January 4th brought back some of the anger after his mum, Cherry Groce, was shot by police in 1985 – an event which sparked the Brixton riots. Lee Lawrence writes his story in The Louder I Sing
Memories
The New Cross Fire – How ’13 dead and nothing said’ energised a generation
Forty years ago on January 18, Yvonne Ruddock and Angela Jackson held a joint birthday party at a house in New Cross. The celebration was to end in tragedy after a fire ripped through the house in the early hours of the morning. A total of 13 young black people died.
‘I sat up in bed and saw a policeman standing over me holding a gun’
Lee Lawrence’s win in the memoir category of the Costa Book Awards brought back some of the trauma and anger of the incident which is the pivot of his story. His mum, Cherry Groce, was shot by police in an incident which sparked the 1985 Brixton riots. Here TOBY PORTER recalls the events which shocked a community.
Tom was Addick-ted to taking pictures of his beloved Charlton
Former Charlton club photographer Tom Morris, who has died suddenly at the age of 76, was a familiar figure on the goal line at Charlton matches, home and away, for more than three decades, writes Rick Everitt.
George, a driving force of First World War, died mysteriously on boat home
George Merry, a First World War hero who died in 1920, was a salesman who travelled the world selling cars for a friend – the man who created the Citroen car company. He died mysteriously.
Wife’s body under the floorboards
An impoverished tailor with a wife and small child started behaving increasingly erratically as his wife began to lose patience with her alcoholic spouse. JAN BONDESON tells how she came to a sad end – but her killer escaped the noose.
Cricket history to relative obscurity
Ned Willsher changed the way cricket was played when his determination to bowl over-arm eventually prevailed.
Was he blind or was it murder?
Former soldier Arthur Meader was adjudged not fit to serve after his sight began to deteriorate amid the First World War. He was helped by a blind charity and married – but his wife led a double life in the West End.
Seeking the family of war hero Kirby
A young air gunner from Lambeth, Eric Kirby, was among the crew of a Lancaster bomber shot down by the Germans after a raid on a railway yard in June 1944.
Victim’s head was battered to a pulp
One lodger was sent to prison for kidnapping guttersnipes; the next a drunkard who hit his wife and was beaten to death.
Hammersmith lawyer Henry Ebner: ‘Henry was incisive and a gentleman’
Henry Ebner was founding partner in the firm Myers, Ebner and Deaner for 40 years, and also twice President of the Hammersmith Rotary Club and raised many thousands of pounds for charity.
Radical Times in Journalism
Before powerful tools like the internet and social media, the drum beat around race activism in Britain, as well as globally, was generated mostly by radical print media, writes Will Brook.
Anarchist’s left hand blown off
When Joseph Conrad, below, wrote The Secret Agent, he recalled a South London incident which was the inspiration for its main character.
Lighting the way for generations
Five generations of a family have worked to keep the lights on across London for almost 100 years, and there’s a possibility of a sixth generation continuing the tradition in the electricity industry.
You may also like...
The consequence of independence fight
Ladywell Cemetery contains the grave of an army officer who died in a famous shootout in Dublin 100 years ago last week, as the war between Irish republicans and the British reached its conclusion. MIKE GUILFOYLE tells the story…
