A pocket watch, a Canadian war veteran and a story of the power of international research

Now I grant you the above is not the most zippiest of titles but it delivers perfectly a turn of events.

The inscribed sentiment on the back of the watch

This is the watch of Earle C Duffin, born in Canada and served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force.*

He was born in 1886, enlisted in December 1914, and sailed for Europe the following August and by the April of 1916 he was in France.

He was demobbed in August 1919, having attained the rank of L. Col and married a Miss Mabel Ryan on July 20 1921 and the Winnipeg Tribune carried a wedding picture.

And that pretty much was that.  I had tracked his story around Canada and up to his marriages although I did have to admit getting his wife’s name completely wrong.

But I wasn’t giving up and made an appeal through the British Home Children facebook sites in Canada.

And almost as soon as Canada awoke a full five to seven hours after I posted the blog lots of people went off to look.

"An interesting wedding" .......... July 20 1921, The Wnnipeg Tribune

Bobby was first followed by others and Kevin came up with a fine wedding photograph, and obituaries on both Mr Duffin and Mrs Duffin.

The wait was worth it.  After the war Mr Duffin worked for the Daily Express, and Bowaters in New York before moving to Britain 1929.

In all he made eight ocean crossings between 1919 and 1946, and died in 1948.  Mrs Duffin survived him by another twenty years and according to her obituary  she died in London in the February of 1968.

Now I know that they settled in Britain I will go looking for more of the story.

Mr and Mrs Duffin had two children and there were  three grandchildren and perhaps that search will reveal how the watch made its way to eBay where it was bought by old friend David Harrop and will be part of his exhibition commemorating the Battle of The Somme on July 1 in the Remembrance Lodge of Southern Cemetery.

The watch

So a little bit more of the history of one family and a pointer to how with a bit of international cooperation a story takes a new turn.

And that is one in the eye for those who deride social media as just a vehicle to show off pictures of cats and offer up an update on which coffee shop is currently in vogue.

So thanks again to those in Canada.

We have come some way from a watch on eBay!

Location; Canada,the USA and Britain


Pictures; watch of Earl C Duffin, from the collection of David Harrop, picture from the Winnipeg Tribune researched by Kevin Laurence

*Surviving a century ........... the silver inscribed watch, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/surviving-century-silver-inscribed-watch.html

Celebrating our Municipal Town Halls part 3 .......... Woolwich Town Hall

It is all too easy to become cynical about public service and the achievements of local government.

Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries local government  more so than Westminster was at the cutting edge of improving the lives of local people.

As Sidney Webb said the “municipalities have done most to socialise our industrial life.”  And so a resident of Manchester, Birmingham or Glasgow could benefit from municipal supplies of water, gas and electricity, travel on municipally owned trams and buses, walk  through a municipally maintained park while knowing his children were being educated in municipally run schools.

“Glasgow builds and maintains seven public ‘common lodging houses’; Liverpool provides science lectures; Manchester builds and stocks an art gallery; Birmingham runs schools of design; Leeds creates extensive cattle markets; and Bradford supplies water below cost price. 

There are nearly one hundred free libraries and reading rooms. The minor services now performed by public bodies are innumerable.”*

And all of that was evidenced not only in the Corporation parks and schools and baths but in the town halls which were solid examples of both civic pride and local democracy.

So here is Woolwich Town Hall built in 1906 and opened by Will Crooks




Picture; Woolwich Town Hall, courtesy of Kristina Bedford*

*Woolwich Through Time, Kristina Bedford, 2014, Amberley Publishing,

Lessons from a stamp album …… no. 1 ….. this is who we are

Now I know it is stating the obvious to say that postage stamps can and are political.

Like coinage they aim to say something about a country, whether it is the leader, its system of government or its achievements.

I still have a collection of British postage stamps to commemorate the Battle of Hastings and the Battle of Britain.

Although some may ponder on why Britain wanted to commemorate a battle in which the Norman French were victorious, but some one will have an explanation.

And that leads me to a short series based on the collection of stamps from our Stella, who having salvaged my stamp albums of the 1950s, went on to make her own during the 1970s and 80s.

Like many of the family treasures they came north from Well Hall after father died, and for a while sat in the cellar which on reflection was not the kindest of places.

Forty years in a dry but cold cellar allowed some of the lose stamps to get stuck together, but others fared better.

And so here are some of those stamps which she bought from dealers, coming in small packs which retailed at 15p a sheet.

To start the series I have selected some from the former communist states of Poland and the USSR, which carry a very overt political message.

That said I do have to confess I went for the Polish stamps first  for another reason than our Julia is Polish and along with our Saul lives in Poland.

Enough said.

