| CHAPTER 1
Harrow - How the Story started
February 12th 1922 was a Sunday, and it was the birthday of Ethel Frances Meller (Nee Lloyd). She was heavily pregnant but there was a party for her at 37, Angel Road, Harrow.
The Lloyds - Frances (Frank) and Mary Ann (Polly) - had lived in Angel Road for many years, having moved to Harrow from Kensington when Ethel was about three years old. There is no information available of Frank's origin although I did meet distant members of his family in the early thirties. His wife Polly was a member of the Wells family having roots in Ascot. H.G. Wells the well known author was an Ascot man, so the family must have had many arms.
Polly's father, i.e. one of my Great Grandfathers, was the village baker of Ascot; that was of course when the journey to Ascot from London was possible following arrival of the railways. Mr Wells must have had a flourishing business because, despite the fact that in Victorian times working people (particularly the men) tended to die early, he retired and lived for a few years in what was then Church Road Bracknell. When we moved to Sandhurst in 1965 his house still stood on the opposite side of the road to the multi story car park, but was demolished in about 1968 to allow construction of the inner ring road.
The Wells family were prolific, there were five girls: Emma, Florence, Clara, Nell, and of course my grandmother Mary Ann; there was also one son, Ernest. These relatives were all blood related aunties or uncles to my mother and some are mentioned later in this history.
Mary Ann was "in service" when she met Frank Lloyd and they married. Three children were born to them but Ethel was the only survivor, the others died very young.
Ethel's husband, my father, was Harold Meller of 51 Barnsdale Road Westbourne Park. Information about the Meller family is also scarce. I was told that Francis (Frank again) Meller - the head of the family - had come from Cornwall but I have nothing to support that. He was, however, employed by the Great Western Railway, having joined that company in the broad gauge days. When I was a small boy he used to show me a
halfpenny that he kept in his waistcoat pocket. It was slightly crushed because, he said, it had been under the tender of the last broad gauge train to leave Paddington Station on 15th May 1892.
By May 1894 Grandfather was a foreman shunter at Old Oak Common Yard, when he was involved in an accident on the railway. One day, while passing, the driver of the Cardiff express "got a red" and was halted. Since grandfather knew him, he went to the loco and mounted the footplate for a chat. When the signal "went off" the loco moved forward and grandfather jumped from the footplate, but it was a rainy day and as he landed on the wet ground his leg slid under the tender. The leg had to be amputated at the thigh.
After he was discharged from the hospital and had mastered the artificial leg the company transferred him to the railway police and gave him a job as gate man and weighbridge operator on the Bishop's Road freight yard. He remained with that post until he retired about 1933.
Grandmother Meller (nee Salmon) was the daughter of a publican who had a public house in the Paddington locality. When she (Minnie) and Frank were married, is not known to me, but I believe that she brought a little money (a dowry?) to the marriage. Like all Victorian couples the Mellers were prolific. There were three sons: Francis (Frank again), Harold (my father), and Leslie; and three daughters: Florence (Flos), Girlie (I never knew her christened name), and Constance. These relatives were of course all blood related to me as aunties and uncles and are also mentioned later in this history.
Harold was the only member of the Meller family to serve in the forces in the First World War. He joined the 15th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, known as the "London Welsh" in September 1914. The 15th battalion was formed for the purpose of recruiting into the regiment Welshmen resident in London.
Father tried hard to get into the Army, but at the start of the war the Authorities were very selective. Father was only 5ft 5-1/2 inches high and they wanted taller men. He tried several London Regiments, such as The Artists Rifles, without success and only succeeded in joining the Welsh Regiment because most Welshmen are small. During hostilities Father was wounded twice. The second time (in October 1918) was very serious, and even if the war had not ended in November 1918, there is no doubt he would never have returned to the Army for active service. By the time he recovered
sufficiently from his injuries to be mobile, it was 1919, and the war was over.
Although still hampered by a left arm that was in a sling he managed to obtain a job as a temporary clerk in the Civil Service. He was employed in the Ministry of Pensions which was formed at the end of the war to administer pensions and treatment to the thousands of men injured by the war, and the thousands of women widowed by the war. Mother and Father were married on the 14th May 1921.
