mrs W. M. Sheldrake, Mr. and Mrs A Harbord, Mr. E. C. Burton, Miss Davey, Miss Murray, Mr. and Mrs A. H Poll, Mr. J. C. Poll, Miss Welham, Mr. William Clark (Sergeant-at-Mace), Mr. H. S. Lawrance, Mr. and Mrs. Guy Lawrance, Mrs. F. Lawrance, Mr H. R. Hadingham, Mr. R. K. Took, Mr. G. H. Lawson, Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Elliott, Mr. G. R. Gipson, Mr H. A Spashett, Mrs. C. S. Darby, Mrs. J Field, Miss E. Budd, Mrs. W J. Seppings, Mr. and Mrs. M. Woolner, Mrs. G. Clarke, Mr. L. J. Sidle, Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Balls, Miss Brooksmith, Mr. and Mrs. F. Garrett, Miss Salter, Mr. H. G. Watson, Mr. J. C. Woodward, Mr. H. Carr, Mr. R. B. Reynolds. Mrs. H. Taylor, Mr. F. E. Balls, Mr. and Mrs. C. Warnes, Miss Wells, Mr. E. Snazle, Mr. F. Bloom, Mr. V. E. Turner, Mr. E. E. Moore, Mrs. C. Wright, Mr. and Mrs. R. G. Simmonds, Mr. G. E. Brown, Mr. and Mrs. J. Cutler, Mr. J. Reynolds, Mr. B. Reynolds, Miss B. Snell, Mr. G. Sampson, Mr. J. E. Newson,; Mr. W. J. F. Boar, Mr. F. H. Delf, Mr. M. Pitkin, Miss Delf, Mr. and Mrs. E. Charlish, Mr. H.G. Croucher, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Rae, Mr. C. D. Clarke, Mr. R. G. Lee, Miss Hunter and Miss Robinson, Mrs. Williams, Mrs. J. Kerridge, Mr. L. W. G. Steverson, Mrs. F.C. Turrell, Mr. Wm. Smith, Mr. R. W. Aldous, Mr. T. B. Cocks, Mrs. W. Gray. Mrs. S. Holmes, Mr. H. T. Boyce, Miss Spall, Mr. and Mrs. S. Porter (Weston), Mr. J. W. Wright, Mr. J. W. Connolly, Miss Poulton, Mr. H. R. Davis (Weston), Mr. H. L, Andrews, Mrs. H. Reynolds, Mr. A. Steffani, Mr. E. R. Goate.

                                             Mr. J. Howes, Mrs. Spinks (Gillingham), Mrs. Flowerdew, Mrs. Aldred, Mrs. Woolstone, Mrs. Mason, Miss Gant, Mrs. Hall, Mr. and Mrs. H. Oxborough, Mrs. A. G. Blackmore and Mrs. F. Smith, Miss Laker, Mrs. W. Martin, Miss Harrod, Mrs. Rackham, Miss Trundle. Mrs. V. Smith, Mrs. Lawrence (Kirby Cane), Mrs. Challis, Mrs. Wigg, Mrs. Youell, Mrs. Franks, Miss Baker, Miss C. Harper, Mrs. Mutimer, Miss Rush, Mrs. J. Clarke, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Welham, Mrs. V. Spalding, Mrs. A. M. Devereux. Mrs. Randlesome, Mrs. E. Vise, Mr. and Mrs. P. Page, Miss George, Miss I. Sarbutt, Mrs. A. Stimpson, Mrs. Fairweather, Miss Stannard. Mrs. Page, Mrs. Pipe, Mrs. Fox, Mrs. Jude. Mrs. Baldry. Mrs. M. A. Parr, Miss Lockwood, Mrs. Strowger, Mrs. W. Devereux, Mrs. Gladwell (Henstead), Mrs. White, the Misses Simper, Mrs. Clutten. Mrs. Rackham, Mrs. Balls, Miss F. Stowers, Miss G. Martin, Mr. W. Sporle, Mr. E. Clarke, Mrs. P. Curtis. Miss Elliott, Miss Deed. Mrs. Lacey and Miss Thrower.

                                             Absence from town prevented Mr. Hamilton, J. Bunbury and Councillor E. W. Swindells from attending. Mr. P. C. Loftus, M.P., and Mrs. Loftus and Miss M. Lee Barber were also unable to be present

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Feb      TRIBUTES TON Dr WOOD-HILL:

                                             Council's   Condolence

                                             At the invitation of the Mayor, members of the Council met at the Town Hall immediately after the service for the purpose of passing a resolution of condolence.

                                             "We lament the loss of one who for forty years has given of his best to this town and its citizens," said the Mayor. " His unfailing courtesy and kindness his strong character and outstanding personality will long remain in our memory. He worthily upheld the traditions of a family, who for generations played a prominent part in this town and to whom he was allied by marriage.

                                              "As Deputy Mayor his help and advice were invaluable to me and, however occupied he might be, he never failed to answer any call I might make upon him. I shall miss him very much."

                                             The resolution, adopted on the motion of Alderman E. J. Hindes, an ex-Mayor, seconded by Mr. G. F. Robinson, expressed the Council's deep sympathy with Mrs. Wood-Hill and family and the great loss the borough and its people had sustained by the death of one who had devoted himself so much to their welfare.

                                             A letter conveying to Mrs. Wood-Hill these feelings was despatched immediately after the meeting.

                                             Members present were the Mayor (Ald. Allden Owles), in the chair, Ald. E. J. Hindes, W. H. Simmons and Dr. Howard F Warner, Mr. G. F. Robinson, Paymaster Rear-Admiral C. S. Johnson, Messrs. H. A. Taylor, A. E. Pye, A. E. Jordan, G. S. Odam, and Capt. F C. Poyser. The Town Clerk (Mr. W. Bryan Forward), Surveyor (Mr. C. L. Hamby), Accountant and Deputy Town Clerk (Mr. W. S. Clark), and Sgt.-at-Mace (Mr. W. Clark) also attended.

                                             Sympathy from Southwold

                                             At the meeting of the Borough Council on Tuesday evening the Town Clerk (Mr. W. Bryan Forward) read a letter from, the Town Clerk of Southwold (Mr. E. G. Naunton) in connexion with the passing of Dr. Wood-Hill. This expressed "the deep and sincere sympathy of the Town Council of Southwold in the sad and irreparable loss your borough and Council have so suddenly sustained." Mr. Naunton also asked for his Council's feelings to be conveyed to Mrs. Wood-Hill.

                                             The Mayor said he felt sure the Council would wish for a letter of thanks to be sent to Southwold and for a copy of Mr. Naunton's communication to be forwarded to Mrs. Wood-Hill.

                                             Magistrates Sympathy

                                             Before the start of the ordinary business at Beccles Police Court on Friday the Chairman (Lt.-Col. B. Granville Baker. D.S.O.). said the Bench wished to express their deepest and sincerest sympathy with the family of the late Dr. Henry Wood-Hill in their bereavement.

                                             "The Bench also have their own personal regrets to express in the tragic death of Dr. Wood-Hill,'' he added. "He has been a senior member of our community and of this Bench for many years. His loss will be very greatly felt indeed."

                                             Silent tribute was paid by the court.

                                             Pastor's Tribute .

                                             "We are all only too conscious that, with tragic suddenness, we have lost from the life of this town and district one of its outstanding and most influential personalities." said the Rev. Alfred W. Poulson, minister of the Congregational Church, when conducting the usual service at Beccles and District War Memorial Hospital on Sunday evening.

                                             "You will agree with me. I feel sure, that it would be fitting that in this little service we should remember with gratitude all that we owe to Dr. Henry Wood-Hill and also that we give a special place in our prayers to his loved ones in their sorrow and loss," he continued. "Dr. Wood-Hill, more than any one other person, had helped to make possible this hospital, of which he was justly proud, and to which you and all who, like you, have been glad to avail yourselves of its service, are consciously indebted. To his vision and vitality it owed its inception and he ever sought to bring into it all that was best for the relief and comfort and healing of others. By that means his love of humanity found fitting expression and he brought into the reach of the people of this town and district all that medical science has accomplished, as well as the loving service of those who have given themselves to the highest service that Christianity has inspired.

                                             "We shall all miss his gracious and genial personality, his courteous bearing and dealing with people of all classes, his ennobling influence," Mr. Poulson added, "and all who knew him best will miss a very true and kind friend. His kindness was all the more valuable because, more often than not, it was expressed unobtrusively and almost by stealth. We shall all be grateful for the continuing influence of his life and find in his fine example an incentive to sacrificial service for the good of mankind. Thus we give thanks to God for all that his life has meant and must continue to mean, and to Him we commend those whose loss through the doctor's passing is greatest of all."

                                             The tribute was followed by suitable prayers.

                                             "Pedlar's" Appreciation

                                             "We have really lost the father of our town, that's how I feel about it," a Beccles business man said to me after we had attended the memorial service at the Parish Church for Dr. Wood-Hill. That, I think, is how the great majority of us feel about this tragic blow, which has befallen our little borough so unexpectedly. To young and old alike he was the kindest of fathers and we shall miss him greatly.

                                             Already much has fittingly been said about the life and work of Dr. Wood-Hill. In the coming days and weeks there will be many more tributes, for he was, indeed, a citizen towering above his fellows. In every sense he was outstanding. He conferred dignity and distinction upon our town. He was a great man, yet simple in his greatness because he was always so human.

                                             In these stirring times the days of the last war seem very distant, but there are still many local men who remember with deep affection and pride the way in which Dr. Wood-Hill, their fellow citizen, then serving as an R.A.M.C. officer, dressed their wounds and cheered them up at Gallipoli.

                                             From the bottom of his heart he loved Beccles and its people. Noble was his contribution towards making it a more beautiful place in which to live and work. Each of us, too, can do something in this respect. The young trees planted by the Council wherever demolition had left an unsightly scar received his special care and interest. That these trees should be allowed to attain their full growth was a wish very near his heart. These are worthy ways in which we can keep his memory green. Let us resolve, for instance, that nothing happens to detract from the beauty of the little park at the corner .of Bungay and Ringsfield roads, for whose acquisition by the Council he strove so hard and in which he took the fondest interest. Countless visitors to Beccles, or passing through it, have admired the town sign near by, which was his conception. All that was beautiful in this old-world corner of England made a constant appeal to him. He hated that which was ugly. In a host of ways Beccles is much the better for his having spent his life within its bounds

                                             The simple memorial service was a wonderful tribute to him. From all types of homes in town and countryside folk made their way to thank Almighty God for the life and work, in their midst, of a good man, than none was more respected and loved. He was indeed a wonderful example to every one of us, and, if that standard be followed, then Beccles and its neighbourhood will be a still happier and lovelier part in which to dwell.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Feb      CZECH UNIT leaves town [presumably Beccles] sends letter of thanks to the Mayor.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Feb      ANGLO-SOVIET FRIENDSHIP: Beccles help for Medical Supplies for the Red Army. Parade to morning service at St Michael’s, assembling in the Old Market: Beccles Company of the Home Guard, No 1 Platoon of the First Cadet Corps, Suffolk Regiment, Sir John Leman School Flight of the Air Training Corps, “B” Division of the National Fire Service including Firewomen, Beccles Special Constabulary, Beccles Civil Defence Wardens’ Service and Report Centre staff, Beccles Division of the St John Ambulance Brigade & 1st Beccles Company of Girl Guides. The route to church was by Smallgate, Exchange Square and the New Market. Music was played by the band of the local corps of the Salvation Army.

                                             From the Town Hall to the church a guard of honour for the civic party was provided by St John Ambulance personnel. The Mayor was accompanied by Ald EJ Hindes and WH Simmons, Paymaster Rear Admiral CS Johnson, Messrs HA Taylor, AE Pye, AE Jordan and Capt FC Poyser (members of the Town Council), Mr W Bryan Forward (Town Clerk), Mr CL Hamby (Surveyor), Mr WS Clark (Accountant & Deputy Town Clerk), Dr L Gibson (Medical Officer of Health) and Inspector W Bryant. Councillor EW Swindells could not be with the party as he had charge of the Home Guard..

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Feb      DEATH: Stephen Poll, aged 59, of 21 Hungate Lane, a Beccles Corporation worker, collapsed and died in Northgate while walking home from his work at the salvage Depot. He had been in the service of the Corporation for 30 years.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Feb      WEAR WHITE IN THE DARK suggested by the chief Constable. As to pedestrians, most of the accidents were during the black-out. A piece of bandage on the forearm within sight level would save lives. The casualties in East Suffolk were 445 accidents, involving 37 killed and 498 injured.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Feb      COUNCIL: 1.) DEPUTY MAYOR APPOINTED:  Alderman EJ Hindes accepted the post in succession to the late Dr Henry Wood-Hill. 2.) ROAD DANGER: Town Clerk to write to the County Council drawing attention to the narrow streets being used by heavy motor lorries travelling at excessive speeds and to the practice of drivers running their vehicles on to the footpaths at a fast pace in order to pass others. 3.) SLAUGHTERMEN:  Licences held by WJ Seppings, GW Carver & S Reed were renewed.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Feb      SIR JOHN LEMAN SCHOOL: New Headmaster: Dr Leslie R Wood, MSc (Lond), senior geography master at Bedales School, Hampshire, appointed to succeed Mr GS Humphrey. He was chosen from 200 applicants for the post. Eight of them were interviewed by the Governors. He is a married man with a seven-month old daughter.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Feb      SEASIDE BAN LIFTED until 1st of April. The ban on pleasure visits to the coastal areas between the Wash and the Thames, and between Hastings and Littlehampton and to the Isle of Wight will remain until 1st of April. The ban on pleasure visits in defence areas remains in force.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Feb      ARREST ordered of two Beccles sisters, May Leech & Dorothy Leech, of 10 Hungate, who did not appear to answer the summons for failing to submit to medical examination.

 1943   Beccles & Bungay 27 Feb      HOME GUARD: G (Beccles) Company of 1st Battalion Home Guard parade: Certificates issued to Cpl Newson, who has done most valuable work on the administrative side and given unstinted help since the very early days of the Local Defence Volunteers.

