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From: "Lesley Chaney" <>
Subject: [LONDON-LIFE] News snippets 1931
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 19:41:54 +0100


NEWS IN BRIEF.
Running across Tanner-st. on Tuesday, Dennis Barnett (5), of 33,
Brunswick-court, Bermondsey, was struck by a car, a wheel of which passed
over his left foot.

In Stoney-st., Southwark, on Monday, Stanley Fuller (20), of 32, Miall-rd.,
Sydenham, was knocked down by a lorry. He received injury to his chest and
was taken to hospital.

Four-year-old Robert McNamara, of 46, Frean-st., Rotherhithe, sustained
injury to his head when he was knocked down by a car in Jamaica-rd. on
Tuesday. He was taken to hospital.

The Mayoress of Southwark (Mrs. J. T. Greenwood), accompanied by Mr. D. T.
Griffiths (the Town Clerk) pad a visit to the Evalina Children's Hospital,
Southwark Bridge-rd., on Tuesday.

Martha Baker (70), of 116, Gleneagle-rd., Streatham, had to be taken to
hospital on Tuesday, when she fell to the ground when trying to board a tram
in Queen's-rd., Peckham.

Two men were knocked down and slightly injured by a motor-cycle in Borough
High-st., on Tuesday. They were Alfred Toy (20), of 3, Beckworth-st., Herne
Hill, and Ernest Watts (20), of 208, Battersea Bridge-rd.

While assisting to load a lorry in Pickleherring-st., Bermondsey, on
Wednesday, William Wale (45), of 31, Tate-st., Shadwell, was struck on the
head by a quantity of bacon which fell from a crane, and sustained slight
injury.
------------------------------
IN THE POLICE COURTS.

A DIRECTOR'S FRAUD
Overcharge of Workmen's Wages
TO APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE
Arthur Harry Jenkins was summoned at Lambeth yesterday (Thursday) for having
with intent to defraud, procured sums to be paid by the First Commissioner
of Works to Dowsett and Jenkins, Ltd., by false pretences.
A GOVERNMENT CONTRACT
Mr. Gerald Dodson, prosecuting, said defendant was a director of a firm of
contractors, Dowsett and Jenkins, Ltd., who held a contract with the Office
of Works. An investigation was made into the vouchers for workmen's wages
presented by the firm and it was found that in the September quarter of 1930
there was an overcharge of £35 19s. 10d., and in the December quarter of £26
5s. 6d. The rates paid to the workmen were misrepresented. For instance, a
labourer, represented to have received 1s. 3½d. per hour, only, in fact,
received 7½d., and 1s. 8½d. was charged for a carpenter who only received
1s. 7½d. In other cases the hours were mistated. A man represented as
having worked seven hours only, in fact, worked three and a half. Defendant
said there had been undercharges. That was true, but only to a limited
extent. In one quarter the undercharge only amounted to something like 30s.
UNDERCHARGES
Mr. Caswell, for the defence, stated that the books of the firm had been
examined and it was found that in one of the quarters mentioned there was an
undercharge of £13, in respect of the wages paid. Under the contract the
firm were not allowed to pay more than trade union rates, but there were
instances in which defendant had found it desirable to do so. There was an
erroneous idea among contractors that what they lost on the swings they were
entitled to make up on the roundabouts. Defendant accepted full
responsibility for what had happened.
Mr. Sanbach said he could not hide from himself that this was a deliberate,
carefully-thought-out fraud. He would not be doing his duty if he inflicted
a fine. He regretted having to impose a setence of three months'
imprisonment without hard labour. Sureties were fixed with a view to an
appeal.
---------------------------------------
Street Betting Prosecutions
Arrested by P.C. Attwood in Orpheus-st., Denmark Hill, James Wade (38), fish
porter, Westmacott-st., Camberwell, pleaded guilty when he was charged at
Lambeth on Friday with loitering for betting. Asst.-Gaoler Read mentioned
that the defendant had been several times fined for street betting.
Defendant said he was up at 4 a.m. looking for work. Defendant was fined
£15.
Thomas Pugh (55), carman, Doctor-st., Walworth, was at Lambeth on Saturday
fined £3 for loitering in Doctor-st. for betting.
Wm. Porritt (21), labourer, of Church-st., Deptford, was fined £10 at
Greenwich on Saturday for loitering in Addey-st., Deptford, for betting.
Joseph Jackson (38), labourer, of Watergate House, Watergate-st., Deptford,
was fined £10 for a similar offence. Mrs. Lydia Butt (31), of Rojack-rd.,
Forest Hill, and her father, Thomas Groom (68), also of Rojack-rd., were
each fined £10 for street betting.
At Lambeth yesterday (Thursday) Henry Green (29), labourer, waas fined £10
for loitering in Comus-place, Walworth, where he resides, for betting.
Ernest Shaw (22), motor driver, Reedham-st., Peckham, was at Lambeth
yesterday (Thursday) fined £10 for betting at Nunhead. For a similar
offence in Pilkington-rd., Peckham, in which thoroughfare he resides, Thomas
H. Robertson (32), printer, was fined 40s.
---------------------------------
At Lambeth on Friday Olive Foley (38), widow, Walworth-rd., was bound over
to keep the peace on a charge of assaulting Rita Meerloo by striking her on
the face with a bunch of keys.
---------------------------------
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

ILL-TREATING MENTAL PATIENTS
"Their Complaints Are Only Regarded aas Delusions"
Sir.-Many workers in the field of Lunacy Reform will rejoice over the smart
fine inflicted on the dismissed mental home attendant who gave a patient a
black eye. The Board of Control by bringing the case show that they are
just beginning to realise that their normal function is not to serve only
the sectional interests of the doctors and nurses.
Cases of ill-treatment are seldom brought to notice as patients' complaints
are regarded by the authorities as "delusions."
It is not unusual for an attendant to provoke a man to violence, so as to
get the opportunity of paying off old scores, but the stomach is generally
the target and not the face, where marks are so conspicuous.
Violence is all too frequent. Only just recently an old man died in a
London asylum suffering from eleven broken ribs after being crushed in a
straight-jacket!
The National Society for Lunacy Law Reform has been exposing these abuses
for some ten years or so, and sympathisers would be doing good work by
supporting them.
VINDEX
Herne-hill.
---------------------------
Mrs. Margaret Goldsmith, assistant secretary of the women's branch of
Peckham Conservative Association, slipped down some stone stairsat the Party
headquarters on Friday night, and is now in hospital with a double fracture
of the ankle. She is progressing fairly satisfactorily.
----------------------------
>From The South London Press, Friday, October 16, 1931.
----------------------------
That the end of that one, now to dig in the archives for another newspaper.

Lesley

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