Tuesday 1 December 2015

Mulberry and its Ivall connection

Mulberry is an upmarket fashion company known internationally for its leather goods, especially women’s handbags. The company was founded in 1971 by Roger Saul with the assistance of his mother Joan Saul nee Legg. Joan is a great granddaughter of Kate Bainbrigge Legg nee Ivall (1836-1917). Kate was a daughter of David Ivall (1795-1850), a highly successful coachmaker.

Roger Saul was ousted from Mulberry in 2003 following a boardroom coup in 2002. The Daily Mail published an article about Roger, based on an interview with him in 2011. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018144/The-man-lost-Mulberry--billion-pound-fortune-says-hes-NOT-bitter-amazing-success.html. 
It contains pictures of Roger plus information about his business life.

The BBC programme Countryfile broadcast on October 23rd 2016 contained an item about Roger's project to grow a commercial crop of walnuts on his farm in Somerset. Radio Times published an article about this, which is shown below (click on it to read the missing RHS text).
From Radio Times 22 - 28 October 2016

Saturday 21 November 2015

Ken Ivall : Second degree murderer

A report dated June 30th 2013 in the Kenora Daily Miner and News http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com/2013/06/28/second-degree-murderer-sentenced-to-serve-minimum-16-years-in-prison begins

" Convicted of second degree murder, Ken Ivall, 43, will serve a minimum of 16 years in jail for causing the death of Kenora resident Ed Wilson more than four years ago."

The report contains information on the crime and a picture of Ken.

Kenora is a small city (population about 15,000) situated  in Northwestern Ontario, Canada, about 200 km east of Winnipeg.

I believe that Ken is descended from Alexander "Sandy" Ival (1831-1911, who emigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1837) via his third son Alexander (1855-1922).

As far as I know, the Canadian Ivalls are not related to the British Ivalls.

Monday 16 November 2015

Ivalls in the 1939 Register

Information from a register of people living in Britain on 29 September 1939 has recently been made publicly available on the website Findmypast.

Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The British government needed information on its population to issue identity cards, plan mass evacuations, establish rationing, organise conscription and co-ordinate other wartime provisions. They employed 65,000 enumerators to visit every house in England and Wales and list 41 million people by household. Each person’s record contains their name, full date of birth, address, marital status and occupation.

When the NHS was founded in 1948, the register became the core of the NHS Central Register. Women’s surnames were updated when they changed as a result of marriage.

Under Data Protection legislation it is illegal to publish personal details relating to living individuals. Therefore the Information Commissioner has decided that the records of people born less than 100 years ago must be closed and so these entries are blacked out. Because the register was used by the NHS until the early 1990s many deaths up to this date were noted, allowing those records to be opened. The details of 28 million people can be seen at present.

There are 57 open records of people with the surname Ivall in 26 households on the 1939 register. It is quite expensive to view records from the 1939 register online from home, but it is free at The National Archives at Kew. I recently went there and looked up all of the open Ivall records. If you want me to send you details of any of them, please send me an email at PhilT42LQS@Yahoo.co.uk. 

I have added additional information from the register to biographies on the Ivall blog and also updated my family tree on RootsWeb. To view a list of Ivalls in it, go to  
(the names of living Ivalls are not shown on this list)

Update. As at 19 Jan 2017, there were 76 open records with the surname Ivall in the 1939 register. 

Saturday 7 November 2015

Neil Ivall : "Paedophile Hunter"

A report on ITV news http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2015-11-04/parents-turn-paedophile-hunters-after-their-own-daughter-is-targeted/ begins 

"Two self-styled 'paedophile hunters' from Bedfordshire who've already played a part in sending two men to jail say that they will continue to try and protect children. Neil and Katie Ivall from Dunstable started doing stings on potential paedophiles after their daughter was targeted online."


The report contains video of an interview with Neil and Katie.


Another article about Neil and Katie Ivall was published on the Mail Online on January 4th 2016
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3383436/Paedophile-hunting-couple-capture-moment-caught-pervert-arriving-supermarket-meet-14-year-old-girl-luring-fake-Facebook-profile.html

I believe that Neil is in the branch of the Ivall family descended from Thomas Ivall (1837-1908), a baker who lived in Chalvey, which is now a suburb of Slough.