                                             The Company’s No 2 Platoon was the winning team in the Spigot mortar competition for the battalion: L-Cpl  LB Pearce, Ptes RC Squires, MM Scarfe, HT Hazell & JW Law.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Mar       LARGE PIKE: Mr George Starkings, 26 Gosford Road, landed a 20 lb pike in the River Waveney [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Mar       SURPRISE FOR 80 YEAR OLD: Mr Albert E Dennington, 42 Ingate received a Ministry of Labour & National Service notice to join the Home Guard. He was in the Norfolk Volunteers for a quarter of a century.  Three of his sons served in the last war, two were wounded and one taken prisoner. He spent his working days as a bricklayer on the railway in different parts of East Anglia, starting at the age of 15, and retiring 50 years later.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Mar       FORMER BECCLES SCHOLAR of Sir John Leman School, John Atkins, who was a pupil from 1927 to 1932 a “leading young poet”.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Mar       SUBMARINE THRASHER CREW given a civic reception at Shoreditch including Leading Seaman Alec G Adams, elder son of Mr & Mrs GW Adams, 48 Frederick’s Road. He is an old boy of Peddar’s Lane Council School, he has served on Thrasher since it was commissioned. The submarine was adopted by the town. [PHOTO 13 March 1943]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Mar       WEDDING: Sgt Alexander Burch RAF to Miss Constance N French.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Mar       DEATH of Mrs Frances Kearns, aged 90, of Avondale, Waveney Road.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Mar       Dr WOOD-HILL: Tribute by SW Rix: “Upwards of 40 years ago a vacancy occurred in the office of Poor Law Medical Officer for the Wangford Union [Shipmeadow]. Dr Wood-Hill wrote to the Clerk of the Guardians asking if there was an opening for a general practitioner.. He got the appointment and set up a plate and a pony cart in Station Road, quickly earning golden opinions from a gathering number of patients.

                                             In 1903 he joined the Crowfoot partnership, one member of which was William Baylay Crowfoot, who died September 11th 1907, a young man of promise and eldest son of William Miller Crowfoot, who was far the ablest intellect among a number of clever contemporaries and of world reputation. On September 29th 1908 married Amy Vaughan Crowfoot, eldest daughter of William Crowfoot (who died in 1918).

                                             He was a lover of music, an artist, and a man of enquiring and searching nature, who felt the lack in a small town of other intellectual minds with whom he might share his views; an enthusiast with a wonderful power of gathering round him other enthusiasts in any scheme on which he set his heart. As a physician he gave great importance to and quickly diagnosed the ‘mental attitude’ of his patients, frequently hummed himself in at the front door, and never failed to scrutinise the books and pictures in the sitting room before admission to the sick room.

                                             Shortly before acquiring the house in Northgate, in which he lived during his married life and died, he had been advised to wait for an expected vacancy in a house in Old Market, but decided otherwise, and dear old Mrs Stanford lived to attain the respectable age of 105. [she died in 1923 or 1924]

 1943   Beccles & Bungay 6 Mar       DEATH of Mrs Eliza March, widow, aged 90, widow of Mr George, late of Beccles.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Mar     DEATH of Miss Emily Ann Griffith: Many deserving causes have lost a good friend by the death of Miss Emily Griffith, which occurred on Sunday at Treherne, Frederick’s Road, Beccles.

                                             Miss Griffith, who was 72, had been in indifferent health for some time. She had lived in the borough for a great many years and its older citizens will remember her brother, the late Col George Griffith, whose home was at Shanrahan, Northgate. She was a worshipper at Holy Trinity Church, Barsham.

                                             Preceding the internment at Beccles Cemetery on Wednesday, a service was held at St Michael’s Church, the Rector (Rev Harold Birch) officiating.

                                             Principal mourners were Miss Dorothy Allen, Miss Beatrice Allen, Miss Bird, Miss Read, Mrs Gillett (also representing Mr GD Gillett) and Mr Arthur Bird. The congregation also included Mrs HL Birch, Rev William R Barnes (curate), Mr AE Bunn (Rector’s Warden) Canon CW Baron-Suckling (Rector of Barsham), and Mrs Baron-Suckling, Miss Larkman (also representing Mr & Mrs J Preston Larkman), the Misses Tracy, Mrs E Hartley, Mrs RH Brown, Mrs AW Rayner, Mr B Goodin, Nurse Stubbs, Miss C Johnson, Mrs Stanley Green, Miss EJ Smith, Miss Foster, Sister Cock, Miss de Best, Miss Baker (representing Miss Drake), Mrs E Woolner, Mrs S Culley, Mrs Donald Bird (Barsham), Mr JM Clark, Miss Betts, Mrs FJ Moyse, Mr Charles Wilson, Mr John Wilson and Mrs FC Turrell.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Mar     DEATH of Mr Charles T Barnard of Lowestoft at the Star Hotel, Beccles, the home of his son Mr FS Barnard.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Mar     WEDDING of Flying-Officer Ctril Goulborn, RAFVR of Worcester Park and Miss Joan Judge, youngest daughter of the late Mr Thomas Judge & Mrs Judge of 17 Kilbrack. A reception was held at the Ingate Hotel, about 50 guests attending.. The honeymoon is being spent at Bournemouth.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Mar     PROMOTED MAJOR: Mr & Mrs FC Hurr, of 33 Ellough Road have received news that their eldest son, Mr CP Hurr, who is serving in the Middle East, has been promoted to the rank of Major. On leaving Peddar’s Lane School at the age of 14, he started his career as a messenger boy at Beccles Post Office. After passing examinations he was appointed to a responsible position in the Civil Service at Southampton. At the beginning of the war he was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Territorials. After serving with the RASC in different parts of this country he was eventually sent to the Middle East.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Mar     METHODIST PREACHERS HONOURED by gift of certificates: Mr FE Balls, of 36 Northgate, who is 83, has completed 59 years as a local preacher. Also Mr E White, of Beccles, 52 years of preaching, JH Gower, 48 years, & G Bryant of Beccles, 40 years.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Mar     COUNCIL: POST-WAR HOUSING SCHEME: The Ministry of Health wished Councils to look out for sites, get plans ready and be ready to start building operations when the war had finished. It would be impossible to deal with the financial side until after the war. The Town Clerk had seen some of the plans prepared by the Ministry of Works, and considered the style was exceedingly good. No doubt these would reach the Council in due course.

                                             Mr AE Pye said that already the Council had zoned an area for houses. It had not acquired the land and certainly could not do so until it knew what the financial arrangement would be. It could look at plans, but it would be no good deciding on them until something was known of the cost to the tenants.

                                             The POST-WAR PLANNING COMMITTEE inspected sites for a Bus Station in Newgate and one that they preferred – on the corner of Blyburgate & Peddar’s Lane, now used as a cattle market.

                                             The possible sites for a car park were inspected, that on the west side of Newgate was not considered to be as suitable as the one on the east in the vicinity of Nunn’s Yard. Some of the proposed Bus Station could also be used for parking.

                                             THE COMMON was inspected which should be the main centre of recreation in the borough. Provision should be made for football, cricket, a municipal golf course, model yacht pond and children’s paddling pool.

                                             SWIMMING POOL The question of a new, up-to-date swimming pool was discussed. Most members favoured Little Common, Puddingmoor, the remainder advocating the main Common.

                                             NEW COUNCILLOR There was some discussion arising out of the matter of filling the vacancy on the Council caused by the recent death of Dr Henry Wood-Hill, the Deputy Mayor.

                                             The name of Eugene Chas Ulph, of Upper Grange Road, who is president of the local branch of the typographical Association, was put forward by Alderman WH Simmons, and seconded by Mr AE Pye. Alderman Dr Warner proposed Mr Brook, of Red Tiles, Northgate, a businessman.

                                             In view of the fact that housing matters would be receiving consideration, Admiral Johnson thought it would be advisable to have a woman member. He considered that if none was available at present the matter might be deferred to the next meeting of the Council.

                                             Mr AE Jordan also felt the Council would be advised to secure a woman, and suggested that members of the sex should be asked to consider the matter. “I am very much in favour of the principle, but I don’t see how it is going to work in practice.” Remarked Mr GS Odam. He felt the women knew that a vacancy had occurred, and that it was quite within their rights for them to have put a name forward through one of the members. However nothing had been done, and therefore, he considered no action should now be taken in this respect.

                                             Seconding Admiral Johnston’s motion, Mr AT Bent thought that if there was a desire on the part of the Council to think over the matter between now and the occurrence of another vacancy.

                                             The motion for deferment was lost, and Mr Ulph elected by seven votes to three. [PHOTO 27 March page 1]

                                             MEDICAL PRACTICIONERS: The Council’s “grave concern” at the depletion of the number of medical men in the borough and pressing for the release of Dr Wm C McLaren from military service or the allocation of an additional medical practitioner to Beccles.

                                             DISUSED BURIAL GROUND: A report recommended that the gravestones and stone tombs be removed from their present positions and placed on the southern boundary of the site and that the ground be laid out with paths and provided with seats.                              

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Mar     SIX of FAMILY in FORCES: Mr & Mrs George Dyer, of 3 Ballygate have six of their children in the Forces. Theses are their five sons and youngest daughter.

                                             The eldest son, Gnr Robert H Dyer, who is 34, is in the Middle East. He joined the army a couple of years ago, and went abroad last May. When at the Caxton Press he played and acted as an official in the football section.  His wife, formerly Miss Self, is working in a factory engaged in work of national importance.

                                             Pte Frank Dyer is 33 is in this country with the RASC. He volunteered early in the war. Previously he worked as a butcher. His wife is serving in the ATS.

                                             Guardsman Douglas V Dyer, aged 30, of the Grenadiers, served 7 years in the Regiment then worked at the Caxton Press. At the outbreak of war he was called up and left the town immediately. He was sent to France twice and was evacuated from Dunkirk, and has now been sent abroad. His wife, formerly Miss Oxborough of Common Lane, is doing a man’s job at the printing works.

                                             Pte Jack Dyer, aged 29 was employed at the Caxton Press until he was called up two years ago. He is now with anti-aircraft battery in the Middle East.

                                             Aircraftsman Philip Dyer, aged 23 is in the Royal Air Force somewhere in the Middle East. He joined up a couple of years ago and has been abroad a year. Before the war he worked at the Caxton Press.

                                             Wren Joyce Dyer is 20 was also at the Caxton Press before she volunteered 8 months ago. She is stationed somewhere in England.

                                             There are four daughters: Miss Lucy Dyer, who used to work at the Caxton Press, is working in a Government factory in the Home Counties. Her fiancée, Mr David Lewis, is a former Caxton footballer of outstanding ability. Called up with the Territorials at the start of the war he has recently been commissioned. He is stationed in this country.

                                             Miss Dorothy Dyer is doing war work locally as a baker’s roundsman.

                                             The other two are married: Marjorie, and Ivy, the wife of Mr Herbert Fairhead, who is in the Home Guard.

                                             Mr George Dyer belongs to an old Beccles Family, has been a watchman at the Caxton Press for 37 years.  His wife was born in Ipswich, and was employed in the still rooms of some of the leading hotels and clubs in London. One of these was St Stephen’s Club, used by Members of Parliament. She was there on the occasion of a great reception for Lord Roberts, when he returned from South Africa.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Mar     PRISONER of WAR: Thirteen months ago Mr and Mrs Maurice Elliott, of Hope Villa, Fair Close received a cable from their elder son, Leading Aircraftsman Donald Vernon Elliott to the effect that when the Japanese took Singapore he made his escape to Java.

                                             Nothing further was heard about him until Saturday when there was delivered a telegram from the Air Ministry stating that news had been received through the International Red Cross that he is a prisoner of war in Japanese hands.

                                             LAC Elliott, who is 20 was educated at Sir John Leman School and at the age of 16 went to an RAF training camp. He sailed for the Far East a week before his 19th birthday.

                                             His father is a director of Elliott & Garrood. The young airman is the nephew of Mr & Mrs Downing, of Longlands, Upper Grange Road. [He died or was killed in 1945]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Mar     CONCERT by BELGIAN SOLDIERS in the town.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Mar     WEDDINGS: Sgt Frederick Taylor, of Beccles & Miss CV Reeve of Norwich

                                             Fusilier Lewis Pryce (Royal Northumberland Fusiliers) of Stockport & Miss Daisy Read of Beccles

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Mar     ROYAL NAVAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTE record of achievement presented to Councillor & Mrs Bent, of Home Lodge, Northgate, for their ten years’ work as Chairman, Secretary & Treasurer of the

                                             local Lifeboat appeal, by the Mayor of Beccles.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Mar     COMMUNIST PARTY of BECCLES call for Second Front Now at a meeting at the Ingate Hotel, by Miss Cornblatt of Ipswich, district treasurer of the East Anglian Communist Party. The Beccles Party was presided over by Mr Graham Murray.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Mar     BECCLES CAXTON BOWLERS’ meeting chaired by Mr FL Snowden, reviewed successful season.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Mar     KILLED IN ACTION: Mrs E Nursey, who since 1940 has lived with her mother, Mrs E Ulph, of 101 Denmark Road received notification that her husband Trooper John R Nursey, RAC, was killed in action on 28th of February in the North African campaign. He was 30 and from Norton Subcourse.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Mar     FORMER CURATE of Beccles, Rev HS Verrells, who has been Rector of Ringsfield & Great Redisham for some years preached at St Michael’s.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Mar     ORDAINED PRIEST: Mr Anthony Throckmorton, second son of the late Capt HJA Throckmorton, RN (retired), of Grange Road, ordained a Catholic priest.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Mar     MET IN EGYPT: Mrs Blanche Borrett, a widow of Common Lane has heard from her elder son, Aircraftsman Arthur Borrett, that he and his second sister, Lt Ellen Borrett, of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Nursing Services, have had a happy meeting in Egypt.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Mar     BECCLES CHURCH MEETING: The same officers were re-elected and thanked. The number of electors was 954. During the year there had been 14 deaths & 8 removals, while 9 fresh names had been added.

                                             Mr Groom had been filling the post of Organist & Choirmaster since Mr John Hammond had been in the services. However nothing had been heard of him since the fall of Singapore [His name does not appear on the list of those Beccles people serving in the Forces]. While recording their sympathy with his mother in her anxiety and suspense, they could only hope that news of him would soon be forthcoming.

                                             CHURCH HEATING & TOWER RESTORATION:   Mr Goodin said that improved heating and the restoration of the tower had yet to be undertaken.

