The following item was written by Russell Wilkins, a second cousin of mine.
Albert Edward Wilkins was my father. This profile contains information
and some anecdotes he told me and some details of family history, that I have
gained mainly from photographs and his habit of writing details of the
photograph on the back.
Ted was born on 27th July 1923 in Abbey Wood
(Vincent Terrace, Abbey Road). He was the only child of Albert Henry Wilkins
and Beatrice Louisa Wilkins (nee Tothill). As a child / young man he was known
as Eddie and later as Ted.
Although his father Albert Henry died tragically of heart
failure when Eddie was only five, he had already had several holidays with him
at Ramsgate, Eastbourne and Isle of Wight.
Eddie with his Dad in
1928
After the death of his father, his mother Beatrice continued
to run the “Wilkins Dining Rooms” and “The Four Aces Snack Bar” which were
family owned and provided Eddie with a happy and quite privileged childhood.
School photo showing
Eddie 2nd row, 3rd from left, the best turned out boy in the picture?
Living in and around the family businesses, he became a
great collector of cigarette cards, collecting over one hundred and fifty sets.
He also had a considerable stamp collection. Although he had no brothers or
sisters he was very close to his cousin Ron (Finnis) also his cousin Florrie
(Wilkins) and his Aunt Daisy (Finnis).
Young Eddie with his
Mum Beatrice and her sister Daisy Finnis
Eddie was almost 15 years old when he started work for the
Electricity Board, but when the 2nd World War started he was called
upon to be an ARP warden.
Eddie (in foreground) with other
ARP wardens at Christmas Dinner in shelter under Burton’s shop in Powis
Street, Woolwich.
In 1942 when he was 19 years old, Eddie joined the Royal Air
Force, Transport Command. It was in 1943 when he left from Glasgow, sailing
down the Clyde on the Orient Line troopship The Orion via Cape Town to Durban.
On route their convoy picked up two seaman who had been adrift for 84 days. From
Durban my father boarded The Bergenfjord, a Norwegian ship “that made the Orion
seem luxurious”. They sailed northward, my Dad said that a big moment for him
was when he was leaning over the ship’s rail one late afternoon, when he
noticed some of the convoy move off eastward and he thought “thank God I’m
going to Egypt not India”. His next stop on ship was Aden then into the Red
Sea, to Port Tewfic on the Suez Canal Egypt where he disembarked. He spent 1943/4 in North Africa, moving from Ismalia, Suez, Jemalia,
Cairo, Giza, Tourbrook, Benghazi, Borca Pass, Tripoli and Tunis in April 1944.
From June 1944 he was in Sicily, Catania and Palermo. While he was in Sicily, Vesuvius erupted and the RAF evacuated all inhabitants from the village of San
Sabastiano on the slopes of Vesuvius, without any casualties.
Lava blocking the
line of the Funicular Trolley up Mt Vesuvius.
It was during his time in Sicily and later in Italy that Eddie formed his great love of opera. He moved with his command into Italy late 1944
early 1945, where in January 1945 his command group had an audience with the
Pope in the Vatican City. During the entire period of his active service, he
wrote to and received letters from his mother Beatrice, highlighting the
closeness of the bond between them.
Having risen to the lofty heights of Corporal, he was
pleased to be demobbed on the 8th December 1946 and returned to work
for the London Electricity Board. Earlier, in March 1946, he married Joyce
Irene Fletcher, the daughter of Charles and Charlotte Fletcher, who had a
newsagent’s business on Winn’s Common, in Plumstead. Eddie and Joyce had a son, Russell Neil (me) on 27th September 1949, in the Hainault Hospital,
Erith. The marriage did not last and my parents divorced in 1951.
He married for a second time in 1955, this also ended in
divorce, and there were no further children. In 1965 Eddie/Ted married for a
third time, to Sheila Mildred Matcham, the daughter of a trawler-man from
Cleethorpes, Grimsby. They met in Yugoslavia in 1959 when they were both on
holiday. Their first home was in Nithdale Road, Plumstead, then a flat in
Wessex Drive, Erith. After a few more years they moved the short distance
across the road to a 3 bed semi in Wessex Drive, where they lived happily for
over 40 years.
Ted became a grandfather in 1977, when his son Russ and wife
Diane had a daughter Gemma (DOB 2.6.77), Ted had two further grandchildren,
Lois (DOB 5.11.83) and Edward (Eddie) (DOB 1.6.87) from Russ’s second marriage
to Lyndsey in 1982.
Ted with his
grandchildren in 1995
He enjoyed his grandchildren and was never happier than when
he teased them. He became a great grandfather on 20.12.03, when Eloise was born
to grand-daughter Gemma. He always took great pride in all of his offspring.
Ted spent his entire working career within the electricity
industry with the L.E.B and latterly with E.D.F., rising to become the Area
Administrator, spending periods of time at Woolwich, Erith and finally
Bexleyheath Head Office.
With Sheila, Ted continued to enjoy many foreign holidays
and was particularly fond of Rhodes (one of the Greek Islands), which he
visited many times with Sheila. He gained much enjoyment from watching Charlton
Athletic FC over many seasons, through thick and thin, mainly thin. Other interests
included reading, opera, classical music and the garden, which Sheila had
crammed with varieties of plants and shrubs of many colours and provided many
happy hours for Sheila and Ted.
Ted & Sheila in
their garden
When Ted first retired he became a volunteer driver for a
local hospital. Although unable to take holidays abroad in his later years, he
still enjoyed many holidays in this country, but as his health deteriorated in
the last couple of years, these became impossible. He was married to Sheila for
over 48 years, the majority of which were spent living at Wessex Drive until
the last few weeks of his life which were spent in Darent Valley Hospital,
Dartford, until he passed away on 6th February 2014 aged 90.
