First World War: Another soldier comes home
A second soldier who died in the First World War has been recognised in Ealing almost a century after his death. Following on from Herbert Crook, whose name was added to Ealing War Memorial by the council earlier this year, another fallen hero who was missing from the list has been etched on the memorial […]
Who was Susan Smee?
Well, she was a rather unusual and special woman for her time: Acton’s first female councillor – and first woman mayor. Yet, there is no plaque or public marker to her and her work, writes Dr Jonathan Oates. She was born in 1859 into a middle class London family and was well educated at a […]
A president in Ealing
From wasp-infested cricket games, to pony races and local gentry, the fascinating diary of a famous US president has been uncovered which outlines the years of his life spent living in Ealing. Mary Woods, of the Little Ealing History Group, explains all. John Quincy Adams lived in Ealing with his family between 1815 and 1817. […]
First World War: Rioting in Acton
A hundred years ago a riot took place in Acton, during the First World War. During the First World War, there was, in Britain, hostility towards Germany and Germans. That applied to those living here, too, even though some had enlisted in the British Army. The atmosphere of fear saw certain British Germans being interned […]
Second World War: ‘We never saw our parents again’
On 27 January 2015 it will be the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi’s nefarious Auschwitz concentration camp. A tree is planted each January by the council outside its Perceval House offices to mark Holocaust Memorial Day and remember acts of genocide across the globe. The horror of one of recent history’s darkest […]
First World War: Who was Miss Harman?
If you look on the Ealing War Memorial outside Pitzhanger Manor you will see, among the list of names of those men killed in the First World War, that of Miss A. Harman; the sole female name on that memorial. Dr Jonathan Oates investigated: I first noticed this when reading a book about Middlesex and […]
First World War: ‘Hell – there is no other word’
The First World War was a story of triumphs and tragedies and this tale of a local man embodies both, as Dr Jonathan Oates discovered. Albert Arthur Auerbach was born in 1894 and was the eldest son of Arthur and Ellen Auerbach. They lived in Carlton Road in Ealing, where he had attended the nearby […]
Waitrose’s Acton origins
A new branch of Waitrose has arrived in Acton 110 years after the business itself was born in the very same town. In June 1904, three young men founded a business at 263 Acton High Street. These ‘grocers and provision dealers’ sold tea, meats, cheeses and other foods. It was to go on to become […]
Ealing’s strange fair
Since at least the 18th Century there had been an annual fair on Ealing Green. It was a three-day event in June with everything from performing poodles to pig racing. There were competitions, booths selling foodstuffs and other items and entertainments. The competitions included sack racing for the prize of a shirt, and tea drinking […]
First World War: Herbert comes home
A local soldier has been recognised in Ealing, almost a century after his death. Herbert Crook, known as Harry, died while fighting on one of the First World War’s most notorious battlefields, the Somme. Like thousands of other soldiers who lost their lives in the chaos of trench combat on the frontline in France and Belgium, […]
The name is Bond…
Just overlooking Acton Park are several large houses in Centre Avenue. In October 1962, one of these, named Accacia, was bought for £9,000 by Sean Connery and his then wife, Diane Cilento. Earlier that year, Connery had shot to fame by starring in the first James Bond film, Dr No. His first experiences of Acton were […]
Never quite a manor
From medieval estate, to Victorian garden parties and collections of Rembrandt paintings, and eventually a health centre…an old home in Northolt has had an interesting ‘life’. There was an estate known as Islips ever since the 14th Century, named after its first known owners Simon and Ela Riselip, though it was never a manor – […]