                                             BELLS: These were in good condition according to Mr ER Goate when they were rung in November to mark the victory of El Alamein. It was difficult  to get a band of ringers.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Apr       BECCLES UNITED score easy victory 10-1 over a Navy team. Williams, the centre-forward, was on top of his form and scored 7 goals,  the other marshmen being Machin, Bullen and Baker. Sparkes, at outside left, although not scoring, contributed much towards the goals.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Apr       FIRE at Somerton House, St Mary’s Road, extinguished after Mr FS Strong called the National Fire Service. The scullery and kitchen were damaged.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Apr       FORMER TEACHERS MARRIED of the Area School, LAC William Polmeer, (a metal work instructor) of South Wales & Miss Joan Banner of Corkett, Swaffham (drama & music teacher)

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Apr       PROPERTY SALE: late Mrs E Orford, sold by Messrs Read, Owles & Ashford: 52 Blyburgate, a dwelling house with walled-in garden. Purchased by Mr D Clarke at £680

1943    Beccles & Bungay 10 Apr     WEDDING of Sgt-Pilot Harold Hipperson, RAF, the only son of Mr & Mrs HE Hipperson of Riverside, Puddingmoor and Miss Vera White of Beccles, who was given away by her brother LAC A White, RAF. [PHOTO page 1] [He was killed 14/10/1944]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 10 Apr     PROMOTION: Mr & Mrs Robert Martin, of 40 Ravensmere have heard that their eldest son, Robert Martin, who is serving in the Royal Artillery, has been promoted from Sergeant to Battery Sergeant Major at the age of 27. He joined the Regular Army at the age of 15, and was posted to Palestine in February 1938, becoming a Sergeant a few months later. Since the beginning of the war he has served continuously with the 8th Army. Mr & Mrs Martin’s second son is also serving in the Royal Artillery in the Middle East.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 10 Apr     FREEDOM: Mrs Aldred of 48 Northgate has been informed that her son, First Class Stoker, Henry G Aldred, RN, is one of the British prisoners of war to be repatriated.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 10 Apr     BECCLES CHURCH ORGAN Memories of a member of a London and Ipswich firm of organ builder from 1857 [He was Edward Suggate]: “when he sat in one of the old square pews half way down the nave. The organ was in the west gallery. The case was of oak in the style of the Renaissance; it was still in Marylebone Road organ factory when our lease of those premises finally expired and residential flats were built on the site. In 1858 we rebuilt the Beccles organ at a cost of £300, and with some extras which were ordered during the progress of the work £345 in all was paid. The instrument remained in our care for many years, but about 1885-90 [it was in 1879] a Norwich firm, who had a sheet music shop in the New Market, secured the contract for a reconstruction, and we were no longer employed to tune it.”

                                             He continues: “His grandfather was a Surgeon, RN, retired, [Henry Suggate] and he being quite a young man, was in practice in Beccles. We believe he was offered a further short term in the Navy and left Beccles to take it up. He had been wounded in a Chinese cutting-out expedition against pirates.”

                                             In the autumn of 1937, in continuation of the big scheme of restoration of the church, the old organ was taken down. In its place there was erected a new two-manual instrument incorporating the exceptionally good old pipes. The work was carried out by Messrs Rushworth and Dreaper of Liverpool, at the cost of approximately £1,000.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 10 Apr     RETIRED POLICEMEN: Ex Superintendent John E Newson, of 13 Station Road, and Ex-Sergeant Wiliam Clark, were both serving in the Suffolk Constabulary during the Long Melford Riots in 1885. The trouble occurred when the people of nearby Glemsford made in no uncertain way their protest agaist not having a polling booth of their own, and of being required to go to Melford to vote [losing their pay for not working]. Most of the windows of the parish were smashed, the cobbles forming the roadway having been ripped up and used as missiles, together with beer bottles. The public house was also wrecked. Soldiers with fixed bayonets had to be summoned from Bury St Edmund’s several miles away before order could be completely restored.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 17 Apr     BECCLES YMCA AGM: Admiral Johnson, president said that 186,000 teas had been produced an average of 500 a day by voluntary workers. He particularly mentioned Mrs EE Moore, the caterer in chief, who had a record of continuous over many years, during which she had accepted a low salary and continually declined an increase.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 17 Apr     SIR JOHN LEMAN SCHOOL HOBBIES exhibition at the school.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 17 Apr     FOOD OFFICE: The amalgamation of Beccles and Wainford Food Offices has been determined upon. New premises secured at Holmleigh, Blyburgate (next door to the present Beccles Office)

1943    Beccles & Bungay 17 Apr     DEATH of Mr Herbert Hamby, elder brother of the Misses Hamby, of Carmel, Ashman’s Road, son of the late Mr & Mrs WP Hamby, of Ellough. He was 68 and was a manufacturer’s agent. He leaves a widow and a married daughter.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 17 Apr     Dr WOOD-HILL: An article on “Happiness” has been printed in booklet form. The proceeds will be given to the Red Cross.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Apr     CHURCH BELLD RING AGAIN: Mr Churchill announced in the Commons that after receiving the advice of the Chiefs of Staff, and in the light of changed circumstances, the existing order could now be relaxed and church bells would be rung on Sundays and other special days in the ordinary manner.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Apr     COUNCIL: 1.) AIR RAID SIREN now meant imminent danger – the whole system had changed from the early days – the All Clear would also be sounded as soon as danger had passed. People must avoid the blasé attitudes to warnings.

                                             2.) NEW COUNCILLOR: Mr Herbert V Branford retiring after 6 years [PHOO page 1]. Question raised about having a woman member. Mrs Odam suggested. On the casting vote of the Mayor, Mr John Elliott Coney elected.

                                             3.) WARSHIP WEEK PLAQUE, made by Mr Percy Smith of Hampstead, for the large Minesweeper “HMS Brave” to commemorate its adoption by Beccles, the urban districts of Bungay & Halesworth & the rural district of Wainford .

                                             4.) NEW PUMPING PLANT on the Marshes. The mill building needs reconstructing at some time

                                             5.) OLD GRANDSTAND demolished on Football Field.

                                             6.) POST-WAR PLANNING. A survey to be made of the town by the Surveyor & Medical Officer of Health: Three categories: demolition and replacement, reconditioning and good repair.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Apr     COMMISSIONED IN NAVY: Mr Walter J Brown, son of Mr & Mrs Martin Brown, of 32 Fair Close, who has been serving since September 1941, has been commissioned Sub- Lieutenant. He is 34, was educated at the old National School under Mr RC Dunt. He started in business as a painter & decorator, but by extensive study of wood and metal work secured an appointment at Bungay Area School as instructor in these subjects. He was in charge of the 2nd Beccles Boy Scouts.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Apr     PRISONER OF WAR: Mr & Mrs C Barber of 90 St George’s Road have been told that their eldest son, Pte K Barber is a Prisoner of War in Malaya after the fall of Singapore.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Apr     SIR JOHN LEMAN SCHOOL: The new Headmaster to be Dr Leslie R Wood, senior Geography master at Bedales School, who was chosen from 205 applicants. His salary will be £600 pa rising by annual increments of £15 to £675.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Apr     RECENT GALE [on 14th April] a north-westerly, uprooted many trees, including an old elm, standing in the corner of a field in Frederick’s Road, crashed alongside No 19, the home of Mr J Hawes, whose family had a very unpleasant experience. By falling in such a way, the tree caused the minimum of damage, only windows and the part of the roof being affected. As soon as possible it was pulled clear of the property..

                                             One Beccles tradesman, Mr Rupert Buckenham, a dairyman, had a lucky escape from injury. He was walking down the covered passageway adjoining his shop in Hungate when a chimney pot was dislodged. Clattering down the roof, it landed on top of his van and smashed its way through.

                                             Mr WW Thurgur, the harbour master, said he could not recall the wind blowing at such force for such a long time without any break. As the squalls of rain came on he felt sure the gale would ease temporarily, but it kept going as furiously as ever. For hours Mr Thurgur was hard at work on the Corporation Quay. Boats kept getting adrift and it was all he could do to get them secured once again. Most had their awnings ripped to shreds. “Had the boats got against the Cut bridge they would have smashed each other to pieces.” The tall main mast of the half-rater racing yacht, Windward, owned by Mr Copemans of Lowestoft, was snapped in half.

                                             At Beccles Fire Station in Ravensmere the gale uprooted the hose drying tower, between 45 and 50 ft high, on top of which was the auxiliary air raid siren serving that end f the borough. The tower brought down electricity wires in it fall. One or two of the stays penetrated the roof of the first-aid post.

                                             Many owners of private houses and business premises had good cause to realise what havoc a gale can play with roofs. Once having dislodged a tile or slate, the wind soon roared underneath and sent others crashing to the ground. Kilbrack House in Blyburgate has a big area of roof and a good deal of this was devastated. In Ballygate there was some bit of damage to the roof of Leman House.

 1943   Beccles & Bungay 1 May      LICENCE granted to Reginald Clifford, wine merchant, for Wards (Beccles) to sell bottled beer for consumption off the premises. It was opposed by  on behalf of Beccles Licensed Victuallers’ Association, Messrs Steward & Patteson, Morgans Brewery, E Lacon & Co, Youngs, Crawshay & Youngs and Pearce’s Stores, Blyburgate.

                                             They already held a licence for the sale of wines, spirits and cider. Grayston’s Stores which had a licence for bottled beer, etc, were closed for the war. Many women did not like going to a public house and because of this he was making an application.

                                             Albert Pearson of Saltgate said he found great difficulty in obtaining bottled beer in the borough. His wife objected to going to a public house for it. Mrs Emily Dyer, of 3 Ballygate said she used to deal at Grayston’s Stores, but since its closure she had experienced great trouble in getting bottled beer. She had been to a public house, but did not like doing so. Herbert Stammers, of 14 Ingate and Miss Margaret Pearson, an old age pensioner said the same.

                                             Opposing the licence, it was said that if Mr Seago of Grayston’s Stores returned after the war he would find much of his business gone. Sidney Buckle of Beccles, manager for E Lacon & Co said they had 9 of the 26 licensed houses in the town. No less than 8 of the 26 had a separate entrance for the off-licence department. William Carter, who had kept the Suffolk Inn since the end of the last war, said Ward’s was only 70 yards away – adjoining the back entrance of the White Lion Hotel.

                                             Supt Hopes of Halesworth said that between 1906 and 1926 19 licensed premises in the borough were closed. The licensed premises were sufficient to meet demand.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 1 May      SUICIDE of Frederick Crickmore, aged 35, a lorry driver, of 63 Frederick’s Road. The widow, Gladys Crickmore, a part time factory worker, she saw him in bed at 7 pm, where he had been continuously since 1st of April with tuberculosis of the lungs. She went out for twenty minutes and came back to find he had shot himself with a .410 gun.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 1 May      SALE, 16 FREDERICK’S ROAD: by George Durrant & Sons instructed by representatives of the late Miss EA Griffith  to sell by auction at the Public Hall, Beccles, on Tuesday, May 111th, at 3.30 pm, the very Attractive Freehold Residence known as Treherne, containing Entrance Hall, 2 Reception and 6 Bed and dressing-rooms, Bathroom (h & c), WC, Kitchen, Scullery, Sunk Cellar, &c. Mains Electricity, Gas, Water & Drainage. Matured and picturesque small Grounds.

                                             Also valuable Furniture comprising the Principal Contents of the residence, on Thursday, May 15th (in a marquee), commencing at 10.30 am. Drawing–room, Lounge & bedroom suites and other appointments. Mahogany Hepplewhite Style Settee, a fine Bracket Clock in Antique Mahogany Case, quality Axminster and Wilton Pile Carpets and floor rugs, Books, Pictures, Plate, China, Glass and +Outdoor Effects.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 1 May      SALE, 81 GROVE ROAD, by George Durrant & Sons for Miss M Dade, a well-built semi-detached small Residence, with garden, known as Wacton. Let at 15s 6d per week, plus rates.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 1 May      STAINER’S CRUCIFIXION performed on Good Friday by Beccles Parish Church Choir augmented by singers from other churches. Mr AE Groom was conductor, Mr JC Woodward (a member of the Choir for many years) the bass soloist, Mr O Lloyd Smith the organist.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 1 May      PRISONERS OF WAR: Pte FJ, of the Norfolk Regt, son of Mr & Mrs SH Carter, 4 Common Lane a prisoner of war in Malai camp.

                                             Pte LM Clark, aged 23, of the Norfolk Regt, second son of Mr & Mrs Clark of Frederick’s Road is a prisoner of war. He was reported missing after the fall of Singapore.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 1 May      SALVATION ARMY celebrates its diamond jubilee in Beccles. The Corps was inaugurated by Capt Lily Ollis & Lieut Kitty Mastyn on 16th of June 1863. Only one of the original worshippers is still alive, Mr George Spall, who for a time was bandmaster. Among the early members were Mr D Clarke & Mrs Martin. It seems that in the early days meetings were held at what is now the Adult School [now the Quaker Hall], and then in Manor House Lane before a move was made to the present home in Northgate. A century ago the latter place was the meeting place of the Wesleyan Methodists, and was taken over by the Salvation Army in 1872. The present conductor of the band is Stanley Clarke. Today the band is depleted by those serving in the forces. A Coggle, C Piper, C Coggle, W Richards & S Butcher. Another member in the Forces is S Bryant, Miss Lily Butcher is serving in the ATS, others are Miss M Tubby & Miss M Gower. The present strength of the Corps is about 150, many of whom live in country parishes. Major [Salvation Army] & Mrs Wright, [PHOTO 29 May page 1] of 15 Denmark Road are Scots and worked in Scotland and northern England for nearly 20 years before coming to East Anglia. They came from Maningtree 3 years ago.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 1 May      SOME PAGES MISSING

1943    Beccles & Bungay 8 May      POST-WAR PLANNING: Mr Loftus, MP, said home reconstruction as an immense subject. He thought the first thing men in the Army worried about was whether after the war there was going to be, as after the last, a terrible slump, great unemployment and long years on the dole. He did not think so. It would be necessary for some time after the war to continue controls and, he thought, the rationing of some food and of clothes. For some years after the war they would have to give to Europe, because a sick and chaotic Europe by their side would make their own life impossible. They could not be happy and prosperous and plan ahead with security unless they had a healthy Europe.

                                             EDUCATION: Area Schools were splendid institutions. They were trying to develop a new type of education, half the time book learning and the remainder handicraft. It was educating not only the mind to remember facts, but the mind and eye to work together.

 1943   Beccles & Bungay 8 May      WEDDING:  Corporal Derrick Wisbey, RAF of Bishop’s Stortford and Miss Rose Sillett, twin daughter of Mr & Mrs C Sillett of 1 Ravensmere. She is a bombardier in the ATS. The bridegroom is a grandson of Mr & Mrs FE Balls of 39 Northgate. [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 8 May      DEATH of Mr Harry Bird, aged 53, died at Aylesbury. A member of a well known Beccles family, he was employed for many years in the stereotype department at the Caxton Press, and 15 years ago took up a similar situation at Aylesbury. He played for Beccles Caxton for some years and had also represented Suffolk County as outside left. He was also a useful quoits player. He leaves a widow and one son.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 8 May      DEATH of Mr Keighley Bond, aged 37, elder son of Mr & Mrs GW Bond of Blyburgate and Exchange Square. He was interested in the Boy Scout movement.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 8 May      WEDDING: Mr Walter Wilson of Beccles & Miss Bernice Girling of Shadingfield.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 8 May      WIDOW in Court ACTION: Mrs Emily Stimpson, of 6 Fair Close, claimed from Frederick Adams, maltster, and his wife, £4 4s 3d. In November 1941 she allowed the couple rooms in her house for a short time because they had nowhere else to go. They have tried to monopolise the whole house and make things as uncomfortable as possible for her. She had asked them to leave. Judgement in her favour they must leave within 6 weeks.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 15 May    SIR JOHNLEMAN SCHOOL reassembles under the acting Headmaster, Mr FP Glover. Mr Leslie R Wood, who has been appointed the new Headmaster will not take up his office until September. The redecoration of the school is nearly complete, except for the Hall, which it is hoped will be ready for use in a few weeks. The classrooms have now been repaired and will be in use. 

