One evening during the War I was coming back from Hammonds fish shop in the dark and a burning barrage balloon came down and missed me by a couple of feet. About the same time Stephendale Road was blocked off as there was an unexploded incendiary bomb in the road.
We all slept in Anderson shelters during the War with all the mice and the spiders and listened to the shrapnel hitting the shelter. The arguments with next door the following morning as to who owned the shrapnel were most hilarious.
David Billett age 2 in 1939
There was a coaling station at the end of Althea Street where a crane continually shifted coal.The streets were always thick with coal dust. Some of you may also remember a fire in Townmead Road when the street was several inches deep in melted wax (Convoy's)*
My sister Wendy was born in Fulham in 1939. My father was Oliver Billett. His father's family had lived in Althea Street since around 1914 but he and his brothers and sisters (Rowland, Ruben, Elsie, Dora, Coronation Alexandra) originated from the village of Tettenhall near Wolverhampton. Uncle Rowland and his wife May lived at No. 22a Althea Street. He owned a BSA motorcycle and sidecar which he often carried upstairs to the box room to service! Aunty Dora and her husband George (Gillybanks) lived at 66 Townmead Road.
My mother was Laura Scarlet and her family came from Dymock Street. Her mother Gran Scarlet made lovely thick bread puddings. I remember she had a mandolin in the front room which I never heard her play until the day before she died in Charing Cross Hospital.
David's Family Photo Album
Picture above is of Dad Oliver Billett, my grandmother Scarlet and my mum Laura. Also Dad's mother Gertrude Ann Billett- the only picture we have of her. She is buried with her husband Richard James Billett in Fulham Cemetery at Sheen. Next to her is her daughter and my Dad's sister Coronation who is holding her son and my cousin Stanley. Believed to be my parents wedding in 1934. I was not there at the time!
Dads brother Rowland from 22A Althea Street taken in France First World War. He must have been living in Fulham as he is wearing a wedding ring that I now possess.
Dora Gillbanks. Coronation Alexandra Billett. (my dads sisters) My mum and dad Oliver and Laura dorothy Billett.
A good family picture circa 1943. My uncle Reg's wedding to Peggy (Margaret) Moore who lived with her parents in Tamworth Street off North End Rd. From left- my mother Laura-my grandmother Laura from 33 Dymock St- Dad Oliver.-Mums brother Reg. and Peggy with her parents. In front of course yours truly and sister Wendy aged seven and five.
Even though we lived in Fulham my father worked as a master bricklayer for many years in Stepney. He travelled to work by underground but sometimes cycled. If I woke early on Saturday mornings he'd take me with him.
He also worked for W.H.J Alexander. They owned one of the biggest ship towing fleets on the Thames and the vessels were called Sun Tugs. My parents took me out of school to work for Sun Tugs. I was at Sloane Grammar but never took any examinations. I well recall regularly sailing on the smaller tugs from Wapping to Chelsea Basin and returning with barges laden with coal to fuel the ship towing tugs which operated out of Woolwich or Gravesend.
I actually served in Sun XV as a boy cook for a short time before National Service in the Royal Navy whre I spent a year in the Mediterranean aboard the destroyer HMS Diamond and was present when we invaded Port Said for which I have received a medal. I worked for North Thames Gas after my service and attended Watson House both at Townmead Road and Hurlingham Road during my training.
People from Althea Street were a Mr and Mrs Hearn, who had a son called Willie and daughter Winnie. Winnie had a posh job at Tullys department store in Fulham Road. Old Daddy Hearn used to wake my dad up every morning at 5am by knocking on the bedroom window with a broom. There was also Fred Greenland, the Ovens family, the Haslers, my mate Derek Johnson and Pamela Wise. One neighbour who was rather unstable, used to enjoy exposing himself to my mother through the kitchen window which overlooked ours.
As it is snowing today I recall all the kids in Althea St rolling snowballs until they were three or four feet high and using them as barriers against the kids from Kilkie and Byam St who were throwing snowballs with stones inside. I also recall playing football in South Park on the gravel and coming home with torn knees and trousers
We now live in Dagenham and I have been married to Antonieta for 43 years. She is from Naples and we met when she was a Ward Orderly at the Royal London Hospital and I was being treated for an ulcer. We have two daughters and four grand-daughters, who all live near us.
*Read about the Convoy's fire in the News Stories section
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Where We Lived 
