My grandfather Henry Ward was an "antique dealer" and also had a Junk Shop in Sandilands Road.The shop was called Ward & Clarke and was at the front of our house. I believe that he was in trouble with the law for possibly being a "fence" or receiving of stolen goods and spent some time in prison during the War. He died in 1945 at the age of 50. My mum and nan continued to live in Sandilands Road until they were moved for slum clearance in early 1960. My nan was killed by a hit and run driver on Putney Hill in 1972. I believe the man concerned lost his licence for about three months!!

My mum Valerie Margaret Ward and my and dad Stanley George Noakes married in March 1955. I was born in 1956 and We lived at 66 Sandilands Road with my grandparents Henry and Violet Ward. Our friends and neighbours were Billy Anthony, Joy Goode, Ronnie Brooks, Jimmy Ribbons, Kenny, Brian and Derek Harper, Elsie Winters  (next to bomb ruins), Patricia and jack Eales, Eve Spring and a Shirley Fineberg who was Jewish and possibly a refugee who mum befriended.

I left london on a foggy November afternoon with mum, dad, brothers Ian & Steven and sister Nicola and landed in a hot and sunny Sydney about two days later. Thirty three years on and I have two more sisters, Been married and divorced and all sorts of interesting things in between including two daughters kate 23 & alex 20.

Picture above is courtesy of Hammersmith & Fulham Archives. The 1951 Post Office Directory lists William Tuckwell's Chandler Shop in Sandilands Road. The entries for 1941 are Walter Ashford Boot & Shoe Repairs, Edmund Davey Motor Engineers and James Dowden Chimney Sweep.