Alfred Robert Allen lived with his parents Alfred William and Elsie May Allen at 4 Manton Way, Mitcham. On his gravestone, his parents called him Bob:
In memory of Bob.
His smiling face is with us
Till we meet again,
Mum and dad
Manton Way was a short road, with only four houses at the time. It was off the west side of Galpins Road at the eastern end of the then Borough of Mitcham, with its boundary to Croydon. On the eastern side of Galpins Road were tennis courts and playing fields. At the southern end of Galpins Road was Mitcham Common.
Manton Way was at the edge of the Pollards Hill Golf course, and Bob Allen may well have crossed it on his way to Sherwood Park School, half a mile to the west.
Bob Allen died, aged 19, on 22nd January 1944, while serving with the 6th Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment which took part in the landings at Salerno, in September 1943, in the Allied Invasion of Italy.
Sources
Commonwealth War Grave Commission:
Private
ALLEN, ALFRED ROBERTService Number 14280788
Died 22/01/1944
Aged 19
6th Bn.
Lincolnshire RegimentSon of Alfred William and Elsie May Allen, of Mitcham. Surrey.
Ancestry.com. UK, Memorial Books WWI and WWII, 1914-1945.
Original data: Sayers, William Charles Berwick, ed. Croydon and the Second World War: The Official History of the War Work of the Borough and Its Citizens from 1939–1945, Together with the Croydon Roll of Honour. Croydon, England: The Croydon Corporation, 1949.
Lincoln Regiment
Born 29th October 1924, in Fulham. Lived at 387a London Road, Croydon. Educated Sherwood Park School, Mitcham. Clerk. Died in Italy, 22nd January 1944. Buried Military Cemetery, Minturno.
Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995
In his will he left £241 1s. 8d. to his mother Elsie May Allen.
The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/1376C
No. 4 Manton Way
Alfred William Allen, born 20th May 1894, (builders) scaffolder labourer.
Elsie May Allen, born 17th September 1894, housewife.
Maps
1940 OS map
1954 OS map
When the Pollards Hill Golf Course was developed for housing after WW2, Manton Way was extended and renamed Berkshire Way. Other roads in this development were named after counties.
Maps are reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