Sunday 4 October 2015

Wartime Scrapbooks of Dennis Endean Ivall (1921-2006)

Dennis Endean Ivall was my second cousin, once removed. We are both descended from David Ivall (1816-67), a journeyman coachmaker. I never met Dennis, but we spoke by phone and he generously sent me a copy of the excellent research he had done on Ivall family history.

Dennis fought in World War Two. In about 2000, he prepared two scrapbook albums containing pen and ink and pencil sketches, Army Service papers, photographs, maps, newspaper cuttings, and other items all annotated and including commentary about his Army career relating to his service in the Home Guard and the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in India, Burma, Ceylon and Cocos Islands, with explanatory notes and pictures from various sources about the military units he encountered. These albums are now held in the archive collection of the Imperial War Museum in London. I recently visited the museum to see them.

When the war started, Dennis was living with his parents William Charles and Florence Bessie Ivall at 54 Beeches Avenue, Carshalton and working as an accounts clerk at the headquarters of ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) in Westminster. The government requisitioned this building and so Dennis was moved to the ICI Alkali Plant in Winnington, Cheshire (1940). Here he joined the Local Defence Volunteers, which later became the Home Guard.

Dennis enlisted into the Army in February 1941, the scrapbook contains his Attestation Form and Soldier’s Service and Pay Book. He joined the RAOC (Royal Army Ordnance Corps), which had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles, other military equipment, ammunition and clothing. Dennis was sent for training at No 2 Training Battalion RAOC at Earl Shilton and Chilwell, Leicestershire. He was posted to India and travelled aboard HMT Cameronia to Durban in South Africa, transferring there to SS Aronda, which arrived in Bombay in September 1941. India was a base for the Middle East campaign at this time (it was before Japan entered the war). Dennis and 100 plus other RAOC Privates were attached to the Indian Army Ordnance Corps (IAOC) at Ferozepur, Punjab. They were all promoted to Sergeant, this being the lowest rank for any British soldier attached to the Indian Army.

Japan entered the war on the side of Germany in December 1941. Dennis was posted to Rangoon Arsenal, Burma. Japan invaded Burma and the Allied troops under command of Lieutenant General William Slim were forced to retreat in March 1942, destroying what would be useful to the enemy. Dennis says that oil refineries, port installations, workshops, vehicles and stores in Rangoon were demolished. The scrapbooks contain a transcription of a letter (dated June 1942) he sent home to his family in Carshalton giving details of the retreat through the Chindwin Valley and hills, arriving in Imphal. He walked 300 miles in 15 days.

In September 1943, Dennis was posted to the Ceylon Command Ordnance Depot. He was promoted to Warrant Officer and in November 1944 was moved with an Ordnance detachment to the Cocos Islands, which are about halfway between Ceylon and Australia. An air strip was built, which became operational in May 1945 as an air base to attack Japanese vessels, installations and bases on Java and Sumatra. RAF planes of No 99 Squadron (Liberator bombers) and No 136 Squadron (Spitfires) operated from there.

The war in the Far East ended on 15 August 1945 when Japan surrendered. After this, Dennis returned to the UK by ship arriving at Liverpool. He was eventually demobilised in August 1946. His war service resulted in Dennis being awarded the following campaign medals: 1939-45 Star, Burma Star, Defence Medal and War Medal.


Throughout the scrapbooks are sketches and paintings of people and places Dennis encountered, particularly of the different uniforms, clothing, races and tribes and soldiers he had seen. There are scenes from the retreat to Burma, aircraft, accommodation and entertainment, also photographs of native scenes, buildings, fellow soldiers, a group photograph of the staff of the RAOC on the Cocos Islands and a portrait photograph of Dennis.

Saturday 11 April 2015

Hilda Annie Ivall (1910-99): Artist

Hilda Annie Ivall was a granddaughter of William Ivall (1859-1940), who was a brother of my great grandfather George Ivall (1853-1932). She was born on August 1st 1910 in Hampstead, North London, the second of four children born to William Charles Ivall (1883-1968) and his wife Florence Bessie nee Endean (1885-1960). Doris’s siblings were Doris Rose (1908-2007), Leonard Fordham (1912-91) and Dennis Endean (1921-2006). Hilda’s father worked his way up from being a clerk to an accountant with Nobel’s explosives. He ended his career as joint managing director of an ICI subsidiary.