1943    Beccles & Bungay 15 May    PROPERTY SALE: On the instructions of the personal representatives of the late Miss Emily Griffith, Messrs George Durrant & Sons offered for sale at the Public Hal on Tuesday, Treherne, 16 Frederick’s Road. Bidding started at  £1,000 and rose quickly to £1,950, at which figure the purchaser was Mr LC Battell, of Halesworth. Messrs Larkman & Robinson were the vendor’s solicitor.

                                             ALSOI offered was Wacton, 81 Grove Road, owned by Miss M Dade. The property was withdrawn at £775, and the auctioneers are prepared to treat privately.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 15 May    MIDLAND BANK: Mr GA Booth, who came to the Beccles branch as second officer when Mr O Lloyd Smith was promoted manager last June has been appointed clerk in charge at Witham, Essex,. It was at Witham where he had been since 1938, that Mr Booth moved to Beccles. He joined the Bank at Letchworth in 1926, and 7 years later was transferred to Spalding, whence he went to Witham. Mr CE Henshaw, hitherto chief cashier at the Boston branch has been appointed second officer at Beccles. He has had a wide and varied experience in farming districts and in his spare time is an enthusiastic gardener.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 15 May    PAINTINGS of Beccles and Haddiscoe areas by George Rushbury, RI, RBI are on show at Ipswich.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 15 May    FOOD OFFICE moved from the Council Offices, Blyburgate, to Holmleigh, next door where there is much greater accommodation. The Wainford Rural district is being amalgamated with Beccles.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 15 May    CHORAL SOCIETY performs performed Mendelssohn’s oratorio “St Paul” in St Michael’s Church. Mr RH Firth, music master at the Sir John Leman School conducted.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 15 May    TUNISIA: ALLIES GREAT VICTORY: Von Arnim and 150,000 troops captured, and all armed resistance at an end. He joins 9 other Axis Generals in captivity.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 22 May    WOMAN COUNCILLOR: Mr George Odam resigned from Council and his wife, Mrs Marion Odam elected by the casting vote of the Mayor. She is chairman of the Townswomen’s Guild. Mr Jordan remarked: “I do think the time is ripe when women should be represented on all public bodies”

1943    Beccles & Bungay 22 May    HOME GUARD marching past Col H Chandler (the Group Commander), taking the salute on Sunday, outside the Town Hall [PHOTO page 1] to mark its third anniversary. The  parade formed at Black Boy Meadow and was led on its march by Major ARM Darby, MC, CO. At the head were Section Officer ES Corner and head Special, GH Lawson of Beccles Special Constabulary.

                                             Col Chandler: “By May last year the company was so strong and as numbers were going to increase it was decided to split it into two, Beccles forming one company and the surrounding villages the other.”

                                             The Mayor: “Three years ago some men met on the Common to form themselves into a boy of soldiers. There was the nucleus  of what today was a very efficient force. The enthusiasm, keenness and self-sacrifice were reflected in all ranks now on parade. We remember that in the early days there were no arms. There were pikes, shovels and pickaxes and a grim determination to meet the foe whenever he should come. Now the position is that you are surrounded by all the modern weapons of warfare to meet whatever comes.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 22 May    DEATH of Sgt John E Burgess from natural causes in a Middle East Force’s Hospital in Egypt. He was 26. His widow, Phyllis Burgess, lives with his parents Mr & Mrs EJ Burgess, at 47 Castle Hill. Sgt Burgess was an old boy of the former National School, and worked at the Regal where he was a page boy from its opening in October 1931, until early in 1939. He then went to Elliott & Garrood, where his father is employed. He joined the Army in April 1940 and went overseas a year ago. He had since served with the 8th Army, being among the first troops to enter Tripoli. He was beyond the city when he was taken ill and sent back to hospital. [PHOTO page 6]      

1943    Beccles & Bungay 22 May    RECTOR’S WILL: Cannon Frederick Millar, formerly Rector of Beccles, who died on 25th of September 1942 left £39,379

1943    Beccles & Bungay 29 May    WEDDING: AC Richard Page, RAF, of Beccles & Miss Doreen Brooks, ATS of Ringsfield.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 29 May    BECCLES UNITED FOOTBALL TEAM [PHOTO page 1] C Tanner, G Cooper, A Moore (secretary), G Mounter, D Francis, D Garner & A Piper (trainer); M Bullen, C Woodroffe, A Machin Bailey & R Sparkes (Captain).            

1943    Beccles & Bungay 29 May    BECCLES HISTORICAL SOCIETY: Officers were re-elected, Mr Adrian Bell, the novelist & Dr H Muir Evans, who has also lectured to the Society on various occasions, were added to the Committee.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 29 May    TRADERS’ MUTUAL ASSISTANCE scheme in case of bombing set up to 1.) To maintain the supply of essential commodities to the public 2.) to speed salvage of goods important to the nation, the community and the trader 3.) To advise traders about losses 4.) To help traders after military attack. Committee: Messrs North, W Fowler, WC Watts, EW Swindells, AE Self and AJ Barber

1943    Beccles & Bungay 29 May    NEW RATION BOOKS & IDENTITY CARDS available from next Tuesday.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 5 Jun        WINGS FOR VICTORY WEEK in Beccles opens tomorrow, Saturday. There is a Target of £60,000, representing the cost of a dozen single-engined fighters. The Mayor: “We are on the eve of another great effort to help our country and all the United Nations to make victory sure and lasting.” The official opening ceremony is to take place from the steps of Lloyds Bank, Exchange Square on Saturday at 3 pm. It will be performed by a RAF officer from an operational station. The proceedings will end with the Belgian National Anthem, played by a band of the Belgian Forces, followed by our National Anthem by a band of the Royal Norfolk Regt. The Norfolks will also play in the Old Market at 2.15 and in the New Market from 5.30  to 7.45. Starting half an hour before the opening ceremony, there will be selections by the Belgians. Col RW Brooks, TD, is to at as marshal for a parade of military and Civil Defence units, which will assemble in the Old Market at 2.30. Headed by the Royal Norfolk Regt Band it will move off at 2.45 and proceed via Saltgate, the Walk, Market Street Station Road, Newgate and Blyburgate to Exchange Square.

                                             On Sunday afternoon there will be a parade and drumhead service. The parade will assemble in Station Road and move off via Smallgate, Exchange Square, London Road, St Mary’s Road and Bungay Road to the grounds of Roos Hall, where, by kind permission of Major and Mrs WD Robinson, the service will be held. After the service the salute will be taken by the Lord-Lieutenant of Suffolk (Col the Earl of Stradbroke) [He was ill and the Mayor took his place].

                                             Community singing, led by the Salvation Army Band under Bandmaster S Clarke is to take place at the Corporation Quay at 8. Mr BW Goodin, chairman of the local Savings Committee is to conduct.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 5 Jun        [POSTER page 3]  WINGS FOR VICTORY – Lets go.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 5 Jun        SELLING CENTRE for National Savings in Grayston’s Stores, New Market throughout the week.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 5 Jun        PRISONER OF WAR in Japanese hands: Gnr RT Harvey, whose wife lives at 31 Caxton Road. He was employed in the machine department  at the Caxton Press, before joining up, had been missing since the enemy captured the island of Java. [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 5 Jun        WEDDING: Mr Derek Westrup of Beccles and Miss AJ Moore of North Cove [PHOTO page1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 12 Jun      WINGS FOR VICTORY: The opening [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 12 Jun      FAREWELL to COUNTY COURT OFFICIALS: The Court will be worked from the Norwich Group. Mr JP Larkman has been Registrar for nearly 50 years and will be retiring. Also Mr AE Bunn, who has been clerk of the Courts at Beccles and Bungay for over thirty years.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 12 Jun      POLICE COURT: LICENCE Transferred of the Falcon Inn from George R Darby to Wilfred Payne.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 12 Jun      DEATH of Mrs EE Moore, who for the past 15 years has been resident manageress of the YMCA Red Triangle Club, where with Mr Moore she has rendered such efficient and valuable service.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 12 Jun      DEATH of Mrs George Sampson of 10 The Walk.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 12 Jun      CHURCH MATTERS: The Parochial Church Council has appointed Mr RC Dunt, Vice-Chairman, Mr AE Boar, Secretary, Mrs Partridge, of Montagu House, Northgate, co-opted.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 12 Jun      PRISONER OF WAR: Pte Donald Shipley, of the Royal Norfolk Regt, son of Mr & Mrs AE Shipley, of 8 Peddar’s Lane, and husband of Mrs Doris Shipley of 37 Ingate.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 12 Jun      WEDDING: Mr John Hammond, of the Royal Corps of Signals, of South Acton, & Miss Gertrude Playford, daughter of Mrs A Playford, 47 Ingate. She is an employee of Beccles Model Laundry, Ltd.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 12 Jun      PROMOTION: Mrs D Hutchings, of 3 Gosford Road, appointed to the rank of Captain. Captain CE Hutchings has completed 24 years in the Army, all but two being spent in India. He has not seen England since he returned to India following leave at the beginning of 1935. It is now four years since his wife and children saw him. The family, including his three sons, experienced the great Quetta earthquake on the last day of May 1935.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 12 Jun      SALVATION ARMY: Mr & Mrs George Wright have gone to Clacton-on-sea, after a useful year in the borough. The new officers are Major Mary Waddams and adjutant Annie White from Stowmarket.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 12 Jun      PRISONERS OF WAR: Dvr Geoffrey Jones of the Royal Artillery, second son of Mr & Mrs H Jones, of 12 Pound Road, is a prisoner of war on the island of Java. He had been reported missing following the fall of Singapore.

                                             LAC Wilfred Yallop, elder son of Mr & Mrs W Yallop, of 17 Northgate. The last letter they had from him was in January last year from South Africa. On Saturday they received a letter from a resident of West Bridgford, Nottingham, to tell them his name had been announced as a prisoner in Java by a Japanese short-wave radio station. Similar information was received by a telegram from the Air Ministry that evening. He is 22 and was employed by the Caxton Press before joining the RAF in 1940. His father is an employee of Beccles Corporation.

1943    .Beccles  & Bungay 12 Jun    [POSTER: Ration Books page 3] Your new Ration Book

1943    Beccles  & Bungay 19 Jun     WINGS FOR VICTORY brings in at least £82,000

1943    Beccles  & Bungay 19 Jun     PRISONER OF WAR in Japanese hands: Pte Alfred Parnell, RAMC, son of Mr & Mrs Frederick Parnell of 18 Smallgate, who was in the Regular Army, has been missing since the fall of Singapore. He is 23.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 19 Jun      WEDDING: Pte Ronald Quayle, of the Manchester Regt, of Dalton-in-Furness & Miss Elsie Lloyd, second daughter of the late Sgt WH Lloyd & of Mrs Lloyd, of 44 Ellough Road.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 19 Jun      SIR JOHN LEMAN SCHOOL Sports’ Day: EC Hayden of Yarmouth established 10 new records in the intermediate class (13-15 years.) [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 19 Jun      EXHIBITION of local and other water colours by Dr Howard Warner, BWS, of [Northgate House], Northgate, an Alderman of the Town Council, in the Wainford Rural District Offices in Ballygate. Practically all the of the pictures showed scenes at Beccles or in the immediate neighbourhood.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 26 Jun      BECCLES HISTORICAL SOCIETY: Lecturer Rev JF Williams, Rector of South Walsham: “If after the war it was found possible to open a local Museum this would be a very great asset to your charming, ancient and hospitable town.” – “For a local museum the simpler everything is the better. Avoid like poison any attempt to make it into a general museum. Make it a local museum pure and simple, illustrating only Beccles and the District.

                                             Mr W Fowler, former Secretary who presided, said:  “The idea of a Museum had been considered a good many times during the past ten years. – The first necessity was a building, and that they had been unable to obtain.”

1943    Beccles & Bungay 26 Jun      BECCLES HOLIDAYS AT HOME: The Town Clerk (Mr Bryan Forward) received a letter from the Regional Commissioner on the subject of summer holidays for workers. It was to encourage local authorities to formulate some schedule of entertainments which would interest their people and keep them at home instead of travelling elsewhere.

                                             Mr Eugene Ulph felt the most suitable would be the first week in August. The decision was left to a Committee.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 26 Jun      HOME GUARD ABSENCE: A Bungay butcher fined £5 for failing to join the Home Guard and attend parades as required since being directed into the Home Guard in November.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 26 Jun      12,000 BOOKS WANTED from BECCLES. The Mayor: “ It is believed that in every house and business there are still numbers of books, obsolete documents, ledgers, etc, no longer needed, which can be disposed of to meet the urgent requirements of the nation.

                                             Books will be examined and divided into three main classes: 1.) Those suitable for members of the Forces. 2.) Those suitable for replenishing libraries that have been damaged or destroyed by enemy action. 3.) Those suitable for pulp.

 1943   Beccles & Bungay 26 Jun      GOLDEN JUBILEE at RAVENINGHAM: Mr & Mrs Nicholas H Bacon of Raveningham Hall celebrate their golden wedding: He is a son of Sir Henry Bacon & Lady Bacon, who is a daughter of Mr Alexander & the Hon. Mrs Leslie-Melville.

                                             Mr Bacon regretted that present conditions prevented the holding of a large gathering.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 26 Jun      WEDDING: Petty-Officer Eric Gibson, RN, of Chelsea & Miss Constantine Bond, WRENS, elder daughter of Mr & Mrs Edward Bond of 54 Blyburgate

1943    Beccles & Bungay 26 Jun      ACCIDENT to Sister Mary Cock, cycling from Frederick’s Road into London Road was hit by an Army lorry in London Road and fractured her left leg. She is the senior member of staff of Beccles & District Nursing Institute.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 26 Jun      DEATH of Mr Samuel J Winter, aged 63, of 33 Puddingmoor. He had been employed by United Dairies, Ltd, Halesworth, for more than 20 years and previously for a long time employed on the Roos Hall Estate. He leaves a widow & two sons & two daughters. One of the sons, Pte Wesley Winter is a prisoner of war of the Japanese.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 26 Jun      DEATH of Mr James H Skoulding, aged 74 of Glenavon, 5 Kemp’s Lane.. Born at Haddiscoe in 1889 he served with the old Great Eastern, & the LNER for 49 years. He retired on his 65th birthday nine years ago. He was the son of Mr James Skoulding who had helped to build the Waveney Valley line, and was, for a great number of years, pilot-man on the old Beccles swing bridge over the Waveney.

