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The Boys from the Village’ The History of Charlton Athletic at War 6 August 2019

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Comments

  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,220
    Today is the day.

    Sticky please admin
  • Chippycafc
    Chippycafc Posts: 14,142
    great idea, have a good night sadly on the late shift today...
  • Daarrzzetbum
    Daarrzzetbum Posts: 1,236
    Sounds like a great event, hope it goes well.
  • Fumbluff
    Fumbluff Posts: 10,126
    Disappointingly not going to make this now, hope it all goes well for @SE7toSG3 and @Henry Irving
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,220
    Last minute arrival of Geoff Reynolds great nephew made the unveiling special.

    Photos later. Decent turn out too.
  • Athletico Charlton
    Athletico Charlton Posts: 14,273
    Really informative and interesting evening, thanks to those whom organised.
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,220
    Thanks to everyone who turned up, really successful day.

    Will post some photos later and links to the presentations when they are up.

    Next time you visit the Valley take a few minutes to view the new memorial.
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,220
    We had a good turn out in the Museum before opening.
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,220
    And some people took the opportunity to get their hands on the play-off trophy

  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,220
    we even got a few donations like this 1984 poster, although as @SE7toSG3 pointed out we're still getting wound up but in a different way.
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  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,220
    We then went around to unveil the new memorial to Geoff Reynolds


  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,220
    Very pleased to have the great nephew of Reynolds, Karl Harris, unveil the memorial.
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,220
    @Blitzwalker then delivered, well, a blitz walk from the Valley up to the White Swan
  • seth plum
    seth plum Posts: 53,448
    I see the boy has some protection from flare throwing Charlton fans.
  • razil
    razil Posts: 15,041
    Unbelievably to me at least, last night was the first of these I’ve managed to get to. Excellent work all round, and definitely worth doing the next one of these if you’re interested in the history of our club and community. Very well done all concerned and for building a fantastic museum it’s great to have something positive we can be proud of during these troubled times.
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,220
    The memorial before it was fixed to the wall outside main reception.

    It is a wreath holder, hence the hooks below and was hand made in Charlton.  The cap badge is an original Life Guards badge.

    The family have seen it and are delighted.

    RIP Geoff Reynolds


  • LenGlover
    LenGlover Posts: 31,651
    Karl Harris has changed since he played for us  ;)

    Seriously, well done to all concerned and great that a relative was able to be present.
  • rananegra
    rananegra Posts: 3,689
    edited August 2019
    Enjoyed the evening. People at work asking me what I did for my birthday ... "well I went to a talk about Charlton and the war..."

    Would like to add that all the speakers were excellent and a great event to promote the Museum. Our history is important.


  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,220
    rananegra said:
    Enjoyed the evening. People at work asking me what I did for my birthday ... "well I went to a talk about Charlton and the war..."

    Would like to add that all the speakers were excellent and a great event to promote the Museum. Our history is important.


    If we'd known we'd have baked a cake.

    Thanks for the feedback
  • BartramBlitz
    BartramBlitz Posts: 675
    Thanks to everyone at the museum for last night. It's important to hold onto our history in turbulent times.
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  • Ashers
    Ashers Posts: 418
    Such a good evening, thank you to all those who put the event together and to the terrific speakers (not forgetting the enjoyable cameo from white van man!).

    For those who have yet to go to the excellent museum, do make the effort, you won't be disappointed - a visit will help underline what a very special club we are.
  • Tom_Hovi
    Tom_Hovi Posts: 465
    edited August 2019
    For those that came along the other night and did the Blitz Walk with Clive and myself, the first photograph that I shared - the aerial view of Charlton and Woolwich taken from a Luftwaffe bomber on 'Black Saturday', the first day of the Blitz on 7 September 1940 - has attracted a lot of interest. I thought it might be a good idea to share it on here for those who wanted a closer look, or who couldn't make it along on the evening. I've annotated some local landmarks and street names to help with the navigation. The large plume of smoke coming from the top right of the photo is at Woolwich Dockyard. For those not old enough to remember - Charlton Greyhound Stadium was more or less located where Makro is now and Woolwich Stadium was the Army's stadium and was located roughly opposite where QE Hospital currently sits.

    For those wondering, I was able to ascertain from @BartramBlitz on Tuesday that on this day, Charlton had been playing Millwall at The Valley and after a brief interruption for enemy aircraft flying overhead, the match was resumed and completed, with the Addicks losing 2-4!

  • Tom_Hovi
    Tom_Hovi Posts: 465
    The other photo which seemed to attract a lot of interest was this one of the White Swan taken I'm guessing, around the turn of the 19th Century. Sharp-eyed viewers will notice that the pub appears taller in this photo than it currently is. This was due to damage incurred on the night of 17 October 1940 when the imposing building just beyond the pub, which was the Siemens' Sports and Social Club, was totally destroyed by a HE bomb. The blast from this damaged the upper floor of the White Swan so much that it was never rebuilt, just demolished and the pub repaired in the current slightly truncated form that we recognise today.

  • Tom_Hovi
    Tom_Hovi Posts: 465
    Going back to the wartime photos of Charlton and Woolwich, I've just come across what looks like the next one in the sequence of Luftwaffe reconnaissance photos taken on 7 September 1940. This one shows the fire at Woolwich Dockyard, as seen in the original photo that I posted above but shows more huge fires burning in the Royal Docks, Silvertown and also in the Woolwich Arsenal. As before, I've marked up a few landmarks so as to give people an idea of the geography of the area, although the two greyhound stadiums are both long gone. Obviously, the Royal Docks are still there and are the site of London City Airport, which would be invisible beneath the plume of smoke and the ExCel, amongst other stuff. 
  • SheffieldRed
    SheffieldRed Posts: 3,772
    Fascinating stuff, I’ll have to get on one of your walks @Tom_Hovi
  • SE7toSG3
    SE7toSG3 Posts: 3,140
    Fascinating stuff Steve, well done mate, if anyone hasnt already done a local walk with @Tom_Hovi then I would highly recommend, maybe we at the museum could arrange a sunday event looking at the clubs history, the local wartime history and a few beers along the way.
  • Davo55
    Davo55 Posts: 7,836
    Amazing and fascinating photos. Thanks for posting.
  • Mametz
    Mametz Posts: 1,254
    Fascinating stuff and thanks for sharing the photos. Incidentally my father was born and brought up in McCall Crescent. One night during the blitz he had got drunk in the Swan (He was 17 and this was shortly before he joined the Navy ) and had been carried upstairs to sleep it off. When the bombing and the guns woke him up, he tiptoed downstairs carrying his shoes, finger to his lips past a startled landlord, saying he didn’t want to wake anyone! Later on in the war when he visited the pub whilst on leave the regulars would greet him with a loud “sshhush”.

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