The 1911 census shows William Charles Ivall (aged 27, a book-keeper), his wife Florence Bessie (25) and daughters Doris Rose (2) and Hilda Annie (8 months) living at 87 Constantine Rd, Hampstead. There were also 2 boarders at the address. The family were still living in Hampstead in 1912 but had moved to Chingford (also in North London) by 1921. Hilda’s mother came from a Cornish family and they often visited Cornwall for holidays.

Hilda with her parents and siblings.
From left : Leonard, Doris, William, Florence, Dennis and Hilda Ivall

I was sent this info on Hilda her by her nephew (a son of Hilda’s brother Dennis).

My aunt, Hilda Ivall, worked for ICI before and during the war.  Later she ran the Seagull Cafe on the cliffs above St.Agnes in Cornwall (which my grandparents took over from her) and held other jobs (I remember visiting her at an old people's home in Tiverton, where she was matron, c1959). After my grandmother died in 1960 she cared for my grandfather, at his bungalow in Barnstaple initially and from c1963 at her bungalow, The Croggan, Polberro, St.Agnes, which we used to visit for holidays.  Sometime after my grandfather's death in 1968, she moved into St.Agnes itself and late in life inherited a larger bungalow there from her friend (of ICI days) Wyn Dearman.

She painted for many years, mainly abstracts based on the colours and forms of Cornish minerals, working with oils and palette knife on large canvases, although in later years she specialised in watercolours of flowers.  She often exhibited locally and was at one time Chairman of Perranporth Art Society. Other interests, at various times, included pottery, poetry and playing the piano, flute and organ.

The 1939 national register shows Hilda, an index clerk, living at 73 Baylis Road, Slough in the household of a family called Allen. Winifred M Dearman, born 7.2.1908, a shorthand typist, is shown at the same address.

The item below is from the archives of Tate Britain. Fletching is a village in Sussex.

Tate Britain also have the catalogue for an exhibition of Hilda’s work held at 16 Woodstock St, Mayfair in 1962. I have a photocopy of an abstract painting by Hilda that was submitted to the Biennale in Italy, a prestigious exhibition.

"Bouquet" a watercolour painting by Hilda Ivall 
(photo kindly supplied by Peter Prest)

Electoral registers show that in 1947 Hilda was living at a house called Llangibby in Tennyson Road, Hendon, London.

Telephone directories have the following addresses for Hilda

1948-57
Pol Major, St Agnes
1970-71
The Croggan, Polberro, St Agnes
1972-75
6b Churchtown, St Agnes
1976-87
51 Goonown, St Agnes
1992
1 Wheal Quoit Ave, St Agnes

Hilda was also an accomplished musician, a one time church organist as well as a trainer and conductor of local choirs.

Probate records say that Hilda died on November 3rd 1999 and that her address was Tre-Wyn, 1 Wheal Quoit Ave, St Agnes, Cornwall. She was 89. Her funeral took place at St Agnes Church and she was interred at St Agnes Cemetery. 

Monday 23 February 2015

Kenneth Bolton Legg (1889-1990): Surveyor and Centenarian

Kenneth Bolton Legg was a grandson of Kate Bainbrigge Legg nee Ivall (1836-1917), a daughter of David Ivall (1795-1850), who was a successful coachmaker. David was a brother and business partner of my ancestor Thomas Ivall (1781-1835).

Kenneth was born on 25 November 1889 in the North London suburb of Crouch End. His parents were Frederick George Ivall Legg, a heating and ventilation engineer and Emily Eliza Legg nee Bolton. Kenneth was baptised on 9 February 1890 at Christ Church, Crouch End. The 1891 census shows Frederick (aged 32) and Emily (33) Legg living at 16 Shanklin Rd, Crouch End with their sons Frederick (6) and Kenneth (1), two boarders and a servant.
Kenneth and his mother Emily Eliza

Kenneth’s mother died in 1894 when she was aged 34 and he was 4. His father remarried in 1896 – to Emily Burnett who was aged 25. They had a child, Elsie Beryl Legg, in 1900. In 1901, the family were living at a house called “Ivall” at 4 Bromley Common, Bromley. The household consisted of Frederick (aged 41, a mechanical and electrical engineer), Emily (30), Frederick (16), Kenneth (11), Elsie (7 months), a cook, nursemaid and nurse. From the number of domestic staff employed, the family seem to have been comfortably off. Electoral registers show Frederick George Ivall Legg at this address from 1896 to 1905. In 1907 he is listed at "Ivall", Southborough Road, Bickley.

