The pivotal characters in this story are my great-grandfather, Samuel King, and grandfather, Hugh Samuel King. Samuel King was a Suffolk wheelwright who moved to Southwark where he had a coach building business. As a Middlesex man, finding my ancestors where from south of the river, The Borough no less, was a shocker. Hugh Samuel King spent his working life at Southall Gas Works. It's a shame I've only come to know him many years after his death.
39 Westminster Bridge Road
Samuel King, 1827 - 1909. Cart wheelwright from Copdock, Suffolk. Coachbuilder in 1870's Southwark.
Work and service
Hugh Samuel King, 1892 - 1986. Employment at Southall Gas Works, duties at war and with St. John Ambulance.
Southall Man
James Lever, 1859 - 1934, brickmaker. Hugh's father in law and the flint axe head he recovered.
The runner
James Lever, 1887 - 1917. Hugh's brother in law. One of the many lives lost on the Western Front in the Great War.