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Mary Alicia Neville-Kaye (16 January 1911 - 17 December 2007) attended Whyteleafe County Grammar School for Girls, 1921 - 1929 (see http://www.semperfidelis.org.uk/announcements.php checked 23 Jan 2008).

Mary joined the staff of Overbury School in September 1939 and was immediately evacuated to Brighton. Following her return to Croydon, she was evacuated to Lee in Devon in June 1940. The log book (SCH1/2/1) records that she rejoined the staff on 11 January 1943.

She was later, briefly, Teacher In Charge (14 June - 30 August 1949) at Overbury before becoming Head of Purley Oaks Infants School (30 August 1949 - 23 July 1954) and then the first Head of the new Fairchildes Infants School, New Addington from 31 August 1954 until her retirement on 09 April 1976.

She was awarded an OBE in 1984 for her forty year service with the St John Ambulance Brigade (see Croydon Advertiser 22 June 1984). At the time of her death she was resident at Whitgift House, Brighton Road.

Mollie Isobel Moors was the daughter of Ernest James Moors and Elsie Newton. Her grandparents, Charles John Moors and Martha Duckett ran a drapers business at 71-73 High Street Croydon from 1882 - c. 1925 and their son, Mollie's father joined them in the business. in 1911 he married Elsie and they lived at 82 Edridge Road, Croydon. In 1921 Census, they have three children, Norah Rendall aged 8, Ruth Pattie aged 6 and Mollie Isobel aged 1. At one point he left Croydon for Devon, eventually moving to Littlemeads, South Knighton Devon, where Mollie lived later in her life. Mollie started out in a career in the theatre, training at the Croydon Repertory Theatre school of Acting and performed in this company and others. Her acting career was interrupted by the war during which she drove ambulances during the blitz and then worked in the Women's Land Army Timber Corps. After the war she moved to Devon and became a Chiropodist and became involved in amateur dramatics.

The visit to Arnhem was organised under the auspices of the Anglo Netherlands Sports Partnership. As well as the Mayor and Mayoress (Ald. and Mrs H.Regan, (who broke her wrist during the trip)), the party consisted of Ald and Mrs Lewin, Councillor Turner and other members of the Committee plus 17 table tennis players under Mrs C.A.Bourne and a football team managed Mr Mr S.A.Browne and captained by Fred Stevenson. Croydon played three football matches, winning the second and losing the first and third.

As well as various visits, including the Airborne Cemetery at Oosterbeck and the Arnhem Bridge, the Croydon party marched in procession through the streets of Wageningen on Easter Sunday. A report of the visit appears in the Croydon Times, 19 April 1947. L.Woolnough, of the Norbury team, was a member of the football team. (CT 12 April 1947) and was then resident at 28 Weybridge Avenue, Thornton Heath.

The Womens Voluntary Service (W.V.S.) was initiated in June 1938 by the Dowager Marchioness of Reading. Its aim was to mobilise and make use of as many of the countries women as possible. In April 1942 the Housewives service was established to take over the outdoor air raid work of the W.V.S. Its main responsibilities were to tend for the injured and distressed, to help with clean up operations and to ensure those who needed to were rehoused. The W.V.S. continued after the war and in 1952 after her accession to the throne, Queen Elizabeth II became its new Patron. In 1966 it was decided that the word Royal should be granted to the service thus the Womens Voluntary Service became the Womens Royal Voluntary Service (W.R.V.S.) The service still continues today and is responsible for such services as Meals on Wheels, Child Contact Centres, hospital and prison visits and national disaster assistance.

The wife of Dr. Alexander Sandison, Mrs Evelyn May Sandison was the (W.V.S.) Deputy Housewives Organiser for the County Borough of Croydon.

The Housewives Service in Croydon was established to reinforce the work of the local Wardens and Casualty Service by tending to the injured and distressed, running Incident Inquiry Points to help people find missing relatives and to assess the extent of damage to buildings. They also helped to clear rubble from incident sites and to find new homes for those in need. The Housewives Service were often the first to arrive at a crash site as they lived locally and therefore were seen as an invaluable service especially as many members ran Aid Houses from their own homes where medical supplies were kept in case of emergency.

Phyllis Devereux was born on 14th March 1914 in London, the third of six children. After a period of living in Wales, she moved to Shirley in 1920.

In 1930, she started work as a draughtswoman for The Metal Propellor Company, Purley Way and later worked for the London Passenger Transport Board at Thornton Heath Pond followed by a period with Engineering, a technical journal. During the war, she worked for the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company at Teddington followed by periods of employment with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and the Kuwait Oil Company. Between 1949 and her retirement in 1970, she worked at the Geological Museum, Knightsbridge. She currently lives in Caterham.

