[105] And so to Norwood Green we came. Father-in-law Birch made money there and built a row of cottages. Mr J P Harris (footnote 1), to whom he sold the business, did a big business but did not make much money indeed; for many years after, his daughters used to be around endeavouring to collect debts.
Then a Mr Le Gassick took it, and in 3 years had run through a lot of the money he had invested, and more as he had to go to the Bankruptcy Court; and also a cooperative store had been started in Southall, and had taken the best of the trade, so that was what I had to take to. But I did not flinch; I thought fair dealing etc would get me a living notwithstanding. The shop was quite out in the country, and away from the busy part of Southall; trade dropped off and came almost to nothing, so I took to selling New Zealand mutton and lamb, also providing entertainment for school parties and cricket lunches, [106] and although I did strenuous work in the catering line from 4am to 11pm on some days, it did not save me from compounding with my creditors, and that was a bad psychological blow; it knocked me down. No more preaching; I had lost my faith in what I had formerly believed. We started a laundry business in the back premises, and got a bit of a connexion in Ealing, and after a struggle of 9 years at Norwood Green, let the premises and laundry business, and opened a store at 4 The Parade, Southall Green, about a mile away. Well, I worked up a business, enough to get a living, but competition was so keen and profits small, that after 4½ years I had to do something else.
My son Leonard had been in a situation for years in the grocery in North London and at Ealing, and had left the grocery to work on a farm, in preparation for going [107] to Canada, and after a few months he, and my brother Sam, and nephew Harold Morphew (footnote 2) , went to Canada, and after a time began to write for us all to go to Canada.
To go back to Norwood Green. The family increased; Ethel Nora, Helena Louise, Beatrice who died at 8 months of age, Cyril Eric, and Olive Octavia; and when I told my father what we had named our eighth child, he exclaimed “Olive! Why, that was my grandmother’s name”, and that is how I came to know what my great-grandmother’s name was.
Thomas Walter Moores and Lillian Garland (nee) Birch with their children
L to R: Nora, Mabel, Eustace, Leonard, Helena
Front: Cyril and Olive
(taken,
presumably, shortly before the departure to Canada)
With a diminishing grocery business, I launched out into catering, and slaved from 4am sometimes until 11pm, but with meagre results, and so moved to 4 The Parade, Southall Green. I increased the business for a time, but competition was too keen for little men, and as my life assurance policy fell due that year, the company agreed to pay me out on a reduction of 5 per cent per annum; so I did a desperate thing, for me. [108] I sold my stock and fixtures etc. to a dealer in such things, removed furniture to one of Uncle Edward’s empty houses at Teddington, and left wife and 3 youngest children (footnote 3), and Eustace and I went to Canada; I could not see any future in England, as I had no future in any mechanical trade, and the grocery trade was in the hands of big companies, who sold at the price that I bought. I had lost more money than I had made, and so ended my business life in England.
Transcriber’s footnotes:
1. No known relation!
2. Son of Ellen Rosa Birch
3. There is no mention of my grandmother Mabel, their eldest daughter, here; perhaps she had already left home.
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