Yearly Archives: 2023

Rowan Road Auxiliary Fire Service

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From Wikipedia:

The Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) was first formed in 1938 in Great Britain as part of the Civil Defence Service. Its role was to supplement the work of brigades at local level. The Auxiliary Fire Service and the local brigades were superseded in August 1941 by the National Fire Service. After the war the AFS was reformed alongside the Civil Defence Corps, forming part of the UK’s planned emergency response to a nuclear attack. It was disbanded in the UK in 1968.

Members of the AFS were unpaid part-time volunteers, but could be called up for whole-time paid service if necessary. This was very similar to the wartime establishment of the police Special Constabulary. Men and women could join, the latter mainly in an administrative role. A first-hand account of the type of work they undertook is given by A S Bullock in Gloucestershire Between the Wars: A Memoir. (Available on Amazon.co.uk)

Mitcham was supported by three A.F.S. sub stations at:

Fortescue Road School

Pascalls Factory

Rowan Road School

Rowan Road A.F.S. 1940. Photo kindly provided by the son of G. Davis (back row, second from the left)

In this photo were:

At the back: C. BRAGG, T. SASSE

Back row: E. SHORTER, G. DAVIS, B. ACKERMAN, F. PEARCE, R. SAYERS, G. BROWN, B.SHED

Front row: B. POGE, B. PHILLIPS, B. SMITH, J.WARNE, Mrs. GOODWIN, C. BISHOP, L. WILLIS

The school in Rowan Road was opened in 1930 as the Rowan Road Central School. It changed its name to Rowan County Secondary in 1960, and in 1965 the boys left to go to the new school at Eastfields.

From local newspapers

Sporting events included Mitcham ATC vs. the Rowan Road AFS:

Streatham News, 18th July 1941, page 5.

and the AFS vs East Moitcham FC (at cricket):

Streatham News, 18th July 1941, page 5.

Sado’s barber shop

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Alec William Sado had been barber for almost 40 years in this shop at 7, St Mark’s Road, Mitcham. This photo was taken in 1975 by Eric Montague, the same year that Alec Sado passed away.

Clip of photo taken by Eric Montague in 1975. Reproduced by kind permission of the Merton Historical Society. Image reference mhs-em-ug-13.

The photo appears in Eric Montague’s book Mitcham Histories : 7 The Upper or Fair Green, on page 109.

Between the first floor windows, the sign “ESTB. 1905” (i.e. ‘Established in 1905’), may refer to when Alec’s father Louis started as a barber, when he was 24. The street directories show that in 1904 the occupant of no. 7 was Joseph SHEPHERD, corn dealer. From 1912 and 1925, it was occupied by H. TEDDER, hair dresser.

It was Alec’s father Louis who started cutting hair here, possibly between 1925 and 1930, as he is listed in the 1930 commercial directory. Louis died 1936, as shown in this London Gazette entry:

In the 1938 commercial directory, Alec William Sado is listed at this address.

Listed in 1969 Chamber of Commerce List as A.W. Sado at same address, no telephone number.

These photos are kindly provided by a family relative, from their family tree on Ancestry.

Louis Sado

Alec William Sado

Alec William Sado cutting hair. Date unknown. Note the poster in the top left hand corner: it may be for advertising boxing at Mitcham Baths.

A note about the surname ‘Sado’. Alec’s grandfather was born in Poland in 1854, and his surname was Sadokierski. He was also a barber. Alec’s father Louis was born in England in 1881. For more, see the entry on Ancestry.