Jabez Spencer Balfour was born in Leith in 1834. Balfour was the most popular man in Croydon up to the years 1892, after which he was the most reviled. When Balfour moved to Croydon he lived at London Road then later at Wellesley House which stood approximately where Wellesley Road multi-storey car park is now. After Balfour took an interest in practically every movement in the town he was a natural choice for Charter Mayor in 1883. Balfour soon became top of the list for Burgesses of the Central Ward. Balfour became associated with a group of companies of which the Liberator Building Society was the principal one whoever this society failed in 1892 and Balfour fled to South America as a result of this. Due to the collapse of this society many thousands of small savers had lost their life savings. It wasnt until this happened and he fled to South America that the public found out he had swindled a huge number of people out of a huge sum of money through this building society. Balfour was eventually caught in South America, tried and sentenced to 14 years hard labour and was jailed on 28th November 1895. Balfour was accused of and found guilty of fraud. He was released in 1906 and died in 1916.

Ronald Arthur Huitson (1916-1986) and his wife Muriel Huitson (1915 - 1987) were active members of the Industrial Studies and Local History sections of the Croydon Natural History Society and also of GLIAS. They organised numerous visits to then still functioning industrial concerns, both within Croydon and elsewhere. They also did a considerable amount of recording work and photography at industrial premises, and historical research.

Ronald Murthwaite was born in Wealdstone, Harrow in 1920. He married Joyce Baldock at Croydon Parish Church in December 1944 and they subsequently lived at 10 Tamworth Road, Croydon. During the 1950s he served with Croydon Division of the Civil Defence Corps.

Ronald Murthwaite died in 2004.

There were two Samuel Waghorn(e)s, perhaps father and son. The two sections of this book (written in different hands) appear to represent the work of the two individuals. Samuel Waghorn I seems to have been based in the Limpsfield or Titsey area of Surrey. His regular customers included the Biscoe family (of Hookwood, Limpsfield) and Sir John Gresham (of Titsey). His business was firmly rooted in the rural community, largely comprising work on agricultural equipment (wagons, ploughs, harrows, wheelbarrows, etc). He also received an income from the rent on two houses, one at Farley Common. Samuel Waghome II (c1789-1858) may have moved to Croydon in about 1819, when he first appears in rate books, occupying a cottage in a yard off the High Street (near Mint Walk). He stayed there until 1822, and then moved to a cottage in Old Town (Duppas Lane), where he remained until 1828. From 1826, however, Samuel also appears as the joint occupier with Richard Jones (an established coachbuilder) of what had been Jones house and shop on the west side of the High Street. After 1834, Waghorn was the sole occupier, and he subsequently expanded into the adjoining property as well. These premises (numbered 83 High Street by 1851, renumbered 146 High Street in 1886, and renumbered 252 High Street in 0 931) were to remain the firms headquarters for some eighty years.

Samuel IIs regular customers in the 1820s, as recorded in this book, included well-known Croydon names such as Robert Corney (his neighbour), John Dingwall, John Battersbee, etc; as well as customers further afield in Battersea, Vauxhall, Sussex, etc. He did occasional jobs for the Brighton Coach. Samuel IIs business had become slightly more urban and perhaps higher class than Samuel Is: there are more references to work for tradesmen and on drays etc, and also on chaises and carriages. To judge from his writing and accounting methods, Samuel II was also probably better educated than Samuel I.

Samuel II died in October 1858, aged 69, but the business continued to be known as Samuel Waghorne, presumably run by his widow, Harriet (c1789-1867), and their son, Thomas (c1822-1868). In Warrens Directory for 1865-6, the firm is named Waghorne and Son.

After the deaths in close succession of Harriet and Thomas, the business was taken over in 1868 by James T Miles, and renamed Waghorne and Miles. The firm prospered in the latter part of the nineteenth century as a builder of superior carriages of various types, and, from about 1902, of motor car bodies. In about 1906 it was bought up by Marchant and Sons, a firm of coachbuilders established at 34 Tamworth Road in about 1873. Marchant and Sons took over the High Street premises, and continued to operate from that address until the 1950s.

Dr Sidney Joseph Madge D.Sc.,F.S.A., a local historian and Purley resident began work on the history of the district in 1890. He was Assistant Keeper of the books at the British Museum for many years and was also a co-opted member of Coulsdon and Purley UDC Library Committee 1944 - 48. In October 1952 he was presented with an illuminated address at the meeting of Coulsdon and Purley Council on Monday, as a token of the councils thanks for the long and fine work done by him in connection with the historical records of the district which he has given to the library. Dr Madge , in return, presented the chairman, Coun. A G V Page with an early history of the Manor of Coulsdon from Cuthred to the Crusades [SJM/2, Coulsdon and Purley Advertiser 31 October 1952 p.1 col.2]

At the time of his death on 3rd February 1961 he lived at 23 Russell Hill Road, Purley. There is a short obituary to be found in the Coulsdon and Purley Council minutes for 1960 - 61 vol. XLV1 p.959 which is held in the Local Studies Library.

Sir Thomas Edridge (1814 - 1892) was a notable businessman of Croydon and was a director of the Hudson Bay Company. Edridge also performed philanthropic work within Croydon. At his own expense he built a new wing of the Croydon General Hospital and was actively involved in many institutions and legal boards. Edridge was Chairman of the County Bench, Chairman of Croydon General Hospital, Representative of the County Magistrate for the Whitgift Foundation and an official of the Croydon Board of Guardians. Edridge married Miss Martha Godbold and had four sons and two daughters. He died on 18 August 1892.