Page 6 - Demo
P. 6
2tendent. Although Elizabeth came from Cornwall, she was living with her parents in Greenwich and so possibly James followed her family to London because of her. Her father was also an engineer. James had 10 children, the penultimate one being Harold, born in 1882, who was my grandfather. He married Florence Burles from Greenwich, born in 1886, and they had 2 children, my father Kenneth James Hooper and my Aunt Elsie. Florence%u2019s father had apparently been a candle maker. Harold was an electrical engineer and on his registration papers issued in 1915 he was described as a shift officer for the GPO. We understood that he was a conscientious objector in the First World War, and I believe that he was a Jehovah witness. Probably he was in a reserved occupation so there may not have been a problem anyway. I think that he gave up with the Jehovah Witnesses when they could not countenance various treatments for his wife when she became ill before dying in 1942. His brother in law was John Burles who was a candle maker and/or an oil distiller.My other great grandfathers were George Beevis, born in 1862, who may have been a cab driver and Thomas Talbot. He was born 1852 and died 1923. His father Charles had been a cabman and labourer. Thomas had a cab shelter in London possibly in Piccadilly, where he provided fast food for the cabbies. Family history says that Colonel Baden Powell had a snack there the night before he left for South Africa and Mafeking. Probably my grandfather, %u201cPop%u201d (George Thomas Talbot), also worked at the cab stand and so learnt to cook. George married Mary Elizabeth May (1854 %u2013 1939). She came from a family of bootmakers and dress makers. Pop was called up in 1916 as a rifleman/cook. He once showed me a picture of a group of his friends around some piece of military hardware and said all apart from him had been killed. Unfortunately, I was too young to find out more. Pop was gassed at Ypres we think and was also wounded in the leg. He had a bad chest for the rest of his life. Whilst he always cooked, his trade was a lamplighter. This