Kenneth attended the privately run Bromley High School until he was aged 15. In 1905, his father found him a job as a junior clerk in the office of the Goods Manager, London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. In 1910, legislation was passed to tax land values. Kenneth was moved to the Estate Office to assist the surveying work required for this.
Frederick George Ivall Legg in 1908

The 1911 census shows Kenneth, aged 21, as a draughtsman in the Estate Department of a Railway Company. He was living at White House, Purley Downs, Purley with his father Frederick (aged 52, a consulting mechanical engineer in the catering industry), stepmother Emily (40), half sister Elsie (10) and a domestic servant. The house had nine rooms and so was presumably quite spacious.
Kenneth’s stepmother Emily in 1911

Germany invaded Belgium on 4th August 1914 and Britain declared war on Germany in response. Only eight days later, on 12th August 1914, Kenneth volunteered for Army service, joining the 2nd Battalion City of London (Royal Fusiliers) as a Private. He was by then aged 24 years 8 months and a qualified surveyor employed by the London Bridge & Southern Counties Railway Estate Office at London Bridge. His height is given as 5 foot 9 inches on his attestation papers, part of Kenneth’s army record which is held by the National Archives at Kew. He was posted to Malta on 5th September 1914 as part of an expeditionary force sent to protect this important naval base. On 6th January 1915 he was sent to fight in France. Kenneth applied for a commission on 13 February 1915. This was granted on 24 March 1915, when he was appointed to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

On 10th February 1917, Kenneth married Olive Emily Howes at Saint Margaret’s Church, Plumstead. He was aged 27, a Lieutenant HM Land Forces, address 22nd Training Essex Battalion, St Albans. She was aged 22, living at 74 Dallin Road, Plumstead, the daughter of Edward John Howes, a farmer. Olive worked at Woolwich Arsenal, making small-arms ammunition.

Kenneth was injured at Ypres on 20th September 1917. He left his unit on 23rd September 1917 and was sent to the UK, arriving at Southampton on 23rd October 1917. A medical board on 29th October 1917 reported that “He sustained a wound to instep of right foot. The origin is uncertain whether it was due to shrapnel or to a bayonet wound accidentally inflicted by himself. The wound became very septic and has had to be opened on 2 occasions and drained. Not yet healed. No TB present.” A medical board on 13th April 1918 reported that he had recovered.

He was wounded again in October 1918 in the Battle of Courtai, while serving with the 26th Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers. This was one of a series of battles in Northern France and Southern Belgium that pushed the Germans back prior to the end of the war on 11th November 1918. A medical board on 6th November 1918 stated “When in action on 25.10.18, he sustained a GSW of the left calf severe. A shell fragment entered the left calf, causing a large wound and becoming impacted in the muscle. It was removed through the entrance wound. The wound is not yet healed.” (GSW means Gun Shot Wound). Kenneth was treated at the 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester. He was discharged from the army 29th March 1919 and was awarded the Victory, British and 15 Star campaign medals. In 1981 Kenneth wrote some notes about his life. He summarised his war service as follows
“I was not a very good soldier but certainly fortunate. In from the first week to the end with two blyghties (one instep, one calf), I was only in the line itself for three months.”

 Kenneth in 1916

After Kenneth was discharged from the army, he returned to his job with the Railway and moved to Chartlands Cottage, which was near Westerham in Kent. Olive and Kenneth Legg had three children namely Joan (born 1919 in Streatham), John G (born 1922 in Godstone, Surrey died 1927 of leukaemia) and Brian Bolton Legg (born 1932 in Wandsworth, died 2003). In 1922, the family moved to 41 Common Road, Earlswood, Surrey and then Croham Lodge, Croham Rd, Croydon. In 1925, Kenneth got a job with Hillier, Parker, May and Rowden, a company that specialised in letting business premises, especially to shops like Woolworths, C & A and British Home Stores, who were then opening chains across the country. Kenneth’s job was to build up an investment department by encouraging investment in commercial property.

