John Joseph Green, 1898-1971, #4

John Joseph Green was my paternal grandfather. He was always known as Jack. He was born on 22nd January 1898 in Deptford, Kent, the son of John George Green, a boiler shop worker and machine hand, and Elizabeth nee Franks.

Jack was probably born at 22a Armada Street, Deptford, where the family were living when Jack was baptised on 16 Feb 1898. By 1904 the family were living at 75 Gosterwood Street, Deptford.

Jack attended Grove Street School, Deptford, where a school register entry was recorded on 22nd August 1904.

By the time the 1911 census was compiled, Jack and his family were living at 5 Heald Street, Deptford. Jack was now 13, but was not yet working. His older brother Alfred was a hawker.

Jack married my grandmother Elizabeth Harvey Ellary on 6th August 1922 at St Nicholas, Deptford. They were both living at 5 Heald Street, Deptford at the time, and Jack was working as a French polisher.

Jack and Elizabeth had four children, my father John George Green (1923–2001), Betty Elizabeth Harvey Green (1927– ), Dennis Edward Green (1930–2003), and Leslie Kenneth Green (1933–2019).

When the 1939 register was compiled Jack and Elizabeth were living at 79 Indus Road, Greenwich. By now Jack was a skilled French polisher. My father John was working at J Stone's, and his three younger siblings were still at school.

During WW2 a bomb fell on their house, 79 Indus Road. The house was completely demolished. Thankfully my father, who was a junior draughtsman at the time, was at work, and his family were safe in their Anderson shelter, but they lost everything they owned. They had to stay in temporary accommodation in a church hall, until eventually they were given a council house, 4 MacArthur Terrace, which was furnished with second-hand furniture and household goods requisitioned from the abandoned homes of war victims.

My father was always most impressed by his dad's skill and knowledge of wood, and deferred to him and sought his approval whenever he did any woodwork.

I was told that Jack worked as a French polisher at a gas works on the Thames, near a bridge, and that he used to polish the boardroom. I gather that the gas works later became an art gallery?

Jack died on 17th October 1971, either in hospital, or at 4 MacArthur Terrace, Charlton (to be confirmed). He was cremated on 25th October 1971 at Hither Green Crematorium, Lewisham.

When my grandfather died I was ten, I had rarely met him, and sadly I cannot remember him at all.