                                             A the age of 16 he started at the same bridge as lamp boy, moving to Rodham Bridge for four years. Then to Worstead on the Cromer line as porter-signalman, then returned to Beccles as signalman at the Bank box, which in peacetime is open for 6 months in the year for the holiday and fishing traffic. He moved near Ely as signalman for 7 years, but when his father retired in 1899, he took over the job of pilot-man, and continued for 26 years, and when the new electrically controlled bridge was put into operation on 11th of July 1926, he was given full control of it.

                                             For more than 30 years he had been a member of the Congregational Church and had been a Beccles Councillor since 1936. He was a foundation member of the Labour Party in Beccles. [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 26 Jun      BLACK-OUT INFRINGEMENTS: Mrs Mary Williams of Highfield, Upper Grange Road, & Mrs Beryl Cook of 36 Smallgate each fined £3.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 26 Jun      BECCLES MUSIC FESTIVAL: 150 took part. It was carried out on behalf of Suffolk Rural Community Council by Mrs GS Odam, chairman of Beccles Townsmonen’s Guild.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         DEATH of Mr William JF Boar, aged 66, of Lyndhurst, Kilbrack. He had served the Congregational Church since 1901. He was born at Beccles, was secretary of the Choir, and took an interest in the Tennis Club. AS a young man he was a jobbing compositor at Jordan’s printing works in Hungate. He remained there when the East Anglian Printing Co took over, but on their giving up the premises he went to the Caxton Press, where he was a reader for many years. He was a stalwart of Beccles Choral Society & had sung in various productions of Beccles Amateur Operatic Society.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         DEATH of Mr Arthur Blanden, aged 79, at Norwich who was the GER Stationmaster at Beccles for a considerable time. He was promoted to become station superintendent at Nottingham.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         ADVERTISEMENT: SUFFOLK BOOK RECOVERY  [page 3]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         ADVERTISEMENT: CLEAR THE WAY FOR OUR SHIPS –East Anglian Electricity [page 3]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         ADVERTISEMENT: INDIGESTION – Rennies [page 5]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         ADVERTISEMENT: BILE BEANS – Attractive Figure Yourself - [page 5]

 1943   Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         ADVERTISEMENT: WEETABIX: - Builds Man-Power [page 6]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         ADVERTISEMENT: BODYGUARD – The Soap to Beat the Germs [page 7]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         ADVERTISEMENT: BOVRIL – puts the best face on vegetables – [page 7]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         ADVERTISEMENT: JEYES FLUID – your best defence against infection [page 7]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         ADVERTISEMENT: DAREN BROWN BREAD – [page 7]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         ADVERTISEMENT: GLITTO – cleans in half the Time [page 7]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         ADVERTISEMENT: STORK MARGARINE – Cookery Service [page 7]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 3 Jul         ADVERTISEMENT: McVITIES’ biscuits, ROWNTREE’S blended Chocolate

1943    Beccles & Bungay 10 Jul       RAVENSMERE SCHOOL who collected a record number of books in the Book Salvage Drive [PHOTO of whole School – page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 10 Jul       WEDDING: CSM A Smith (Cameronians) & Miss V Ghent of Beccles

1943    Beccles & Bungay 10 Jul       BROADS DEVELOPMENT: The President of Lowestoft Rotary Club: “When we think of the millions of people who flock to the Lake District, why should not we, with Yarmouth & Norwich open up our Broads for the benefit of the public instead of the selected few. After the war working hours will be far less and there will be more facilities for the population to get about.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 10 Jul       BOOK-DRIVE at Beccles – Target of 12,000 easily passed. By Tuesday the number collected was 28,000 – between four and five per head of the population. Grayston’s Stores, New Market, the main depot, where books have been sorted into three categories. There are subsidiary depts at the East Anglian Electricity Supply Co, Ltd, The Walk, & the WVS Office, 37 New Market.

                                             DANCE in aid of the Book Week: 160 attended in the Public Hall on Friday organized by Mr GE Brown & Mr JNT Cross as MC. In addition to purchasing a half-crown ticket each was required to contribute at least two bound books, but many brought bigger quantities.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 10 Jul       HOLIDAY-MAKERS from the fruit pickers’ camp at Worstead gathering black currants on Mr Alston’s farm at Sloley. [PHOTO page 6]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 17 Jul       SIR JOHN LEMAN SCHOOL GIFT: Lady Benson’s Gift: “As a little girl I used to spend blissful days with my great uncle George Orgill Leman at Brampton Hall, and often drove in to see Beccles. As I am breaking up my house here and moving into a tiny cottage in the village I should like to send a small parcel to Sir John Leman School. My mother’s name was Catherine Leman Shuldham and her mother was one of a large family of the Orgill Lemans, brought up at Brampton Hall. Brampton Hall was sold some years ago, and now no longer belongs to the Leman family. Indeed I think they have died out.”   She wrote from Chauntry House, Bray.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 17 Jul       BECCLES BOOK-DRIVE: 44,000 books collected.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 17 Jul       BECCLES METHODIST MINISTER leaving, Rev Harold Bullough, of 3 Frederick’s Road, who has been Superintendent since September

1943    Beccles & Bungay 17 Jul       WEDDING: The first wedding in which the Czechoslovakian Forces in this country. Cpl Jaroslav Lenert and Mrs Elizabeth Ellen Johnson, only daughter of the late Mr & Mrs W Bishop, of Swindon, Wiltshire, and widow of Mr Frank O Johnson, of Beccles.

                                             The bride was given away by Miss Hellyer, of Beccles, to whom she has been housekeeper for the past 15 years.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 17 Jul       PRISONERS OF WAR: Pte AJ JOSLING, of the Royal Norfolk Regt, has sent a card to his mother, of 1a Station Road, that he is a prisoner of war in Japanese hands he  “is safe and in the best of health.”

                                             Pte WALTER BRYANT, of the Royal Norfolk Regt is safe & well in Japanese hands, according to news received by his grandmother, Mrs Bryant of 53 St George’s Road.

                                             Cpl GWYN BUTTON of the Suffolk Regiment, husband of Mrs Button of 4 Ballygate who has heard that he is a prisoner of war in Japanese hands since the fall of Singapore.

                                             Pte A COOK, of the Royal Norfolk Regt, husband of Mrs EF Cook, of 30, Castle Hill, who has received a card saying he is in Japanese hands.

                                             Pte Stanley R Fiske, son of Mr & Mrs F Fiske, of 100 St George’s Road, in Japanese hands.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 17 Jul       St JOHN’S AMBULANCE Division inspected by the Earl of Cranbrook at the paddock at Roos Hall loaned by Major & Mrs Walter D Robinson.

                                             Numbering well over 100 the personnel of the division marched to the venue under Supt CW Chiddel. At the head was a bugle band, the other units being the ambulance and nursing divisions, rescue-party personnel, ambulance drivers and attendants, and boy and girl cadet divisions. There was a general salute when Lord Cranbrook arrived. [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 17 Jul       ADVERTISEMENT: “Stay put this Summer”. [POSTER page 5]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Jul       PLANNING POST-WAR BECCLES:  Council considers County Planning Officer’s Report:

                                             1.) Land near Beccles should be devoted to production of dairy products, eggs, vegetables and potatoes. 2.) Original local brick were to be used when reconditioning housing. Investigations must be made into reviving Suffolk’s disused brickfield.

                                             3.) Industrial area of 30 acres available, which means approximately 575 industrial workers, 295 commercial and transport workers and 1730 dependants (women, children and aged people) giving an optimum population of 9,000.

                                             4.) A BY-PASS to the northeast of the town to take through traffic: Widening Newgate and provision directly off it of a bus station, west of the Caxton Works, and a car park northwest of the Post Office.

                                             5.) If barge transport proves economical after the war, and if holidays are to be enjoyed by all, Beccles water transport facilities both commercial and recreational must be maintained.

                                             6.) The siting and importance of Beccles shops must be considered in conjunction with an understanding of the town’s function as a centre for the rural area.

                                             7.) In view of the desirability of attracting and keeping a flourishing agricultural population on the land, proper educational facilities for all must be provided within easy reach of rural homes and Beccles will have to act as a cultural centre for those over the age of 11 who fall within its sphere of influence.

                                             8.) Provisions covering all forms of indoor and outdoor recreation must be made, embracing plans for a community centre, playing fields, informal recreation ground, a swimming pool, children’s playgrounds, ad public walks, properly sited allotments and careful tree planting and preservation.

                                             9.) Beccles with its excellent weather and yachting facilities can be said to serve the whole hinterland of East Anglia as a holiday centre and to derive a certain profit from this seasonal “industry”. With reduced incomes and holidays for all, the provision of some kind of youth hostel, in addition to the present hotel accommodation should be considered.

                                             10.) The optimum population is 9,000, and its total sphere of influence as embracing 16,390 persons. A well-balanced community must be planned.

                                             11.) Those requiring re-housing number about 350, but an accurate housing survey must be carried out. Those who come as a result of industrial expansion will require a further 1150 dwellings, which means 750 family homes and accommodation for 400 single people. 92 acres of suitable land are available in the south of the town, and careful siting and grouping proposals must be made for the whole area before building work is begun.

                                             12.) Beccles has no monument of outstanding architectural or historic importance, save the church, but its general character can be looked on as a national heritage and must in consequence be preserved with great care.

                                             13.) Every effort must be made to meet the financial responsibility for the reconditioning work that will be necessary if Beccles is to retain its general architecture and historic character.

                                             14.) The need for a Town Hall with the requisite accommodation has long been felt, and two alternative sites are under consideration, one to the south of Old Market and the other in New Market.

                                             15.) The possibility of Worlingham coming within the borough held no objections providing a green belt could be retained between the two developments.

                                             16.) Level Crossings: It was proposed to bridge the railway 200 ft north of Ingate to a roundabout controlling the Peddar’s Lane, Blyburgate, Ingate junction. Ingate crossing would be closed to vehicular traffic. Kilbrack would be closed to through traffic.

17.)  A bridge to be built at the Grove Road crossing for heavy traffic.

                                             18.) A Bus Station must be in a central position. A site in Newgate east of the Old Market seemed the best.

                                             19.)A car park in Newgate also seemed suitable. Municipally run lock-up garages would also bring in revenue.

                                             20.) A roundabout was necessary at the junction of Frederick’s Road and London Road.

                                             21.) Recreation: a.) Football, rugger, cricket and golf should be on the Common, taking in and draining a further 14 acres lying on the east side, with the bypass running over it, causing no obstacle. Access would be from the Avenue via a footpath from Ravensmere East. b.) Boney’s Island should become a pleasure garden containing a café for lunches and teas. Little Common should be used for a yacht pond and paddling pool. c.) The Swimming Pool should remain in its present position, but better drainage was necessary. d.) At a later date the construction of an all-the-year-round pool on a central site should be considered, such as the grounds of Homefield. e.) Tennis and bowls should be placed on the Homefield site. f.) A Yachtsman’s car park approached from the by-pass would provide an equipment store and ship and sail repair shops. g.) Children’s playgrounds would be sited north of Caxton Road and north of Homefield, and a third in the new housing area in the south of the town.

                                             22.) Before the war there were six slaughter houses in the town. These should be replaced by a single, municipally-owned, controlled abattoir.

                                             23.) HOUSING: All suitable vacant sites should be used first – including sites left vacant by the demolition of condemned buildings. Other houses would be reconditioned. First a thorough survey was necessary. Then a new residential quarter should be laid out.

                                             24.) Crossroads at the Public Hall. One road should be designated the major road, and traffic lights installed. The Mayor said that white lines would be a good temporary measure. This was particularly important in the light of last week’s fatality. 

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Jul       WEDDING: Cfn Alan D Wilshere, of Barking & LACW Josephine V Schapiro, daughter of Mr Waldemar Schapiro, of 81 Grove Road, was married at Roman Catholic Church. [PHOTO page 3]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Jul       DEATH of CYCLIST: William Denson, aged 63, of 5 Denmark Road, who had worked for about 40 years as a Printer’s Reader at the Caxton Press died in Beccles Hospital on Saturday shortly after removal thee by ambulance, following a collision between his pedal cycle and a motor lorry at the Public Hall cross roads. A verdict of accidental death was recorded.

                                             Mrs Frances Lillian Denson said she last saw her husband alive and well about 10, when he left home on his cycle to visit friends in London Road. He remarked, “I shall not be gone long.” Deceased was in his usual good health and spirits. His eyesight and hearing were good.

                                             In response to a telephone call, stated War Res P-c HM Smith, he to the Station Road, Smallgate crossroads at about 10.30 and found that deceased had been involved in collision with a three-ton lorry loaded with shingle. The lorry was two feet on the nearside path into Station Road, facing east, and the driver, looking very much shaken, was sitting in his cabin. Dr Grantham-Hill & Supt CW Chiddel, of Beccles Division of the St John Ambulance Brigade, were rendering first-aid to deceased, who was lying just behind the lorry. He gave what assistance he could until deceased was removed to hospital. He made every endeavour to find witnesses of the accident, but without result. On the roadway he could see the tyre marks of the lorry, showing that it had travelled on the near side over the crossroads before mounting the pathway. There was no evidence of the point of impact. The road was in good condition.

                                             Asked why he was on that route, the driver stated that he had been to a café for a cup of tea. The vehicle should not have taken that course, as there was an arrangement for the diversion of such vehicles. The cycle was in good condition, except for the brakes. The only damage to the machine (produced) consisted of two broken spokes in the front wheel, the handlebars slightly twisted to the offside and the rear brake level bent.

                                             “It can only be assumed,” PC Smith added, “that the deceased either tried to cross over the crossways or turned into Station Road, lost control of his cycle and collided with the lorry, being thrown to the ground and the rear off-side twin wheel passed over his right leg, causing the injuries and shock which proved fatal.”

                                             The lorry driver, Roger Scott, aged 19, of Cock Bank, Marchwiel, Wrexham, North Wales, stated that about 10.15 he was driving a three-ton vehicle laden with shingle. He had called at a café for a cup of tea and was proceeding down Market Street, his speed as he approached the crossroads in third gear being about 10 mph. He sounded his hooter several times. The crossroads appeared to be clear, but as he was almost over them, travelling close to his near side he suddenly saw a cyclist on his off side. The rider (deceased) seemed to lose control of his machine. Witness pulled two feet on to the nearside footpath to avoid him, but he collided with the offside mudguard of the lorry. Witness, who lost sight of him as he fell from the cycle, stopped within a few feet, but felt a bump as if the offside rear twin wheel had passed over deceased.