Electoral registers show Kenneth and Olive living at 2 Stanley House, Albion Road, North Clapham in 1928 and 1929, at 4 Grant House, Albion Road, North Clapham in 1931, at 31A Old Town, North Clapham in 1932 and 1933 and at 74A Thurleigh Road, Battersea in 1935 and 1936. Kenneth’s memoirs say that on Sundays, he and Olive used to catch a bus into the countryside to do a walk of about 12 miles, so it seems that he had recovered from his war wounds. In 1937, the family moved to Wildcroft, Coombe Park, Kingston Hill. The 1939 national register lists Kenneth and Olive at this address and shows that he was an ARP (air raid precaution) warden and she was an ARP ambulance driver. Wildcroft was bombed and badly damaged in 1940, Kenneth and his family having a narrow escape from injury. It was rebuilt soon after the war. In 1948, Kenneth, Olive and their son Brian moved to a house called “Southover”, in Colgate, near Horsham in Sussex.

Over the years, Kenneth did well with Hillier, Parker, May and Rowden and was promoted. In his work, he met with Chairmen and Managing Directors of London based companies, including Harold MacMillan (who later became Prime Minister). When Kenneth retired in 1955 aged 65, he was the senior partner in the firm. 

Around 1954, Kenneth, Olive and Brian moved to a 100 acre farm called Stonewall, 6 miles north of Ipswich. Olive and Brian farmed it for about six years, Olive running the animals and Brian the fields. Brian married in 1960 and then Kenneth and Olive moved to Dunburgh, a hamlet near Beccles in Norfolk, where they built a bungalow called “Dunburgh Meadow”. They lived there until 1973, when they moved to a house called “Pines” in Beccles.

Olive died in 1981 aged 87. Kenneth reached the age of 101 before he died on 9 December 1990 at Clare Hall Nursing Home, Ston Eastern, near Bath. He is the only one of my relations (that I know of) to reach 100. He was one of about 4,000 centenarians (of which about 400 were men) alive in England and Wales when he died. Since then the number of centenarians has risen sharply. In 2008 there were 9,600 (of which 1,200 were men).

Kenneth's estate had a gross value of £100,861. His will (made in 1984), left most of it to his daughter Joan, son Brian and seven grandchildren.

Saturday 10 January 2015

Robert Thomas Owen Ivall (1876-1953), fireman

Robert was a grandson of Robert Thomas Ivall (1812-65), the brother of my ancestor David Ivall (1816-67).  I have recently found paperwork (held by the London Metropolitan Archives) relating to Robert’s apprenticeship on the training ship Arethusa. It contains information about his early life, which I have added to this profile.

Robert was born on 6 September 1876 in Chalvey, a village which is now a suburb of Slough, Berkshire, and was baptised there on 15 October 1876. He was the fifth of six children born to Owen (b1846) and Emily Maria Ivall nee Moss (1845-83). They had 3 boys and 3 girls, although two of these children died before they reached adulthood.

The 1881 census shows Owen Ivall aged 35, a whitesmith (someone who makes or finishes items made of tin) living at 2 Sussex Place, Chalvey with his wife Emily Maria (34) and children Maria Emily(12), Eliza Ada (8) and Robert Thomas (4). There were several relations of Robert living in Chalvey at this time. Owen’s sister Marian was living at 6 Sussex Place with her husband Thomas Soen and their 5 children. Owen’s brother Thomas, his wife Lucy and their 6 children lived at 1 Jordan Place.

Robert’s mother died in 1883 when he was aged 6. His father married Sarah Smith nee Plumridge in 1885. Owen was arrested for public drunkness in 1886 and had frequent quarrels with his wife. They had separated by 1887.

Robert attended Chalvey National School for 5 years and Slough British School for 2 years, leaving in 1888 aged 12. He then did a series of menial jobs, cleaning knives and boots for 3 months, then working at a grocer’s for 4 months, a laundry for 12 months and a greengrocer’s for 3 months. I can’t find Robert or his family in the April 1891 census – they weren’t living at 2 Sussex Place then. Robert’s father deserted his children in June 1891, when Robert was aged 14. He tried to join the Royal Navy but was rejected for being just too short. By October 1891 Robert had been out of work for 3 months. However, he was then given the opportunity of an apprenticeship on board the training ship Arethusa, to learn the duties of a sailor.

In 1866, Lord Shaftesbury, a philanthropist and campaigner for the rights of children, promoted the idea of a naval training ship for homeless boys in London. Shaftesbury persuaded the Admiralty to loan a redundant 50-gun frigate called the Chichester. The ship was moored on the Thames off Greenhithe in Kent. It was managed by a committee of the 'National Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Children'. In 1873, following a donation of £5,000 from Lady Burdett-Coutts, a second ship was established. For this role, the Navy contributed the Arethusa, a wooden frigate which could accommodate staff and 250 boys. The Arethusa, built in 1849 had seen action in Crimea and was the last British ship to go into battle under sail. She took up position at Greenhithe and was officially opened on 3rd August, 1874. The Chichester was disposed of in 1889.