This was the background to the birthday party on the February. The Lloyds were there because Mother and Father were living in their house, and some of the Mellers had come down for the afternoon. Whenever the party ended it must have been early because the pregnancy also ended late that evening when I was born, creating a rare event of me having a common birthday with my mother. The birth was in a Harrow nursing home. I was christened Stanley Harold Francis: Stanley was my Father's third name, Harold was of course his first name, and Francis was common to all, Mother even having the feminine version.
In those early years of the 20th century, Harrow was a select residential town best known for the College. It was mostly a dormitory town, because the construction of the Metropolitan Railway through the town in the latter part of the 19th century had made it possible for the residents to work "in town" and commute daily by rail. In fact before her marriage Mother had done just that, working in the offices of Debenham and Freebody as a clerk.
Debenham and Freebody was a large department store in Oxford Street: in recent years the firm has changed its name to Debenhams and opened branches in many large towns. She travelled each day to Baker Street Station whence she was able to walk to the business. Grandfather Lloyd also travelled into town by rail as he was head waiter at Buzzards, a large well-known London restaurant of those years.
Being of the very sociable nature that she was, Mother had made many friends in Harrow. Two in particular were Winnie Gooderson and Doris Britt. Doris Britt's father was the principal butcher in Harrow and had a very successful business. These two girls were to remain friends of my mother for the rest of their lives, even though Winnie eventually settled with her husband after his retirement in Eastborne, and Doris and her husband and daughter in Eltham.
After my birth we continued to live in the house in Angel Road. Father retained his job in the Civil Service, indeed he kept it until retirement in 1957. In 1921-2 he worked in an office in Burton Court, Chelsea, and despite the fact that his war injuries were still obvious he cycled each day from Harrow to Chelsea and was still doing so when I was born.
Of course being in the job that he was, Father had a steady if small regular income. He also had a weekly pension to compensate him for any loss of income sustained because of his war injuries. Grandfather was the principal tenant of the rented house, and Father paid to him each week an agreed portion of the rent.
Unfortunately, Grandfather was not of such reliable character as my Father and at some time after my birth he found it useful to leave in his own pocket the weekly rent money that Father gave to him. Thus it came to pass that after a while the landlord was not paid at all. This could go on only for a short time and when I was about the age of two years the situation came to a head and the landlord gave an eviction notice.
This resulted in the break-up of the Lloyd's marriage, their
furniture going into store in an unused garage owned by Mr
Gooderson. Mother and Father had to find another home. In
those days a job in the Civil Service, whilst being sure for
continued employment, was not sure for continued location of
workplace. Father had been moved from the Chelsea Office to
an office in a very large house on the Uxbridge Road at
Ealing. In the late 1930's the house was demolished and the
new Ealing Fire Station was built on the site.
Being now located in an Ealing office influenced the choice of location for living, and we moved into the second floor of a large house in Kenilworth Road, Ealing. This was of course rented accommodation.
The moving of our effects from the Angel Road house is the first event in my life that I can recall. Father owned a gramophone that he had part built, part purchased, before he was married. It resembled in many respects the machine that is illustrated in the HMV trade mark. It was built entirely of seasoned oak, had a big brass horn which was fluted, and a twelve inch diameter turntable.
As regards the move from the Harrow house it is the turntable that is the focus of my memory. This was for its time a masterpiece of cast iron foundry work. It was cast to rotate accurately and was in iron to achieve weight at the perimeter to stabilise speed of
rotation. However to avoid undue overall weight of the table it was cast with a large number of holes about 3/4" in diameter, and the top surface was covered in thin beize. This latter idea is still used.
This turntable had been lifted from the machine to reduce the weight, and one of the removing men had the idea to lodge it against the front gate to hold it open whilst people were carrying furniture out to the van. Wishing to be helpful even at that age, I had to join in. I picked up the turntable and managed to carry it to the van. I was told kindly to leave it where it was. There are no more memories of events until well into the period of our Ealing residence.
The break up of my grandparents' marriage resulted in Grandmother returning to her original type of employment and "going into service" she obtained a job as housekeeper to a family in Chiswick. Grandfather got a job as resident steward to a sports club in Sudbury Middlesex.
| 