                                             Witness added that when he first saw deceased he was about in a line with the lorry’s front mudguard. “I think he had the intention of going straight across and then swerved to his off side and ran into the rear off side of my lorry. I did not hear him ring his bell.”

                                             Mr Denson was born at Glemsford in West Suffolk and served his apprenticeship at Sudbury. He afterwards worked at Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge before coming to Beccles. In addition to a widow he leaves two sons, both serving with the RAF. The elder, LAC FW Denson was a monotype operator at the Caxton Press prior to joining up.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Jul       COUNTY COURT sittings to take place at Beccles for the rest of the war, instead of alternating between Beccles and Bungay.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Jul       NATIONAL FIRE SERVICE competition: Division B (Beccles) winners of the Women’s squad drill in the Eastern Region. [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 31 Jul       HOME GUARD: [PHOTO page 1]: The personnel of a factory Home Guard Platoon at Beccles [53 Soldiers]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 31 Jul       PRISONER of WAR: Pte Stanley R Fiske, only son of Mr & Mrs F Fiske, 100 St George’s Road, who is a Prisoner of War in Japanese hands. [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 31 Jul       BUNGAY GRAMMAR SCHOOL: The Headmaster’s Speech [Mr DL Hewitt, MA] “At the risk of being misunderstood, I am going to say that the aim of education is the attainment of happiness by the individual. What makes happiness? Is it not the effective use of all one’s talents?”

1943    Beccles & Bungay 31 Jul       CANON EG CLOWES INSTALLED, Rector of Ellough-with-Weston, installed as Honorary Canon of St Edmundsbury Cathedral. Born at Woodbridge, he became Rector of Weston in 1911 in succession to his father, the late Rev Josiah Clowes, who had held the benefice since 1870.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 31 Jul       PROPERTY SALE: by George Durrant & Sons, for the personal representative of the late Mr SS Howell, 37 Grove Road, semi detached modern residence, with garden: purchased Mr W Myhill £620.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 31 Jul       BECCLES HOLIDAY PRORAMME: The Mayor (Mr Allden Owles) “The Government in the national interest, is discouraging holidays away from home.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 7 Aug       DEATH of Mrs Molly Irene Jones, the younger daughter of Mr & Mrs WH Larke, of 15 St George’s Road, aged 34, shortly after the birth of her first child. Her husband, Mr GA Jones is serving in the postal section of the Royal Engineers.

                                             She was educated at the Sir John Leman School, she then entered the Post Office service at Ipswich, then to Halesworth and subsequently at Beccles, where for some years she was a sorting clerk and telegraphist. She was married six years ago, her husband being a member of the Beccles office staff. Since the war she has re-entered the service on the clerical side in Nottingham, until returning to her parent’s home.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 7 Aug       St MICHAEL’S CHURCH: GIFT: A little leather notebook containing details of the inscriptions in the churchyard has been presented to St Michael’s. It is thought to have been carried out by Mr Shelley Rix.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 7 Aug       HOLIDAYS AT HOME: The Dell provided an ideal spot for concerts. A covered stage was erected at the east end. 500 extra chairs were lent by Yarmouth Corporation. For dancing a large marquee was placed on the paddock of Roos Hall, through the kindness of Major & Mrs Walter D Robinson.

                                             The first concert was attended by 500 people, at which the band of the Royal Marines played selections. An afternoon concert was arranged by Mr AE Groom, the Parish Organist and Choirmaster, at which the massed choirs of the town performed under Mr RH Frith, conductor of the Beccles Choral Society. On Sunday evening, an entertainment was given by the United States Army Air Force. There was an open golf competition and sailing races.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 7 Aug       ADVERTISEMENT: NAAFI in Sicily. [PHOT page 1] Canteen Stores were landed on the Sicilian beaches only eighty hours behind the first assault parties. That was three weeks ago … grand heartening news to the 8th Army & Canadians, for it meant vital reinforcements of the balm of battle – ‘smokes’, beer, chocolate, razor blades, soap, toothpaste, writing materials … And by what good fortune were those welcome items available? Because NAAFI was there.

                                             The volume of NAAFI’s work is twenty times what it was before the war. The need for its services is ever growing and cannot be met without a constant supply of men and women (This does not apply to single women or widows born in the years 191-23) willing to serve the organisation which itself is proud to serve the services.

                                             Manageresses, cooks and counter assistants are wanted at home and overseas.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 14 Aug     WAINFORD RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL is building 14 houses for agricultural workers and decided not to include bread ovens, as few people bake their own bread. It would cost an extra £6 a house to provide them

1943    Beccles & Bungay 14 Aug     PRISONER of WAR: Pte Walter Bryant, Royal Norfolk Regt, grandson of Mrs Bryant, of 53 St George’s Road, in Japanese hands.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 14 Aug     ACCESS to COASTAL BELT: It is expected that there will be a re-imposition of the coastal ban on visitors. Mr Herbert Morrison, the Home Secretary said in March that access to the coast must be considered not solely in relation to the risk of invasion, but also for the use as a base for offensive operations. There can be no general public announcement as to the nature, place or time of the restriction.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 14 Aug     GOVERNMENT’S FIRE GUARD SCHEME: Men will be required to do duties between the ages of 18 and 63, Women between the ages of 20 and 45. Business and Government premises must also be fire guarded.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 14 Aug     KILLED at Level Crossing; Miss Maggie Murray, aged 60, of 11 Station Road, Housekeeper, killed by passenger train from Lowestoft at the Black Dam Level Crossing. She and her sister, Miss Jessie Murray, a dressmaker were walking a dog, their neighbour’s Golden Retriever, towards the Common, when the dog ran ahead and she ran after it in the path of the train. Evidence was given by 15 year old, Gordon William Crisp, a lorry driver’s mate working for the Co-Op, who was approaching his home, Black Dam gatehouse, and James Saker, Beccles Corporation Marshman, who lives on the Island on the Common. The Coroner said that there was no blame on the part of the engine driver.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 21 Aug     USA AIRMAN KILLED in collision between a Jeep in the back of which he was riding and an empty motor lorry at Old Forge Hill, Barsham.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 21 Aug     AIRMAN RESCUED: Sgt Leslie EG Baldry, elder son of Mr and Mrs L Baldry, of 3 Bridge Street, was one of the survivors of an RAF bomber crew rescued from a rubber dinghy in the Bay of Bengal after being adrift for seven days. The bomber had engine trouble and plunged into the sea within sight of Japanese territory. A transport plane spotted them after six days and dropped food by parachute.

                                             He was educated at Ravensmere Infants’ & National Schools. He began a seven-year apprenticeship at the Caxton Press in the stereotype department, but volunteered for the RAF in 1940 shortly before finishing his apprenticeship. [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 21 Aug     WING COMMANDER KILLED: Wing-Commander David William Stannard, an old boy of the Sir John Leman School, and second son of Mr W Stannard, of 12 Council Houses, Marsh Lane, North Cove, aged 34 a married man, was killed when a British Overseas Airways flying boat, in which he was a passenger, crashed in Eire.

                                             He was born at Thwaite St Mary,  [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 21 Aug     MISUSING PETROL:  John Donavan of Essex, working for a firm that was used to take workmen to a Government site, used a 30-seater coach to take a girl back to Ellough after he had taken her to the pictures.  Fine £10.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 21 Aug     PRISONER OF WAR FUND in response to the appeal by the Earl of Stradbroke, as Lord Lieutenant, on behalf of the county’s prisoners of war. The target for the whole County was £50,000. The Mayor sent £256 raised in Beccles to the Fund.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 28 Aug     SIR JOHN LEMAN SCHOOL: Miss Muriel McCarthy, BA, of Blackburn, English mistress at Blackrod Grammar School, Bolton, has been appointed Senior Mistress at the Sir John Leman School, and will take up her duties in September. A former pupil of Blackburn High School, she studied English at Liverpool University. After some time at Blakey Moor Central School, Blackburn, she was appointed English mistress at Maltby Grammar School, going to Rivington in 1939 to become senior English mistress.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 28 Aug     MORE MEN FOR NAVY: Many of those being called up over the next period will be put into the Navy or the Royal Marines.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 28 Aug     SIX SONS SERVING: Mr & Mrs Edward Lewis of Meadow View, Worlingham. [PHOTO page 3]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 28 Aug     MARRIAGE: Mr Derek Roberts, of Fressingfield & Miss Winifred Kerridge, only daughter of Mr & Mrs John Kerridge of 100 Fair Close. Mr Roberts was discharged from air-crew training with the RAF in 1942 for health reasons. The bride has been a member of the Food Office staff at Beccles for three years. The Best Man was Mr Edgar Granville, MP for the Eye Division.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 28 Aug     NAVY & MARINES need more men. In the next few months men already registered for military service will be put into the Navy or Marines. Men may also be able to choose to go into the mines instead.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 4 Sep        NO BECCLES NEWS in this issue!

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Sep      PRISONERS OF WAR [PHOTO page 1] Norfolk & Suffolk men in Stalag 383, including Cpl Barber from Beccles.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Sep      DEATH of Lady Mariana Haggard, widow of Sir Henry Rider Haggard at Ditchingham House, aged 82. She had been ill for 5 years. She was the only child of Major John Margitson of North Walsham. She was married in 1880 at Ditchingham, and went to Africa with her husband that year, during the first Boer War. They were in the middle of the disturbances in Natal, and after the birth of their son came home to England.

                                             Sir Henry was called to the Bar, but after he made his name by writing returned to Norfolk. She is survived by three daughters: Mrs AR Haggard, Mrs RE Cheyne, and Miss Lilias Rider Haggard. Sir Henry died in 1925.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Sep      NEW METODIST MINISTER: Rev A Capion Wright, of 3 Frederick’s Road. He entered the Ministry in 1916. During the last war he was for four years in the RAMC, and part of the time he was stationed at Flixton. Previously he was in Birmingham.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Sep      ARMY BROTHERS MEET in the Middle East. LAC Philip Dyer, one of the five sons of Mr & Mrs George Dyer, of 3 Ballygate, all of whom are in the Forces, woke to find his eldest brother, Gnr Robert Dyer, sitting on his bed. They went to a restaurant and met Gnr Keith Tucker of Beccles. [PHOTO page 3]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Sep      BECCLES CAXTON BOWLS gift from Rev RF Fleming, retired Rector of Chedgrave, living at The Cliff, Ballygate, of a pair of woods as the subject of a competition. 36 players took part and Messrs GE Brown & A Day tied with 40 points, Mr Brown winning the extra end. 3rd prize went to Mr F Fish.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Sep      PRISONER OF WAR: Gnr Frank Thomas Moore, the 5th son of Mr & Mrs EJ Moore, of Wingfield, Lowestoft Road, missing at the fall of Singapore, was in Japanese hands. He is 24, an old boy of Peddar’s Lane Council Senior School, and joined the army in 1938.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Sep      ROMAN COIN found by Peter Wiggett, of 22 South Road, a 14 year old bricklayer’s apprentice, while digging a hole for a storehouse at Tan Meadow, turned up a coin the size of a half crown, two & a half feet below the surface, which had the name of Emperor Trajan (AD 53-117) plainly visible.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Sep      SIR JOHN LEMAN SCHOOL success: 23 out of 27 candidates passed the Oxford Locals examinations (the largest number ever obtained in the history of the school.): Cox, Durrant, Pye, Reynolds, Sidwell, E Bates, J Bexfield, D Chalker, M Cox, H Ellis, R Goodswen, V Martin, M Sharpin & M Watling (who have secured exemption from Matriculation), Collyer, Woodward, S Aldrich, G Beamish, B Beever, J Belcher, D Nelson, D Nicholls, & D Snelling.

                                             Six out of 8 candidates gained the Oxford Higher School Certificate: Aspin, Payne, A Taylor, J Ade, B Barkway & A Cutting.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Sep      DEATH : Mr John Dowe, aged 86, of Melrose, Upper Grange Road, born in Beccles, used with his wife to buy fish at Lowestoft Fish Market in his younger days, and sell them in the Beccles district to farmers and other rural residents. Later, for 15 years he was gardner to Capt HJA Throckmorton, RN. Mr & Mrs Dowe had been married for 64 years.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Sep      ITALY OUT OF THE WAR: surrendered unconditionally. Marshal Badoglio, Prime Minister since the fall of Mussolini on 25th of July broadcast a statement.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Sep      HOME GUARD ABSENCE: Herbert Earrye, of 22 Ballygate, fined £4 for failing to attend parades. He had attended only 28 out of 150. When ordered to attend 3 parades, he failed to turn up.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 18 Sep      MARRIAGE at Barsham: Captain Alfred Henry Ward, of the Gordon Highlanders, of Edinburgh, who was at one time stationed in the district, & Miss Marguerite Ann Robinson, the only child of Major & Mrs Walter D Robinson, of Roos Hall. [PHOTO page 1] The bride has worked at Elliott & Garrood for the last two years.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 18 Sep      KILLED IN ACTION: Pte EE Crisp, husband of Mrs Crisp, 1 Mill Terrace.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 18 Sep      WINGS FOR VICTORY target of £60,000 eclipsed, and £83,000 was invested.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 25 Sep      MAYOR: Alderman Allden Owles unanimously elected for sixth year as Mayor. He served in the Boer War and in the Great War, and is an enthusiastic member of the Home Guard. When this defence organization was brought into being in the summer of 1940 as the LDV he was the first citizen of Beccles to make application for enrolment. [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 25 Sep      COUNCIL 1.) Council calls on Government to make declaration about Post-War Planning: The Government to take financial responsibility for a 10 year programme for the provision of good houses in adequate numbers to ensure for each family desiring it, a separate home and garden at a rent it could afford to pay. Also to control finance and the price of building materials and to take steps to prevent a rise in land values.

                                             INSPECTION OF HOUSING: 91 houses recommended for demolition, 19 for repair.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 25 Sep      HORSE SALE: 400 Animals through ring, the highest number since 1921. High prices.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 25 Sep      NEW HEADMASTER of Sir John Leman School: Dr Leslie R Woods welcomed by the Rector of Beccles, Rev Harold L Birch, Chairman of the Governors.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 2 Oct        BRITISH RESTAURANT: [PHOTO of the KITCHEN]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 2 Oct        BARSHAM ORGANIST RETIRES: Mr Samuel Fiske, of Barsham has been organist of Holy Trinity Barsham for 56 years. Before being organist he had been a member of the church choir since the age of 9, making his total service to the church music 72 years.                              

