Tag Archives: 1929

Ernest Charles Clay, Mitcham Borough Treasurer

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5th December 1958. Clip from Merton Memories photo http://photoarchive.merton.gov.uk/collections/people/50478 (c) London Borough of Merton

5th December 1958. Clip from Merton Memories photo http://photoarchive.merton.gov.uk/collections/people/50478 (c) London Borough of Merton

Mitcham Borough Treasurer for twenty years, he died at his home in Sutton on Friday 31st January, 1964, aged 57. He had retired from the council in September 1963, and had been suffering from ill heath for a number of years. The funeral service was at Mitcham Parish Church on 5th February 1964 which was attended by the Mayor and Mayoress, Councillor and Mrs W.H. Sanderson; the Town Clerk, Mr R.H. White; and chief officers of Mitcham Council.

Mr Clay was one of the most prominent members in the community. Not only did he guide Mitcham Council on their methods of finance but also a large number of local organisations. He was a founder member of Mitcham Old People’s Housing Association; treasurer of the Old People’s Welfare Committee, the Citizens Advice Bureau, Mitcham Youth Committee and a founder member of the handicraft class for the disabled.

He was also a district head of the Forces Help Society and secretary of S.A.F.F.A. as well as being connected with many smaller organisations.

Mr Clay joined Mitcham Council in 1929 when it was an urban district. When Mitcham became a borough he was promoted to deputy borough treasurer and during the war he became the Borough Treasurer.

A keen photographer, he was to have been presented with the A.R.P.S. on Wednesday.

Mr Clay leaves a widow, son and daughter.

Source: Mitcham News & Mercury, 7th February, 1964, page 1.

In his will, he left his widow £5,516 which, when adjusted for inflation, is around £100,00 in 2017 values.

Ernest Charles CLAY of 86 Albion Road, Sutton, Surrey, died
31st January 1964.

Probate

London 18th March to Dorothy May Clay, widow. £5,516.

Source: Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995.
Original data: Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. London, England (c) Crown copyright.

Note about his forename: the newspaper article and Merton Memories photo refer to him as E.C. Clay. On Ancestry, a death index entry has an Ernest C. Clay, aged 57, first quarter of 1964, Surrey Mid Eastern (Vol 5G, page 294), which is assumed to be him. Also from Ancestry, the will for Ernest Charles Clay is a match on the date of death, residence in Sutton.

Eveline Villas

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Two terraces, each of five shops with flats above, on the west side of London Road, divided by Eveline Road, which is at the junction with Streatham Road and Locks Lane.

In the 1915 street directory, the houses were shown as numbered from south to north: from 1 to 5 and then 6 to 10:

1, Ernest McINTYRE, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., Lond., physician & surgeon (surgery)
2, William Henry CURTIS
3, Thomas Henry BAND
4, Ernest Alfred ARTHUR
5,
6, Henry Thomas HENCHER
7, Henry HORNCASTLE
8, Hugh ANDERSON
9, Mrs COOK
10, Charles Alexander HURRELL

(Occupant for number 5 wasn’t given in the 1915 directory.)

Planning application no. 614 submitted by H. DALE was approved January 1925 for conversion of numbers 3,4 and 5 to shops. (Mitcham UDC minutes, volume XI, page 560).

In the 1925 street directory:

1, Miss L. FROUDE, confectioner
2, Ernest REEVE, butcher
3, J.W. AUSTIN & Son, provision dealers
4,
5, Sidney BOREHAM
6, Charles LATHAM
7, William DRAKEFORD
8, Hugh ANDERSON
9, Ernest Alfred ARTHUR
10, William Arthur BLEACH

(Occupant for number 4 wasn’t given in the 1925 directory.)

Between 1925 and 1930, these houses were renumbered as part of London Road, north to south, 154 to 162, and 164 to 172.

In the 1930 commercial directory, the shop on the north corner with Eveline Road, originally numbered 6 Eveline Villas, is shown as no. 162 London Road:

The Swan Radio Co., wireless dealers, 162 London Road. Telephone 4009

1934 ad

1934 ad

1951 OS Map

1951 OS Map

There are two Merton Memories Photos from 1929, one looking north, the other, to the south.

World War 1 Connections
Private Francis Norton Drakeford

From the Surrey Recruitment Registers:

W A BLEACH of 1 Eveline Villas, aged 39 Years 10 Months, Carpenter. Volunteered with the Derby Scheme on 11 December 1915 to the Middlesex Regiment.

W S WHITE of 3 Eveline Villas, aged 33 Years 2 Months, Glazier. Conscripted on 10 May 1917 to the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Maps are reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.