Location Poland and the USSR,, 1970s, 

Pictures; stamps from Poland and the USSR, 1970s, from the collection of Stella Simpson

Stories of steam .... the Fallowfied Railway Line ...... one to do today

Location; The Union Chapel, 2b Wellington Road, Fallowfield, M14 6EQ

Picture; LNER B17 Class No.1664 "Liverpool" storming through Wilbraham Road station with an east-bound express in 1946 or 47. Photograph by William Lees. This is at today's Athol Road entrance to the Fallowfield Loop.

Sun …. flowers …. heaps of history … and a thank you to the Friends of Chorlton Park

Yesterday over 30 people turned out for our first walk through Chorlton Park’s past.

History in the Park, 2023

It was at the invitation of the Friends of the park and this ramble through a bit of Chorlton’s history, covered the missing observatory, and racecourse, a sideways look at the historic Brookfield House and even more historic Hough End Hall and of course covered the story of the park.

Questions were asked about the open-air swimming pool, the bandstand and the wartime air raid shelter with a tad amount of speculation about the possible existence of Dig For Victory Allotments somewhere in the park.

Such are the stories about the place that Peter and I have decided to make it the next book in the series “nothing to do in chorlton”.*

And we invite you to offer up your own memories of the park, along with  treasured pictures which might be of a night in the air raid shelter, a carefree day in the padding pool or a magic moment in the pet’s corner.

Julie and the goat, circa 1970s

There may even be the odd “fascinating object” which was long ago discarded but which might have its own story.   In the course of digging some of the Friends revealed that they had come across fragments of clay pipe, broken crockery and “dark matter” which challenged them for an explanation.

During the walk Tony shared his father's memories of a barrage balloon and anti aircraft gun which were sighted in the park and of plying football and cricket on the pitches in the 1950s.

You can contact us at www.pubbooks.co.uk, where you can also see all the books by Andrew Simpson and Peter Topping.**

Location; Chorlton Park

Heaps of people listening to the park's past, 2023

Pictures; in the park listening to a heap of history, 2023, from the collection of Peter Topping and the goat and Julie in Chorlton Park circa early 1970s, from the collection of Julie Thomas

*Doing nothing in chorlton, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20doing%20nothing%20in%20Chorlton

**www.pubbooks.co.uk

Postcard from Warsaw

Now, sometimes you just get lost in a story.

It seemed easy enough, or so I thought.  

The German on the picture postcard would be easy to translate.

But not so.  

The translation, if I have got it correct reads “Germans innocent in World War”.  The message on the back is undecipherable but I guess will not shed much light on the words on the front.

The post card was sent in the June of 1916 from Warsaw which had been occupied by the German army since the August of the previous year.

And would remain in German hands until November 1918.

I suppose we a dealing with a piece of propaganda but whether this was the message that was intended by the person who sent it is now lost.  

It may be that they were attracted by the lilies which according to one source “portray love, ardor, and affection for your loved ones”.*  An idea reinforced by the words above the portrait of the you women which reads, “Flower language: Lilies”.

Until I can work out the message on the back I am left with  the post marks, one of which appears to be a military one, referring to "Landstr Juf Batl. Burg IV 85", and the other carries the location “Warschau” with the date June 28th, 1916.

There is one last clue and that is the name of the picture postcard company who are listed on the back as R&K, and that this one was 2654/1.  But I fear trying to find information on a German/Polish company a century and bit after the event will lead nowhere.

Location; Warsaw

Pictures; message from Warsaw 1916, from the collection of David Harrop

*Lilies, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilium#Symbolism

When dialling a number meant just that, Graham's uncle's phone from 1968

In an age of mobile phones which can pretty much do everything you want this picture of a 1968 GPO standard issue household set brings back memories.

We have one here in our home and like the one in Graham’s picture it comes in one colour.

There were other colours, I remember ours in Well Hall Road was grey and the swanky people behind us had a white one.

There is something very reassuring about using a dial instead of buttons, and I only wish ours still worked.

But it was damaged long ago and now will only slowly complete its return half circle from the last number dialled.

Its successor the trimphone now looks less elegant and even more dated.  Ours was put in sometime around 1969, and I can’t say it was a success.

As I remember it was too light and had a tendency slide across the table when you were dialling and worse still could fall off the table as you moved around using it.

But at the time it came to represent all that was new and shinny and by the time ours arrived the GPO had become Post Office Telecommunications.

A decade or so later and I had my first push button set which was exactly like the one above but with of course a set of buttons, and finished in handsome grey.

Over the years new phones have come and gone including the revolutionary one which displayed the caller’s number.

More recently there has been a bewildering selection of cordless phones which we have bought and temporarily lost down the back of armchairs or on one memorable occasion in a pair of jeans.

So I am rather fond of the old sturdy dial a friend phones.  Graham assures me that the one installed in his uncle’s house in 1968 still works perfectly, “but no use if you call an answering machine” which I suspect is no bad thing.

Pictures; 1968 which I rather think is a GPO Telephone 711, courtesy of Graham Gill and the 1969 GPO 1/722F MOD Grey & Green Rotary Dial Trimphone Telephone by Diamondmagna