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Hi Folks & hope you are all keeping well.
I am hoping that some learned people on this wonderful forum MIGHT be able to help me in my search for the aforementioned chap in the title ?
Very little to go by I'm afraid, but I'll provide what little I can.
When my Mum (now regrettably deceased for over 10+ years) was roughly in her late 20's or early 30's (?), which would be mid-late 1950's or very early 1960's, she worked at the so-called...
"Plaza" later re-named "Gaumont" Cinema, in South Street, Romford, Essex, near Liberty Walk.
Her Manager was the guy in question, named Len Martin.My 94 y/o Dad tonight has furnished me with what little detail he knows, as hitherto, I did NOT know Len's Christian name -
only that he was Manager at that once upon a time famous, well-used & much loved Cinema, before Cinemas generally fell into decline & popularity, mainly due to the advent, or rather 'explosion in popularity' of the, by then, ubiquitous Television.
Am told by Dad that he was in charge "for a very long time", but guessing in the 1950's, when Cinemas were still in vogue (realistically & metaphorically speaking)
From memory, "The Plaza" aka "Gaumont" eventually met it's demise (I'm told), sometime in the Early 1960's or maybe Mid-1960's
( Am told the Beatles played one of their Pre-1963/'64 concerts at one of the Romford Cinemas, but I sadly cannot recall which one... ).
I know my Mother went on a week-long Holiday with Mr.Len Martin to Weymouth or Bournemouth, as I recall seeing small B & W, 3x5 photographs as late as the early 1970s (as a child), as they ended up in an old box, in our Greenhouse shed, preparatory to being thrown away (Yikes) which also included some pix of my Dad when he served in the R.A.F during the late 1940's & early 1950's
( circa Korean War era - I saved those important pix, of Dad with his Lee-Enfield 0.303 )
Back to Len Martin.
I noted he had "plasters over glasses" & as a young child, was informed that...
"He was a British Army Soldier who served in WW.1 & was blinded & wounded via Gas Attack in the trenches in which he served at that time"
Was also told (as a kid) that it damaged his eyesight (for life) & ruined & wrecked his lungs.
This of course is heresay by my Mother, as I was told sometime in the 1960's.
I have NO idea EXACTLY where he was wounded (region/area), nor with which infantry regiment he served, nor when he was withdrawn after being wounded - But of course, I'd like to know.
I'd hazard a guess that "if" (as) he was gassed, it would be likely 1915 or 1916 possibly, as by 1917 *(as far as I know), British Soldiers would have had suitably developed Gas-masks around the time of Passchendaele & beyond, whilst serving on the Western Front - an assumption of mine.
If anyone could help fill me in about my Mum's 1950's & early 1960's "Plaza / Gaumont" Cinema Boss/Manager, or better yet, ANYTHING regarding Len's WW.1 service & wounding incident & battlefield region, I'd be most grateful, please.
Thanks in advance... "Hornchurch".
POST EDIT = Found these online pix of the very Cinema in question....
https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/31282/photos/162086 https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/31282/photos/83244 .