Training Ship Arethusa (in 1900)

Training for the boys included how use a compass and lead (to measure the depth of water), knotting and splicing rope, sail-making, knowledge of all running gear and parts of ship, reefing and furling sails, rowing and steering, swimming, cooking, carpentry and tailoring. Discipline was firm, punishments included birching. Arethusa boys were known on board only by their number, not by their name.

When Robert joined the Arethusa on 10 October 1891, he was aged 15, 4 foot 11¾  inches tall, his weight was 94 lbs and waist 30½  inches. He seems to have done well during his time on board – he was awarded two good conduct badges, a swimming prize, the Fleming Prize and the Rawlings Jersey. He was confirmed by the Bishop of Southwark at Greenhithe Church in December 1891. When Robert left the Arethusa on 30 September 1892, he was aged 16, 5 foot 1 inch tall, his weight was 112 lbs and waist 32 inches. He then obtained a job as a merchant seaman on “The Canada of Windsor” starting in October 1892. He worked on this ship for four periods between 1892 and 1895, each time being given a “very good” rating on discharge.

Robert joined the London Fire Brigade on 2 April 1898 aged 21. I have a copy of his service record. He was based at New Cross until 1 August 1900 when he transferred to Blackheath, where he stayed until 3 October 1901.

On June 22nd 1901, Robert married Florence Sarah Durnford at St John The Evangelist, Blackheath. They were both aged 24 and went on to have three children namely Robert Daniel (1902-92), Florence Sarah (1903-89) and Daniel Durnford (1905-2000). Both the sons later followed their father into the London Fire Brigade.

Marriage register entry for Robert

Parish records for the baptism of Robert Daniel Ivall in 1902 at St Thomas’s, Charlton, give the family’s address as 12 Springfield Park Crescent, Catford. When Florence Sarah Ivall was baptised in 1904, the address was Fire Station, Lordship Lane, Dulwich.

Robert had spells at Rushey Green (1901-3), Dulwich (1903-7), Eltham (1907-8), Greenwich (1908-9), Charlton (1909-10) and Perry Vale (1910-14) fire stations. The 1911 census shows Robert (aged 35, a fireman) his wife Florence (35) and children Robert (8), Florence (7) and Daniel (5) living at 199 Perry Vale, Forest Hill in SE London.

Robert was appointed a drill instructor in 1914 and spent the rest of his service as a Training Officer at the London Fire Brigade Head Quarters (in Southwark Bridge Road). In 1916 Robert was cautioned for accepting refreshments from strangers at a fire. In February 1918 he was personally thanked by the Chief Officer for services rendered. Having completed 20 years satisfactory service he was allowed to occupy married quarters in the Brigade rent free as from April 1918.

The 1921 census shows Robert (aged 44, a fireman working for the London County Council in Southwark) and Florence (45) living in 3 rooms at Southwark Fire Station with their children Robert (19, a messenger's mailing clerk), Florence (17) and Daniel (15, an office boy). 

Robert was promoted to the rank of probationary sub officer in 1922 and became a permanent sub officer in 1923. He retired from the London Fire Brigade in 1924 aged 47 after 26 years service and was awarded a pension of 62 shillings (equivalent to £93 at current values) a week. His record sheet shows “VG” for character and ability.

Robert then joined the Hampton Court Fire Brigade and lived in the palace grounds while he was stationed there. Electoral registers show him and his family at Hampton Court Palace from 1925 to 1936. He later developed heart trouble and retired to Bexhill, but didn’t like it there and moved to Abbey Wood in SE London. The 1939 national register and 1946 electoral register show him and his wife living at 4 Chancelot Road, Abbey Wood.

Robert died of cancer on 11 July 1953 aged 76 at 4 Chancelot Road and was buried in Plumstead Cemetery in grave 455, section O. 


Memorial on Robert's grave

The probate index record reads
Robert Thomas Owen Ivall of 4 Chancelot Rd, Abbey Wood died 11 Jul 1953. Probate to Robert Daniel Ivall, temporary civil servant. Estate £1,268.”


His wife Florence lived until 1974 when she died aged 98 and was buried in the same grave as Robert.