New Year's day morning 1890 - Remembering the 26 Children

 

This morning a small group of Councillors and local historians met in West Ham Cemetery at the memorial to the 26 young boys (see below) who suffocated to death following a fire at the nearby children's Workhouse.  

Author John Walker, who has written a recent book on the fire and the Workhouse "Out of Sight, Out of Mind -Abuse, Neglect and Fire in a London Children’s Workhouse, 1854 - 1907" read out the names and ages of the victims. In his book John  makes it clear who should have been held responsible for this "accident". "Although cleared by the inquest, the management was culpable: it had locked them in their dormitories, so the staff could celebrate the new year in, off site.

Many thanks also to local historian, Alan Regin MBE, who is a font of knowledge about the cemetery and is trying to locate the exact locations of the boys grave. 

Remembrance Sunday - Remembering the Fallen and the Claxton Family

 

This morning at 11am I was at East London Cemetery with my West Ham ward  colleague, Cllr John Whitworth, to lay a wreath to remember the fallen. 

Usually we would have attended the Remembrance Day Service at the West Ham All Saints Church with our local MP, Lyn Brown. Due to Covid this was cancelled although Lyn was joining an online service and reading a lesson. 

John and I decided to go and lay a wreath and show our respects at the nearest cemetery to West Ham Ward with a war memorial, East London Cemetery. Our ward colleague Cllr McLean was at another wreath laying event in Forest Gate. 

There was one other wreath already on this memorial dedicated to some ones Great Grandfather "Albert Childs" who was killed in action on 31 October 1918 (less than 2 weeks before the end of the War)

Compared to other remembrance services it was very quiet and despite there being only the 2 of us it was quite moving.

I noticed at another war memorial another small group had gathered around it for the 2 minute silence. 

Afterwards I reflected on a picture that had recently been sent to us by local historian, Alan Regin, of the Claxton family who lived at 46 Hampton Road, Forest Gate. See the picture below. Out of the five boys pictured four of them died due to the first world war and only the youngest Jonathan survived since he was too young to fight. 

Socialist & Labour West Ham Cllr George Coe "He tried to leave the world a little better than he found it"

 

During the summer I had a wonderful email from Plaistow resident and local historian, Alan Regin, connected to a post I wrote on this blog following the general election in 2015. 

On election day 2015 an UNISON colleague of mine was acting as a Labour polling agent outside an Ilford polling station and had been given a copy of an early West Ham "Labour" election pamphlet from 1897, which they sent to me knowing I was a local Councillor. 

This leaflet mentioned the "Social Democratic and Trade Unionist" candidate "G.Coe" who I googled and checked what records I had to hand but was unable to find any further information about. 

Alan had seen this post and he sent me a photograph of  a "George Coe" headstone in the West Ham Cemetery. It seems that George had indeed been elected in 1897 and remained a Councillor until 1900. 

He died at the young age of 40 in 1910. 

What is particularly noticeable about his gravestone is the wonderful epitaph "this testimonial was erected by a few friends as a token of their respect for his devotion both to his public & private duties". He tried to leave the world a little better than he found it".

I hope to go and pay my respects to George with Alan and modern day Councillor colleagues in the near future.