1943    Beccles & Bungay 2 Oct        SERGEANT-AT-MACE, Mr William Clark has completed 60 years public service.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 2 Oct        PHOTOGRAPHING AIRCRAFT: Herbert A Boast, ironmongers assistant, of 5 Grove Road, fined £2 for attempting to photograph an aircraft, under the  Control of Photography Order of 1939.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 2 Oct        THREE HORSES HARROWING: [PHOTO page 6]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 2 Oct        TOMATO GROWER in Taverham charged with selling tomatoes to unauthorised people. Should have sold them to the tomato distribution centre. He had a licence to sell at Norwich market, but not from his greenhouse. First time to come before the Bench, so the case was dismissed.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 9 Oct        REGIONAL COMMISSIONER, Sir Will Spens, visits Beccles. He lunched at the Angel Hotel with the Mayor & Mayoress (Alderman & Mrs Owles). He visited:

1.)      The Council Chamber to meet the Civil Defence Committee, consisting of the members of the Town Council & the Service Chiefs.

2.)      The Rescue Party Depot at Gosford Road, where he was shown round by the Borough Surveyor (Mr CL Hamby) & Mr V Jenner, the foreman.

3.)      The Ambulance Depot at Ravensmere which is shared with the Rescue Party, where his guides were Supt CW Chiddel, of Beccles Division of the St John’s Ambulance Division, and Mr HG Croucher, and inspected a couple of ambulances parked outside.

4.)      He moved next door in Ravensmere to see the National Fire Station with Mr Hamby.

5.)      The First-Aid Post, in Blyburgate Hall, where he was welcomed by Lady Supt Miss E Tedder, of the nursing division of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade, and Dr L Gibson, the Medical Officer of Health.

6.)      The Report Centre at the Police Station in London Road, where the Chief of Staff, Mr FJ Meen, who is also Civil Defence Officer explained the work carried out. Two uniformed members of staff, Mrs JC Taylor & Mrs HR Hadingham were on duty. He was shown the sleeping quarters of those members of the Report Centre on duty each night.

7.)      The Rest Centre at Peddar’s Lane Council Junior School, where he was greeted by Mrs Henry Wood-Hill, the WVS centre leader. Mr Bolton, Mrs Kanaham and Mr Hadingham were also in attendance. Under Miss GW Fuller, the full staff, which is drawn from the WVS was on duty.

8.)      The County Council’s Emergency Feeding Depot at Tan Meadow, where he was shown round by Capt Ross, the County Catering Officer. This depot is used for provision of hot mid-day meals for children attending schools in a wide surrounding district – 1350 had been sent out that morning.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 9 Oct        MOTHERS’ UNION: Mrs Baron-Suckling, of Barsham Rectory, resigns as presiding member after 14 years. She has been succeeded by Mrs I Pagan.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 9 Oct        HARVEST FESTIVAL a century old. The first Harvest Festival took place at Morwenston, Cornwall in 1843. The custom of decorating churches at this season is of more recent origin. The Bishop of Norwich approved the introduction of Harvest Festivals in the Diocese in 1861. The hymn “We plough the fields and scatter” dates from 1861.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 16 Oct      FINES imposed at Beccles of £96 on two timber merchants from Wiltshire for employing men at a Government site without notification to the Ministry.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 16 Oct      WOMEN’S INSTITUTE Meeting for East Suffolk held at Beccles:  Motion that the Ministry of Health should set up a body of women to visit and look after the elderly and infirm in their homes. “It seemed hard that they should have tp leave their homes and go into the infirmary because there was nowhere else for them.”

1943    Beccles & Bungay 23 Oct      BUILDING AFTER THE WAR:  191 houses to be erected in first year. There were no privately-owned building sites in the borough in the course of active development at the outbreak of war. The Council only had a site for two houses belonging to them at Castle Hill.

                                             BECCLES MODEL LAUNDRY Ltd applied for permission to construct an office over the existing air-raid shelter on land adjoining that hired by the company at Gosford Road. Agreed subject to them hiring the site for £1 a year.

                                             AGRICULTURAL BUILDING in Ringsfield Road for Mr Ivor Bond approved by 6 votes to 5.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 23 Oct      Dr HENRY WOOD-HILL’S WILL: of Staithe House, Northgate, Mayor of Beccles 1935-1938n and at the time of his death Deputy Mayor, who died on &th of February 1943, aged 67, left £19,853 5s 11d gross, with net personalty £13,943 14s 11d. Probate has been granted to his wife, Mrs Amy V Wood-Hill, of the same address.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 23 Oct      NEW CLUB: Beccles United Services (Cadets) Club, which is to function at the YMCA Hut. The Club is to serve the needs of the two local pre-Service organisations, the Air Training Corps and Army Cadet Force. Rear Admiral Johnson is the Chairman. The Club Leader is Rev WR Barnes.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 23 Oct      DEATH of Dr BERTRAM POLLOCK, Bishop of Norwich Diocese for 32 years. He was 79.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Oct      REPATRIATED Prisoners of War from Germany: Among them is Pte Harry Bloomfield, of 37 Ballygate. Mrs Bloomfield received a telegram from her husband on Monday stating that he had arrived safely in this country and was going to hospital for medical examination. He was taken prisoner at the time of the Dunkirk evacuation, and soon afterwards, in June 1940, his wife was officially notified that he had been “reported killed in action.”  In the following October, however, she received a letter from him written from hospital.

                                             He is the son of the late Mr Harry Bloomfield, who was killed in the last war, and of Mrs Bloomfield, of 25a Ingate. Two days before the outbreak of war he was called up as a reservist, having formerly served in India for seven years. He has two brothers and a stepbrother in the army.

                                             ALSO Gunner Harry Owles, nephew of the Mayor of Beccles, only son of Mr SG Owles of Northampton, formerly of Bungay, and grandson of Mr HW Owles, Town Reeve of Bungay, and well-known businessman. He is a junior partner in the firm of Messrs Read, Owles and Ashford. He joined the Artillery in the early part of the war and within six months was sent overseas. He was taken prisoner in Greece. [PHOTOGRAHS page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Oct      HARRY TILNEY of Smallgate: Late Armourer-Sergeant of the 2nd Norfolk Volunteers, and of the 5th Suffolk Volunteers, he is in business as a gunsmith, being the borough’s senior tradesman.  His father, the late Mr Robert Tilney, opened the premises in 1867, and as soon as he was old enough, Harry Tilney participated. “Having a gunsmith father is a useful thing for a youngster who is keen on shooting, particularly rifle shooting. There was always a .380-bore rook rifle available when I wanted to use it and very frequently there were rook rifles to be sighted and shot in the ordinary course of business. Our local ranges were nice and handy on Beccles Common. There were four iron targets and the range was flat up to 700 yards. Normally there was no shooting beyond 600 yards. We could shoot at 900 yards and had an old carriage rigged up with a plank platform on which to lie, but little use was made of it until we were served out with the Martini-Harry. The Volunteers had a competition once a month and it was very encouraging to find how well my shooting with the .380 compared with the Snider. I used to shoot at 100 and 150 yards and end up at 200 yards – seven shots at each distance. In 1883 I decided to join the Volunteers, but was not tall enough, not much taller than a Snider rifle, so they took me in as a bugler! That was all right, for buglers were eligible to shoot, but I had not enough wind to blow a bugle, and when I first tried to fire a Snider – standing position of course – it knocked me over every shot. This sort of disaster did not last very long, but the Martini-Henry was nearly as bad a kicker as the old Snider. Aiming with the V back-sight in anything of a wind was not easy, as in those days there were no adjusting screws with which to make allowances. One looked for spots and marks by the side of the targets that would give the necessary allowances, and very carefully noted them in the scorebook. When the use of the flat side of the back-sight bar was allowed, it made things much easier as the allowance for the wind could be made on the bar.”

                                             Fifty-seven years ago Mr Tilney attended his first prize meeting, shooting for the team at 200 and 300 yards. “ My father entered me for my first individual competition, and I won a £1 prize with a score of 81. You may guess that twenty silver shillings were something to a youngster, but the real pride and glory was in being a prize-winner and joining the ranks of the admired ‘old timers’.  These County of Suffolk meetings used to be held in alternate years at Beccles and Bury St Edmunds until our Beccles ranges were done away with, and the meetings were shifted around all over the county.

                                             When the Norfolk Battalion was started the authorities decided to take in Beccles, Bungay and Lowestoft to make up the strength of the new battalion, so, though living in Suffolk, I was officially a Norfolk Volunteer. In 1888 I made my first visit to Wimbledon. One of our company, who was due to go, could not manage it, and my captain had his NRA tickets transferred to me. I had a thoroughly enjoyable time, though I won one prize only – in the Nursery Aggregate – and after that did not miss an NRA meeting until my last effort in 1923. No first prize fell to me until the year of King Edward’s Coronation, 1902, when a score of 35 and six bullseye tie shots at 200 yards with the long .303-inch rifle were rewarded with the ‘Daily Graphic’ Cup. Lord Roberts, the Commander-in-Chief, was at the prize-giving, which took place from the verandah of the refreshment pavilion because the umbrella tent had been overset by a fierce wind storm which blew across the ranges during the firing for the final of the King’s Prize. Like most competitors who have been lucky enough to win them, I cherish my King’s Final and St George’s badges. The King’s were for 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910 and 1912. It really was luck, which enabled me to win both the Norfolk and Suffolk championship badges. In 1891 I won both county championships, but as a Norfolk Volunteer could only take the Norfolk badge and medal. In 1912, however, the 2nd Norfolks, from the Suffolk districts were transferred to the 5th Suffolks. I retired with my rank after 33 years service, but continued to shoot as a veteran. When, therefore, I again won the Suffolk Championship (the Lee-Metford and aperture sights kept me going), I was able to take the Suffolk badge and medal.”

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Oct      Mr LOFTUS MP on the Post War Countryside: “I regard agriculture, life on the land, the growing of food for human beings, not as an ordinary trade, but as something unique, something in a category by itself, deserving special and separate consideration.

                                             In planning our agricultural villages let us make them a vital community. Every village should have a small jam-making hut run by the Women’s Voluntary Service of the village. Every village should have a smoking house so that every cottager can smoke his own bacon. Why should not every village have a central laundry? Bring small industries to the village so as to get a varied life. To do that you must have cheap electricity. Certainly every village should have a blacksmith and carpenter. Why should the village not make its own furniture?

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Oct      PRISONER OF WAR: AC1 Claude Borrett, RAF, the former Beccles Town footballer, son of Mr James Borrett, of 77 Denmark Road, officially reported a prisoner of war in Java. He joined the RAF in the early summer 1940 and sailed from England on 5th December 1941. [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Oct      DEATH of Mrs Ellen Legood, wife of Mr William Legood, of 44 Puddingmoor. They had been married 57 years. She leaves two sons & 5 daughters

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Oct      DEATH of Mrs G Wolner, widow of Mr George Woolner, of 25 Denmark Road.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 30 Oct      REBUILDING BOMBED HOUSES: The Treasury has given the War Damage Commission permission to pay for the restoring or rebuilding of bomb damaged houses under most conditions.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Nov       RETIREMENT of Miss Mabel E Field, of London Road, retires as sorting clerk and telegraphist at Beccles Head Post Office after 42 years. She was presented with a silver-plated teapot, cream jug and sugar basin, and a gift token by Mr ET Young, the head postmaster

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Nov       PROPERTY SALE: Uplands, Ringsfield Road. Superior Residence, 2 Reception Rooms, 5 Bedrooms, excellent Domestic Offices, with half acre garden, situated in the loveliest part of the town, of the late Miss AM Smith, by Read, Owles & Ashford.

                                             Purchased by Mr E Moore (Lowestoft) for £2,175.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Nov       PROPERTY SALE: 53 Frederick’s Road for the late Mrs AF Saunders by Read, Owles & Ashford.

                                             Purchased by Mr AE Reynolds for £510

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Nov       PROPERTY SALE:  LOT 1: 26 Northgate, prominently situated shop & dwelling house, 2 Living Rooms, 3 Bedrooms etc, with Yard & Outbuildings for the executors of the late Mr CB Clarke.

                                             Purchased Mr J Playford, £350

                                             ALSO LOT 2: 28 & 30 Northgate, one with shop: The adjoining two houses as let to Messrs JD Mills & HW Lacey at rentals amounting to £52 pa. by Read, Owles & Ashford. For the late Mr CB Clarke.

                                             Withdrawn.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Nov       GREAT STORM of 1703, on November 26th-27th: The wind blew from the south-west resembling thunder at a distance, and being attended by terrible flashes of lightning. It tore the roof from Ely Cathedral, but Bristol suffered worse than any other city because of the overflowing of the tide. Here the damage is reckoned at £100,000. The neighbouring country was flooded and folk had to take refuge on roofs and tree tops. Kidder, Bishop of Bath & Wells & his wife perished. Bishop Ken, the High Churchman & Nonjuror, who had been deposed from the See of Bath & Wells, was staying in the Canonry at Salisbury. During the storm the stack of the chimney fell at his bed’s head leaving him uninjured.

                                             Carriages were blown over hedges, boats out of rivers on to dry ground. John Evelyn, the diarist, lost 2,000 trees in one night, “like whole regiments falling in battle, crushing all that grew beneath them.” 4,000 oaks fell in the New Forest, 3,000 in the Forest of Dean. Hardly any elms were left standing in the southern counties. In London the damage was computed at £1,000,000. When dawn broke the streets were blocked with fallen masonry.

                                             The fleet, under Admiral Shovell &b Admiral Leake, put to sea to avoid being dashed ashore. Much of it survived, but Admiral Beaumont and six warships never came back. The first Eddystone lighthouse and its inventor, Winstanley, who was supervising some repairs, perished.

                                             In King’s Lynn 7 ships lost valued at £3,000, about 20 men lost. The damage to buildings was about £1,000. [The west window of St Michael’s Church in Beccles was blown out.]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 6 Nov       ROYAL OBSERVER CORPS at Norwich [PHOTO page 6]. They wear battle dress of the RAF. During each minute of the day & night they keep track of every plane in the air over their area, tracing the course of our own and hostile planes alike. Defying the worst of the weather, these observers watch and listen for every sign of activity in the sky, assessing with remarkable accuracy the speed, height and direction of machines. There are a crew of men and girls – plotters and tellers – build up a complete picture of all that is happening over the county. Their job is to co-ordinate countless scraps of information, not only from Norfolk posts, but from those in adjoining counties, that Fighter Command has before it a complete and continuing up-to-the-minute record on which to plan tactics. [no mention of Radar!]

