Tag Archives: 1944

Manor Road

In this 1913 OS Map, Manor Road was the name of the road at the northern edge of the Urban District boundary, and continued along past the Streatham Park Cemetery, then south towards Mitcham Common.

1913 OS Map

1913 OS Map

1913 OS Map

1913 OS Map

Parts of the road were renamed, after this suggestion in 1926:

From the minutes of the Mitcham Urban District Council
Highways, New Streets and Buildings, and Lighting Committee
Tuesday, 14th September, 1926

6. MANOR ROAD.

— Read letters from the Battersea District Post Office and the Streatham Park Cemetery Company suggesting the renaming of Manor Walk and a portion of Manor Road in order to prevent confusion.

Resolved to recommend, That the following names be adopted :

Manor Road, from Commonside East to a point 300 yards north-east of Willow Cottages ;

Northborough Road, from Manor Road to Croydon Boundary, and to be numbered from the Croydon end of the road ;

Rowan Road, from Manor and Northborough Road to Wandsworth boundary opposite No. 31, Greyhound Terrace ;

Greyhound Terrace, from Rowan Road to Lilian Road.

Newspaper Articles

191 Manor Road – from the Mitcham Advertiser – Thursday 20 October 1927

“A BIT O’ LUCK.” The True Tale of a Mitcham Cupboard, Not Exaggerated.—(Official). Mrs. Arkle, the wife of Quarter-master Gunner Arkle, came over from Chatham to Mitcham to see the new house her officer husband had bought from the Tamworth Park Construction Company. It is 191, Manor-road, ~ In the course of her inspection Mrs, Arkle placed her purse containing 30s, in Treasury notes and a few coppers on the top shelf of a cupboard. Workmen were in the house all the time, Two days later, when about to return to Chatham from London, where she was staying, she missed the purse and only remembered after an effort where she had laid it “I hurried back to the house,” she told the “Advertiser,” and found workmen still at work there. I asked one if he had seen a purse, and from the bhewildered exsression on his face I knew he had not. then looked in the cupboard and to my great delight, for money is money when you are paving for a house, and we are only poor people, the purse and its contents were exactly where I had left them. It was a marvellons bit of luck, I think.” “You are sure it was not £100,” said the “Advertiser” representative. Mrs, Arkle had just been told that an imaginative contemporary had accused her of leaving £100 in the house. Her reply was too poetical for these pages.“Another great myth exploded” chuckled her sailor husband.

World War 2 Connections

No. 78, 2nd. L/T. W. ROWNTREE joined the Home Guard
No. 127, Cpl. H. PLEDGE joined the Home Guard 15th October 1940

Civilian Casualties

17th October 1940
Mary Ellen KING, aged 56

22nd June 1944
Frederick William BAKER, aged 64


Minutes of meetings held by the Mitcham Urban District Council are available on request from the Merton Heritage and Local Studies Centre at Morden Library.

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

Coporal Peter Pushman

Corporal Peter Pushman, service no. 1454610. Photo from the Mitcham News & Mercury, 17th November, 1944.

Peter Pushman joined the Army before the war and was a gunner in 265 Battery of the 67th Field regiment of the Royal Artillery. He was a corporal in the 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, when he died at the Battle of Arnhem on 22nd September 1944.

He was 28, and was married to Sarah Charlotte (maiden name Todd), of Sandford-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. They lived at 17B Council Houses, Bullingdon Rural District, Oxfordshire, and were married in the first quarter of 1939. At no. 17 Council Houses was George R. Todd, born 1870, and likely Sarah’s father, a retired builder’s labourer. The Bullingdon rural district is now part of the South Oxfordshire District.

His parents were Bert and Elizabeth Pushman who lived in Love Lane, Mitcham. His father was a chimney sweep.

Sources

Casualty entry on Commonwealth War Grave Commission website.

The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register, Reference: RG 101/2

General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 3a; Page: 2147.

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Bullingdon in South Oxfordshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.

His death as reported in a local newspaper article


His grave is in the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, reference 22. A. 19. in Holland. Photo taken 17th September, 2019.

Mitcham News & Mercury 20th October, 1944, page 1

DIED IN EPIC OF ARNHEM
Corporal Victim of Mortar Bomb

THE Arnhem epic has taken its toll of Mitcham’s gallant sons. The latest name on the Roll of Honour is that of Cpl. Peter Pushman, second son of Mr. and Mrs B. Pushman. Mr. Pushman is the old-established chimney sweep in Love-lane. Mitcham.

Cpl. Pushman, who was in the South Staffordshire Regt., was killed instantly by a mortar bomb. In a letter to his parents, the adjutant of his unit writes:—

“Cpl. Pushman died whilst giving his all, and his leadership and cheerfulness were an example to all those around him.”

Cpl. Pushman, who was in the Terriers before the war, went through Dunkirk and had returned to this country from Italy shortly before last Christmas. He was a bricklayer in civil life, and leaves a widow and one daughter. He was educated at Gorringe Park School.

Three serving brothers will mourn his death. Bert, the eldest, is serving with the Queen’s Royal Regt. in India. Frank is with the Royal Engineers on the Western Front, and Jim has recently been released from the R.A.F. to work in an aircraft factory.

From the 1939 Register on Ancestry, the occupants at 113 Love Lane were:

Bertie Pushman, married, aged 89, born 8 July 1889, chimney sweep (own account)
James A. Pushman, single, 20, born 2 Jan 1920, electric meter assembler
Daisy T. Pushman, single, 20, born 2 Jan 1920, electric meter assembler
Sidney Pushman, single, 18, born 2 Feb 1922, shop assistant
Frank Pushman, single, 23, born 31 July 1923, sheet metal driller
Joyce Pushman, single, 25, born 30 June 1925, cardboard box maker

This OS map of 1954 shows number 113 as on the west side of Love Lane, the second house north of the corner with Pear Tree Close. It was built by Mitcham Borough Council as part of the Pear Tree Close development in 1934, and still exists in 2019.

1954 OS Map showing 113 Love Lane


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