Category Archives: History

Charlie Chaplin and South East London

Where in South London was Chaplin born and brought up?

RJ Minney wrote a personal account Chaplin, the Immortal Tramp (published by George Newnes, London, 1954) and said that at that time Chaplin used to give little details of his background, apart from saying he was English and was extremely poor in his childhood.

RJ’s book came out 10 years before Charlie’s own autobiography (see below), which put the record straight on many matters.

According to RJ, although many towns and districts claimed to be Charlie’s birthplace, “It was not Kennington, which has been so widely accepted, not Clapham nor Balham, but Bermondsey”.

Charlie’s ancestry includes French, Jewish and English and he was born 16 April 1889. His father was an singer called Charles Chaplin and his mother a dancer called Hannah Hill, with a stage name of Lily Harley. She already had a three-year-old son Sydney by a previous marriage and Charles senior took Sydney under his wing when he married her on 22 June 1885.

For a more detailed account of his birth, see this useful website, Knowledge of London, which states that Charles senior and Hannah lived at 57 Brandon Street, Walworth.

According to his autobiography, Charlie was born in East Street, close to the Walworth Road (he called it “East Lane” as did many other south Londoners, according to one local writer in her blog). The first three years were better, and Hannah was a well-paid backing singer to famous music hall star Leo Dryden.

The relationship broke down as both parents headed in different directions. Dryden and Hannah then lived together. A son called Wheeler Dryden was born and taken by his father from the mentally ill Hannah aged six months. It would take many years before Charlie and Sydney knew they had a half-brother.

Hannah struggled to support the two boys, often falling sick. Charles senior contributed sometimes but also fell sick and became an alcoholic. The two boys were taken to live with him briefly in Kennington Road in 1898, but eventually he was taken to St Thomas Hospital where he died of cirrhosis on 9 May 1901.

Charlie later pointed out the room to a friend: “Do you see that wind, the third from the end.. That’s the window of the room in which my poor father died. I was only a little kid at the time, but I can never forget that night… I stood under that window all night in the cold and darkness, sobbing my heart out waiting for the news I dreaded to hear”.

As Hannah got sicker, she tried to do sewing from her sick bed and sold all except a mattress which by law they had to keep. Sydney used to collect free soup from a church in Waterloo Road, which the brother ate sitting on the floor with their mother. “They have told me that no soup, not even in the de luxe restaurants of the world, has ever tasted so good”, wrote RJ.

They also told him how laughter abounded in their tiny attic room, and she would tell them of her adventures. Charlie said: “She was the most astounding mimic I ever saw. She would stay by the window for hours, gazing at the street and reproducing with her hands, eyes and expression all that was going on down there, and never stopped”.

Charlie was singing and performing outside South London pubs at age four with his elder brother. On Sunday nights many of the pubs filled with music-hall stars, who praised his performances and gave him money.

The boys performed in the streets of Kennington and Lambeth, and their mother had patched their clothes with her own stage clothes, leading to a lot of teasing from other boys. In 1896 Charlie, Syd and their mum were admitted to the Newington workhouse in Walworth Road, according to a workhouses website.

Charlie was, a well-known worldwide star by his early 20s, carried on the worldwide flood of influence of silent films, which overcame language and other barriers like nothing before it. He called his mother to Hollywood.

RJ was friends with Charlie Chaplin and his brother Sydney in Hollywood. It is likely they were introduced through Wheeler Dryden. RJ became a friend when Wheeler touring India and the Far East as a Vaudeville comedian and he was witness to the marriage of RJ and Edith Fox at St Paul’s Cathedral Calcutta in 1918.

RJ Minney with Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard at Hollywood Bowl 1934, from RJ’s book “Hollywood by Starlight”.

Wheeler had learned he was Charlie’s half-brother in 1915. In 1918 he moved to join the Chaplin Brothers in the USA and then worked with them, according to his Wikipedia entry, and they were also united with their mother Hannah.

RJ says his intention in his book was not to write a biography, as there were many, but “a close-up of the man, his outlook, his very complex personality and his artistry.”


