I was only ten years old when my great uncle Sid died and I don’t claim to be
able to remember him in any great detail. He was only an occasional visitor to our house and maybe
he only came down to Twelve Acre Crescent
once but we did visit him in Ruislip a few times. My main reason for remembering him is not
especially honourable, it is because he would always press half a crown (and sometimes five bob) into my palm when it was
time to leave. His niece
Olive Knight says that Sidney was quite well off, having become a senior Civil Servant in
Customs and Excise and working at their then headquarters, Adelaide House, adjacent to London Bridge
and the then Port of London. Before moving to Ruislip
he owned a large house in Finborough Road, Kensington.
Sidney was widowed in 1950 when his cousin and wife
Emily died and soon afterwards his health
deteriorated “due to far too much smoking” according to Olive. He was looked after by his sisters
Gladys and Louise and another cousin
Amy Heath. “The Heaths were not generous like the Barkers and
would take whatever they could” and if this reputation is to be believed, Amy married Sidney for
just one reason and subsequently inherited all Sidney’s property and possessions apart from a
few gifts and photographs that Gladys and Louise had provided whilst involved with his care. I was
particularly upset at this, again for not the best of reasons, as uncle Sid had promised to leave me
his cigarette card collection but it never materialised, at least not then. In 1998 I found a small
part of his collection among
my own mother’s effects. Obviously at the age of ten I was not to be
trusted with them.
Information provided by
Malcolm Knight with assistance from
Olive Knight.