The Gowing Family

The Gowings

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Sarah Ethel Hollings.

   

Donald Jack was born at 17 Harrison Street, St Pancras, London on 21st August 1920. I have a feeling we may never know how his Mother come to be living there, it may have been her place of work as a housekeeper but nevertheless that was where he was born. We know nothing else until his own memory places him at growing up in Walthamstow living with his mother, her brother Raymond Leslie Hollings and her father George Carsten Hollings.

This Picture of Harrison Street, where Donald Jack was born, was taken in 1950. It clearly shows the type of house that Sarah Ethel could have worked in. Soon after this picture was taken the houses, way passed their best, were razed to the ground. In earlier times they would have been a much sought after address.

 

His early memories as a child are mixed. He clearly remembers his Grandfather, George Carsten, and his second marriage to Maud Edith Barber in 1928, at the Spruce Hill Baptist Church, Brookscroft Road Walthamstow. He remembers vividly Georges involvement in the building of bungalows in Laindon Essex, and the board outside the building site proudly displaying the builders name of " George Hollings". Donald also remembers being taken by his Grandfather down to the Old Kent Road  where there used to be a market for horse trading. He remembers George buying sick or neglected animals nursing them back to health and reselling them. It's not clear whether these activities were over and above his main occupation, or instead of. Their paths finally separated in 1929, when Donald's Mother, Sarah Ethel had to move. It is possible, of course that, less than one year after Georges second marriage it could be regarded as a convenient solution to what may have been a difficult situation.

 On 24 August 1925 Donald Jack started school, firstly attending Queens Road Infants School, then two years later 19 July 1927 changing to Edinburgh Junior School, both schools were right on his doorstep and both schools listed his parent/ guardians name as Jack. However, soon after starting at Edinburgh Junior Sarah Ethel found it necessary to move house, She was taken on as a live-in Housekeeper as her employers  were off to foreign parts for a year For Young Donald Jack this meant another school and this time it was over the other side of Walthamstow almost to the border of Leyton, in Gamuel Road (see photograph) Both school and road have long since given way to a housing estate.  The House his mother was "keeping" I believe was in Grove Road (to be confirmed). This resulted in rather a long journey and Donald used to do this every day on skates. At the end of the year the owners returned and another move for the family, this time it was to Chapel End, as lodgers with friends of Sarah Ethel, and another new school for Donald, Chapel End School. With the Housekeeping job finished Sarah Ethel found herself new employment with the local company, "Murex" In late1929, when he was nine years old, they moved again, and this time it was out of Walthamstow, northward to Chingford.

 

"Inglebourne" Low Street Chingford. The first house in Chingford the young family moved to. Pictured outside are Donald Jack Gowing (unmistakable) and two neighbours children. (Low Street was later renamed Sewardstone Road.)

 

The new address was "Inglebourne," Low Street, Chingford, Essex. (see photograph). For Donald Jack a new address meant another new school and this time it was Kings Road Junior School. Even with her new job the rent on the house was high, and to make ends meet they took in lodgers to occupy the top floor of the house, Sarah Ethel and her young son stayed downstairs. Things were comfortable for them and Sarah had regular paid work at Murex. She had to walk from Chingford up the Lea Valley Road to the station in Ponders End every day to catch the train back to Walthamstow. It all changed again when Murex moved out of Walthamstow to Waltham Cross.

1931 and another new school for Donald Jack and this was to be his last. Chingford Senior School was brand new and again it was a long walk. This time it was over the fields on foot and a whole new world away from the industry of Walthamstow. He recalls making new friends, in particular a farmer who kept chickens, whom he used to visit on a regular basis. The farmer gave him wood to build a chicken run and six chickens to put in it! It was also the year the family moved again, this time it was a stones throw away to 103 Sewardstone Road, Chingford. The picture on the right was taken circa. 1927 and shows a young Donald Jack with his mother Sarah Ethel.
     Donald Jack recalls about this time Raymond Leslie Hollings came to live with them. Raymond had been in hospital with partial paralysis and had recovered sufficiently to be released. The year would have been around 1932/3 Donald Jack would have been 12-13 years old and Raymond Leslie was ten years his senior at 22-23. Sarah Ethel would have been 43 years old and her father George Carsten Hollings 73 years old. Having Raymond Leslie living with them was a great help to Donald Jack. To earn his keep Raymond started a shoe repair business. He also helped young Donald rebuild a bicycle from an old frame he had found. (Something that stayed with him for many, many years because Donald Jack repeated the exercise for me in 1965 when I was 10 years old.) The bicycle presented  the chance of new boundaries to be explored, and also the opportunity for Raymond Leslie to offer a delivery service for his fledgling business. Donald Jack continued his schooling until he left in 1934.