1943    Story from later paper      1945        Beccles & Bungay 13 Oct  WARTIME GERMAN BOMBER: On 6 November 1943, a Dornier 217, which encountered a terrific anti-aircraft barrage from a mobile gun battery which happened to be in the Beccles district, crashed in flames at Gillingham on Mr Clifford Harrison’s farm at the Norwich end of the Parish. The plane was one of three destroyed in raids on Great Britain that night. The 22 year-old sole survivor of the crew was taken to Beccles and detained in a cell in the police-station until the arrival of an RAF escort. The Dornier crashed only a little distance behind the house of Mr Harry Goddard, a horseman. “I saw the plane coming past my bedroom window all ablaze. The guns were all firing at it. Then I heard a crash and my window was blown open. I looked out and saw the plane blazing in the corner of the next meadow 200 to 300 yards away. My husband and I hurried downstairs. I heard the back door shaking and when I went I saw the German. He looked awful.” Said Mrs Goddard. The airman had taken off his parachute harness. He was the rear gunner and had landed safely after the tail had been shot off. At first Mrs Goddard thought he was a member of the Home Guard. Then of course his speech revealed his identity. Mr Goddard took him down the lane and handed him over to a member of the NFS, who had made a smart turn-out to deal with the conflagration. The fireman in turn passed the airman to Sgt Douglas Kiddle, a member of the local Home Guard, who said: “He tried to make me understand about his three companions. He did not seem hurt, so we walked along the road to Beccles, where I handed him over to the police-inspector and a constable who were coming to meet us. He was no trouble.”

                                             Inspector William Bryant examined him and found that his only injury was a small puncture on the back of one hand to which a first aid dressing was applied.

                                             A wing of the plane struck a tree as the raider dived into a ploughed field and its cargo of bombs exploded with terrific violence. Pieces of the plane were scattered over a considerable area. A bullock shed and a couple of stacks close by were burnt out. The explosion was colossal and some shop windows on the Walk were smashed by the blast, although those of the Parish Churh on the other side of the road did not appear to have suffered any harm.

 

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Nov     MAYOR MAKING: Alderman Owles unanimously re-elected for 6th consecutive year.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Nov     DIED of WOUNDS: Mr & Mrs HH Flood, of 19 Wembley Avenue, have been officially informed that their younger son, Pte Harry H Flood, died from wounds while serving in the Central Mediterranean. He was an old boy of Peddar’s Lane Council Senior School, had been in the army 13 months, and went overseas in May. He was formerly a salesman with the mobile shop of the Co-Op. For many years his father has been Transport Manager of the Co-Op. The son had been in the Home Guard before volunteering for the army. [PHOTO page 8]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Nov     EXHIBITION of paintings by Lt-Col Granville Baker, DSO in the window of Capt AH Moyse’s shop in New Market for the special week being held by the British Legion, to increase the membership of the branch.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 13 Nov     DEATH of Mr G Shulver, of 18 Mill Terrace, aged 79, late of Barnby.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Nov     NEW BECCLES CIVIC CENTRE: The Council voted to acquire Homefield and adjoining property on the north, for the purpose of public recreation grounds and the adaptation of the building for use as a Town Hall and offices. The owner of the property, Mr CL Hamby, (Borough Surveyor), said he was not prepared to sell it to the Council [!]. Mr Swindells said that the Council ought to have bought it in 1935 when it came up for sale.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Nov     SPECIAL CONSTABLES LONG SERVICE: Ribbons were presented to several members of the Beccles section: Head Special–constable, Special Constables: RE King (Weston) L Fiske & GS Sporle (Barsham), OK Bell, LWC Borrett, HJ Coe, CE Fiske, ER Lunn, AE Page, HA Shiplee, & S Spaulding (all of Beccles).

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Nov     ROAD ACCIDENT KILLS SOLDIER on Beccles Lowestoft Road. L/Bdr Albert Halpin, aged 29, of the Royal Artillery, from Cawsand, Plymouth, walking along the road at night, struck by an army truck driven by 2nd Lt John Weir, of the Royal Dragoon Guards, who did not stop after the accident.

                                             The Coroner gave a verdict of accidental death, but he added, speaking to Weir: “With regard to your conduct immediately after the accident, and for a considerable period after that, all I can say is that I think it is most deplorable and most unworthy of a man who wears the uniform of a lieutenant in his Majesty’s Army. That is all.”

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Nov     DEATH of Mrs Gertrude Moore, aged 62, of 21 Castle Hill, wife of Mr Henry J Moore, a retired railwayman. She was the eldest daughter of the late Mr & Mrs S Norman of Beccles and a sister of the late ex-Inspector CA Norman of the Suffolk Police. She leaves 6 sons and three daughters.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Nov     BECCLES ALLOTMENT HOLDERS’ ASSOCIATION & Horticultural Society hold show of flowers, fruit and vegetables in the Public Hall. Nearly 300 entries.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 20 Nov     WEDDING: Leading Seaman Alec Adams, RN, and Miss R Brighton, both of Beccles.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Nov     DANCE HALL CURFEW: The Chairman of the Magistrates, Lt-Col B Granville Baker said: “In order to prevent the unseemly things that are happening in this town, as elsewhere, perhaps in consequence of public dances and that sort of thing, leading to an increase in delinquency amongst the juveniles, the Bench have decided to advise that dances should close by 10.30 pm, and that no child under 16 should be admitted.”

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Nov     BECCLES HISTORICAL SOCIETY visit the Station Maltings: Mr J Francis Crisp, of Windsor, Chairman of the firm, and Mr Charles Bennett, the works manager, explained the many departments.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Nov     PRISONER OF WAR: Mr & Mrs JC Rae, of 94 Grove Road, have learned that their youngest son, Pte Jack Rae, of the Pioneer Corps, who has been missing since last year, is a prisoner of war of the Japanese in Java. The news came in a letter from his brother, Lt Alan Rae, who had been notified by the Australian Government. Both sons joined up in Australia, where the parents visited them in 1935. Jack, who was a farmer before the war, is an old boy of Peddar’s Lane School. He emigrated at the age of 18.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Nov     PRISONER OF WAR: Mrs W Balls, of 46 Puddingmoor has received [PHOTO page 1] of her son Signaller W Balls among a group of prisoners at Stalag XVIII A, Germany. He stated that he was very well.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Nov     TOWNSWOMENS’ GUILD: Menbership was 183.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 27 Nov     PRISON for ARMY DRIVER: A collision on the Lowestoft Beccles Road on 4th of November, when Gnr Reginald Overton was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment for dangerous driving, when he collided with Miss Cara Watson, the East Suffolk County Youth Organiser. No one was hurt.

 1943   Beccles & Bungay 27 Nov     TRANSFER of LICENCE: Temporary transfer of licence of the Ship Inn from Mrs E Woolner to Mr Alec Catchpole.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 4 Dec       BECCLES ‘WINGS’ PLAQUE PRESENTED: In commemoration of Beccles attaining the objective of attaining its objective.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 4 Dec       DEATH of Mrs Dorothy Loftus, wife of Mr PC Loftus, MP, of Reydon Covert, Southwold. She was the daghter of the late Mr & Mrs TJ Corrigan Reynolds. They were married in 1910. The portraits she painted were of high merit, a member of the Sole Bay Artists. She has been a prominent social worker in the Southwold area, identifying herself with practically every local social and charitable organisation. In more recent years her activities extended to the Lowestoft Parliamentary Division, after Mr Loftus became its member. She was a fluent public speaker, and at election times gave her husband valuable assistance.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Dec     FATAL ACCIDENT SEQUEL: Lt John Weir, aged 23, of the Royal Armoured Corps, of Markyate, Herts, given 3 months prison sentence for driving in a manner dangerous to the public and failing to report an accident on the Beccles Lowestoft Road at North Cove.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Dec     FIRE at Montagu House, Northgate, the residence of Capt FC Poyser, where the NFS were occupied for three hours. Apparently a beam under a fireplace in the east wing caught alight. This ignited the panelling, floorboards also being damaged. There was slight damage to furniture in downstairs rooms.

                                             Shortly after 8pm the NFS were called to Waveney House, Puddingmoor, the home of Mr Bryan Forward, the Town Clerk. They found a beam under the hearth in an upstairs front sitting room alight. The hearth was removed and the outbreak extinguished with a stirrup pump. There was no damage.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Dec     BECCLES CHORAL SOCIETY concert held in the Rectory Room included Coleridge Taylor’s “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast”. Mr Firth was the conductor.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Dec     PRISON FOR WAR WIDOW: Mrs Faith Kilvington, aged 28, of 6 Old Market, was sentenced to three months hard labour for neglecting her five children. Her husband, a gunner in the Royal Artillery, was killed on 19 February 1942. The age of the three boys and two girls was from 9 down to 2 years. She received a pension of £3 7s 2d a week, After paying the rent she received £3 3s 8d. The conditions of the home were deplorable, the children were in filthy clothes and  were verminous. The cothes covering the baby in the cot were in a filthy state. The mattress of the bed used by the other four children was in a sodden condition. The two older children had been excluded from school owing to their condition.

                                             The RSPCC Inspector said that the only utensils he could find were a small cup with a broken handle and two battered enamel plates. There was one fork in the garden. The children had no underclothing. When he called on 6th of June, she was out and the children were locked in Returning in the afternoon he found them naked except for breeches tied up with string. They had no footwear. He found her at an ash dump, and asked her to go home, but she refused, saying she would not look after the children.

                                             There were no cooking facilities. Mrs Kilvington had occupied the house since the early part of the war, prior to that she had lived on a houseboat on the Waveney.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 11 Dec     Mr AE BARWOOD has been elected Mayor of Maclesfield. He was born in Norwich, but owned a Drapery Store in Beccles for 13 years [at No 2 & 2a The Walk.] He was a member of “Apollo Lodge” of Freemasons and was also a member of the Social Club in Gaol Lane. He left Beccles during the last war, in which he saw service for two years with the Honourable Artillery Company in France and Belgium. He became the proprietor of a drapery store at Macclesfield in 1920, retiring in 1934. He is a past President of that town’s Chamber of Trade. [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 18 Dec     DEATH of Mrs Marion I Burton, aged 90, at Ballygate House, which she shared with her daughter. She was a daughter of Dr Daniel Meadows of Yarmouth. Her husband, Mr Frank Burton, who died in 1937 was a Yarmouth solicitor and was Mayor of Yarmouth in 1891-92. She came to live in Beccles in 1913, previously she had spent the summer there. She is survived by three daughters, Mrs Moore, wife of Mr John Moore of Yarmouth, senior partner in a law firm: Burton, Moore and Crawshaw, Miss Isobel Burton, and Mrs Arthur Hardy. She was the sister of Mrs JP Larkman, of the Close, Barsham & Dr AH Meadows, formerly of Yarmouth.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 18 Dec     DEATH of Rev Ernest Pelham Thompson, who was Curate of Beccles from 1898 to 1908 under the late Canon Rowsell. Since 1921 he had been Vicar of Christ’s Church, North Finchley, London.

                                             He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he took his BA in 1891 and his MA four years later. In 1908 he became Vicar of St Matthew’s Nottingham

1943    Beccles & Bungay 18 Dec     PRISONER OF WAR: Mr & Mrs Yallop, of 17 Northgate, received a message from their elder son saying that he was a prisoner of war in Java, which was broadcast on Tokyo radio.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 18 Dec     DEATH of Mrs FE Balls, wife of Mr FE Balls, of 39 Northgate.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 18 Dec     Dr WOOD-HILL MEMORIAL FUND: So far £236 has been subscribed.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Dec     COUNCIL: POST WAR HOUSING: 95 acres required. Mr Oxenborough, East Suffolk Planning Officer: “The demolition of the obsolete houses would mean the clearance of certain sites near the centre of the town which, if not suitable for other purposes, should retain their original use and be redeveloped with replacement housing. The tendency for towns to become hollow at the core and very widely scattered on the fringe was in part caused by the movement of population from derelict central property to new suburban areas. In a town as small and pleasant as Beccles such a movement could not be necessary to any large extent, from the overcrowding angle, and it would certainly be lamentable from the social aspect. Therefore, although in some instances a site, formerly occupied by two houses, might be redeveloped with one, general policy should be towards replacement where possible on the original spot. If development proceeded along these lines the 91 houses involved would be reabsorbed into the heart of the town, being built on cleared sites, and where original overcrowding demanded spilling over into the various vacant plots that were to be found scattered about the borough.

                                             For a new project of 100 houses or any smaller plan that might be determined upon, fresh sites would have to be chosen, taking into consideration the agricultural value of the land, the ease of servicing the area and the necessity of orientating the houses in a satisfactory way. Assuming a gross development density of eight houses per acre, including open space, an immediate post-war programme of 100 houses would require about 12½ acres and at an average of 3.5 persons per house, would involve a community of approximately 350 people. Proximity to the town centre, or to such a local centre as Swine’s Green, should be regarded as an asset in making a choice of site. The new community would have to rely on existing shopping facilities, etc, until it was established, and its nearness to such provisions would make a real difference.

                                             While discussing a short-term policy it was as well to bear in mind the ultimate needs of the town, if it was to reach the population of 9,000 already agreed upon. Any housing work that was executed in the near future must fit into a broader plan designed to receive the optimum population. Approximately 750 to 850 new dwellings will be needed, this would mean a total area of 95 acres. 

                                             NUMBER OF HOUSES: A letter from the Ministry of Health said that the number of houses to be built in the first year after the war should not exceed the number built in the 20 years between the wars. The Council had built 150 houses during those years, but was not applying to build 191.

                                             POPULATION: Mr Pye thought the estimated future population of 9,000 was much too small, perhaps they should plan for a town of 20,000

                                             6 OLD MARKET, now that the property was now vacant it was agreed that it should be demolished immediately.

                                             PUBLIC HALL DANCE CURFEW: Mr Swindells thought that the idea of putting a curfew of 10.30 on dances would not cure the problem, and was resented. The vast majority of Servicemen coming into the town in the evening went to pubs or dances. Mr Hamby, who deals with the Public Hall lettings, said that he had visited the Public Hall dances and found nothing of which to complain. The trouble was in the streets outside.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Dec     WEDDING: Mr John W Burcham, eldest son of Mr HW Burcham, of London Road and Miss Sheila McDonald, of Morrayshire. Prior to joining the Home Guard, Mr Burcham was a Beccles Special Constable. The bride is a member of the teaching staff of the Sir John Leman School. Fellow members of the Home Guard formed a guard of honour. [PHOTO page 1]

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Dec     DEATH of Mr Charles G Spalding, of Forge Cottages, Barsham, aged 81. He was employed on the Roos Hall Estate for 54 years, retiring a few years ago. At the age of 74 he had an aeroplane flight over Norwich and his own countryside. The pilot looped the loop and Mr Spalding declared that he felt no ill-effects whatsoever. He had been a lifelong worshipper at Barsham Church where he was married.

1943    Beccles & Bungay 24 Dec     VAGRANT: Elizabeth Symonds, aged 56, found by the side of the pathway in an open galvanised shed in the Institute Pathway sitting amongst a bundle of rags by Inspector WT Bryant. She was charged with wandering abroad and lodging in an outhouse. She said she would not go to an Institution. “I’m all right. Leave me alone. I don’t interfere with anybody.”

                                             She was bound over under the Probation of Offenders Act on condition that she entered a public institution.