From Trooper to Copper - an Edwardian life of service in Wood Green

Fig 1: Alfred John Fennell pictured in Army Uniform c1900

Pictured above is Alfred John Fennell, an Wood Green Edwardian who served in both the British Army and the Metropolitan Police Force.

Alfred was born in Blackheath on 1 April 1879. Before he'd reached his first birthday, his father Henry George and his mother Eliza Harriet had moved from Harriet's hometown of Blackheath where they'd lived since they married in 1863. They set up home at 1 Henrietta Villas in Winkfield Road, Wood Green (later 1, Winkfield Road) where Alfred spent the rest of his childhood.

His Cheltenham-born father was a carpenter (later a farmer's carpenter. His mother was born in Blackheath of parents who were a coachman and a charwoman.

Dad, Henry, died in January 1893, leaving just under £300 to Eliza Harriet (around £40,000 according to B of E inflation calc). Soon after, the family moved to 10 Vincent Road.

On Christmas Day, 1896, Alfred signed up for short-service with the 1st Scots Guards, when he was a few months short of 19. On his joining papers he declared that he had previously served with the Loyal North Lancashire regiment. This might account for the narrative in the surviving family that Alfred had joined up under age.

He served in South Africa for three years from October 1899 until October 1902. This period covered the most of the second Boer War, an intense and emotional campaign for the British that saw patriotic outpourings around the country rivalling those seen at the beginning and end of the Great War.

Alfred was just one of a quarter of a million men (not including colonial troops) Britain sent to fight in South Africa. The war permeated popular culture and was widely, but by no means universally supported,

Locally a carinval was held to help raise funds for the war. Charity carnival processions of costumed individuals and decorated vehicles had become an increasingly common feature of British urban life over the final two decades of the nineteenth century. So, when the Telegraph made an appeal in late 1899 for financial aid for deceased combatants’ dependents, there was a ready model for its readers to draw upon.

Fig 2: Carnival Badge

Fig. 3: Article from The Middlesex Gazette, June 30th 1900

Alfred would have been very familiar with the Chesser forge, just around the corner from his home. The Chessers contributed a float to the procession.

Fig. 4: The Chesser carnival float referred to in the programme as "The Village Blacksmith" outside Chesser's forge for the Harringay, Hornsey and Wood Green Carnival on 28th June 1900. Photo: Chris Ransom.

Alfred left the service in 1908 and immediately joined the Metropolitan Police (under warrant number 95500), serving at Wood Green station. 

He served at a time when the image of the police was more Dixon of Dock Green than Line of Duty. In fact the creator of the Famous PC Dixon, Ted Willis, was a local boy himself. He was born in Stanley Road, right on what I think of as the border between Harringay and West Green.

By 1911 Alfred was living at 71 West Beech Road on the Noel Park Estate with his mother and his sister. In 1914, he married Harriet Charlick and from 1921-34 the couple lived at 191 Gladstone Avenue. By 1938 they were at 3 Hewitt Avenue with wife their 18 year-old son Ernest.

PC Fennell in a Noel Park rear garden wearing his Boer War and police medals

After Alfred's marriage, his mother moved to 19 Gladstone Avenue where she seems to have lived until her death in 1928.

Alfred retired from the police in January 1933 and was widowed in 1966. He lived on a further eight years until 1972 by which time he'd reached the ripe old age of 93.

I wrote before about what I called the 'Redvers Triangle'. The area is made up entirely of roads that bore names commemorating the war in which Alfred fought. Sir Redvers Buller was initially the Commander-in-Chief of British forces in South Africa, He gave us the names for both Redvers Road and Buller Road. (Though quite why he was remembered so fondly after earning the nickname 'Reverse Buller' is not clear!).

Both pictures of Alfred Fennell were sent to me by his grandson, Tony Fennell, with the express wish that they be published. The research was undertaken by me to give the photos context.