CHRISTODOULOU of 28 Heaton Rd, Winton

[Redroger]

Tess,Reply No.6 above has confused me. Do you mean that 30 Bath Road was bombed in WW1 (1914-1918) or WW2 (1939-1945)/
If WW2 then when was it bombed? No doubt we can find out. That might be the reason they were at 28 Heaton Road in 1940.

[tesscawley]

Woops, sorry I meant WW2. My elderly uncle in Bournemouth is the one that told me it was bombed in the war. he is a step brother to my and Helen's birth mother, Phyllis Christodoulou but unfortunately was born in 1935 so has very few childhood memories of that time.

I have tried to attach Helen's birth certificate and parents marriage certificate. (All deceased now) On their marriage they were both living and working at 30 Bath Road. if Phyllis needed somewhere to have baby Helen one would have thought she would have stayed with a relative, as in your case, there were certainly plenty around.

[tesscawley]

Hi, someone has just suggested that maybe the Collins and Williams were tenants of the Christodoulou family. Just a thought that I felt we should not overlook.

[Redroger]

That is quite possible, but remember there was a war on, a shortage of accomodation not helped by air raids etc. People lived where they could in many instances.

[LindaJ1959]

Hi Tess,

This may be a stupid question, but I notice that the mother gives an address in London on Helen's birth certificate. Is this significant?

By the way, having grown up in Winton, I can confirm that Cherrett is a fairly common name in the area.

Linda

[tesscawley]

From what I can gather the hotel where the mother and father worked in Bournemouth was bombed out close to the beginning of the war and from all accounts the whole area went. After that London address I have several more addresses in London from George's army pay book. The LMA also turned up Helen in care in 1942 in London after both she and mother Phyllis were in hospital for a protracted stay. I guess more bombs. It is after that that Helen was sent to her grandmother in Dorset but they were already a full house and so she went to foster parents in Parkstone, Dorset, where she remained until she married and subsequently died in 1971.

[LindaJ1959]

Yes, there were a lot more bombs dropped on Bournemouth than a lot of people realise. My mother was evacuated to Bournemouth from Southampton (she was 10 at the beginning of the war) because it was thought that Bournemouth would be safer. It was - but not completely safe! I used to work in Beales department store, which was bombed along with other town centre buildings, and when I was there there was still a huge crack in one of the outside walls.

Linda

[Redroger]

In WW2 nowhere was safe from raids either air raids or naval action on the coasts. There is another factor which might have made that area of the town a target, and Beales and Bath Road are not far apart given the quality of WW" bomb aiming. I saw a channel 4 program about espionage in WW2 and there was an intelligence unit stationed in the block that adjoins Beales I believe.

[LindaJ1959]

There was also, I've been told, an anti-aircraft gun on the roof of Beales, which I guess would make it a target. But I can't guarantee that as fact.

Linda