Researching Fanny and the Regent of Siam



Fanny Knox

Phra Preecha





Researching the love story





The end of the story






Gainsborough Pictures dominates British film with RJ as producer


Audrey White, Puffin Asquith and RJ Minney at Pinewood Studios









Current traces of British film history in London









Dr Alina Brewda is inspiring holocaust heroine


The story of Dr Alina Brewda, who survived the Warsaw ghetto and Auschwitz and other concentration camps is shocking, nightmarish, and still inspiring. It’s very well told in the book I shall fear no evil: The story of Dr. Alina Brewda” by RJ Minney.
Alina was born in Warsaw in 1905 (she was ten years younger than RJ), and specialized as gynaecologist and obstetrician. She was determined and independent, and overcame much discrimination both against woman and against Jews to qualify and find a job. She succeeded through for her skill, dedication and care for patients. The book is full of human details, such as both parents having their dental surgeries in the house and the surprise when her father, a socialist, rang the bell for the servant from his study instead of calling her more politely, when they rushed up they found him dead from a heart attack.
Her matter-of-fact voice tells how she and her mother were moved into the Warsaw ghetto, where her mother soon died and Alina continued practising in a hospital there. Its a human story, in the midst of tens of thousands of tragedies. Somehow she evades being taken to the concentration camps several times but chillingly describes the increased suffering and desperation as more Jews were forced into the ghetto, the boundaries were compressed, and there were fewer options for survival or even sleeping space. The book also describes the spirit of resistance, as even in those terrible circumstances, Jews found ways to organize, smuggle in guns and fight back.
Alina was caught in 1943 and taken to Majdanek where she was allowed to work as surgeon. Through huge efforts she obtained a few medical materials and saved lives, including fighting a typhus epidemic. She helped as many as she could, reporting deaths late so the meagre food rations would not be cut for a night or two, performing abortions so pregnant women would be saved from the gas chamber.
She was transferred to Auschwitz where her work to save lives and alleviate suffering continued, despite the terrible and disheartening conditions. Her strength is shown through her matter-of-fact quotes and the tone of the book, which reflects her factual account. A couple of times she reached the antechamber of the gas rooms, but was sent back since there were not enough Jews for the Nazis to turn the gas on, she also survived heart attacks and disease and went back to work. Her focus on helping others and getting on with her calling as physician – as well as much luck and her strong constitution – helped keep her alive. In turn she was a beacon of hope for many.
Alina moved to London and continued working as a gynaecologist and obstetrician and died in 1988, according to this history of Jewish medical resistance in the Holocaust.


The book switches to a vivid tone for a few pages when it recounts the 1964 London libel trial (see Wikipedia for references) when Dr Wladislaw Dering OBE sued writer Leon Uris. Alina and Dr Adelaide Hautval was among the witnesses assembled by publisher William Kimber, Uris and their team. Many of the witnesses still had their prisoner number visible and tattooed on their arm, matching the handwritten entries in the log by Dr Dering, and some wept in court when giving evidence of forced sterilizations and other experiments and how that had affected their lives since. The jury awarded Dr Dering a halfpenny in damages, the smallest coin in the realm.
The words of Dr Hautval are also quoted in the book, and stick strongly in my memory as for many others: “Here, we are all under sentence of death. Let us behave like human beings as long as we are alive.”


Violette Szabo museum

The star of RJ Minney’s book and film “Carve Her Name with Pride”, World War II heroine Violette Szabó has a museum.
Violette, born 26 June 1921, was a secret agent working for the Special Operations Executive, taking on special missions behind enemy lines.
She began her second mission the day after D-Day. She was flown to the outskirts of Limoges and began working with Jacques Dufour of the Maquis (resistance) to sabotage German communication and coordinate the Resistance. On 10 June 1944 they were in a car and were stopped by an unexpected German roadblock. A brief gun battle ensued and Violette was captured by the SS and taken to Limoges for interrogation. She spent four days there and was then moved to the Gestapo headquarters in Paris. She was tortured and interrogated but gave nothing away to her German captors.
In August, she was taken to Ravensbruck concentration camp where she endured hard labour and squalid conditions. In early February 1945 (5 February?) she was executed along with two other female SOE agents, at the age of 23 years. – See more here.
For her bravery she was awarded the George Cross (the first woman to receive the award) and the Croix du Guerre.
Fellow World War Two heroine, Odette Churchill, once said, “she was the bravest of us all.”
Violette was born Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell in Levallois, Paris. Their daughter Tania was born in June 1942.

Violette Szabo
Violette Szabo

The museum in Herefordshire
Violette’s aunt Rosemary Rigby MBE created the Violette Szabo Museum, which opened its doors in June 2000 after many years of fundraising and collecting artefacts from people who knew Violette or served with her during the war. Virginia McKenna who played Violette in the film “Carve Her Name with Pride”, based on RJ MInney’s book of the same title, attended the first fund-raising event. Violette’s daughter Tania supports the museum to honour her memory and that of her husband Etienne Szabo and so people can learn of their bravery during the war. Leo Marks the writer of Violette’s poem also attended the opening of the museum.
Violette married Etienne Szabó, Adj.-chef of the 13th Demi-Brigade de Légion Étrangère in August 1940. He was a distinguished member of the Légion d’Honneur, Médaille Militaire, Croix de Guerre with Star and Palm, Colonial Medal. A a career legionnaire and a great leader, he led his men from the front with formidable courage in many battled including in Norway, Bir Hakeim and El Alamein. On 24 October 1942, he was killed leading his men south of El Alamein.

Life stories

The museum features the story and life of Violette Szabó along with life stories of the many resistance workers who sacrificed their lives. VIt also has details of the Ravensbruk concentration camp where Violette and many of her compatriots went after they were captured and a plaque to the bravery of Violette and her friends. It also has 3 versions of the Leo Marks poem “The Love That I Have” – one version alerted the SOE that Violette was being coerced into writing but which version it was is unknown.
The museum also has many amazing photographs that chart Violette’s childhood through to her marriage to Etienne, with many happy family snaps.
The museum is in Herefordshire in the grounds of a small house named Cartref where Violette spent many happy childhood days and also stayed between her missions to France during the war.. The museum opens every Wednesday April through September.

Violette Szabo GC Museum
Tump Lane
Phone: 01981 540 477