This letter is from my Grandfather, the Rev George Kendall OBE (1881-1961), Methodist Minister and Senior RAF Chaplain to the Anti-Aircraft Forces in London during WWII (he was also behind the selection of the Unknown Warrior in 1920). It is to his good friend George Tomlinson, a Labour M.P. who was also General Secretary of the Public Morality Council and became the Secretary of State for Education a few years later.
In the letter my Grandfather, then aged 58, describes a walk he made in May 1941 from his manse in East Ham to Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, a distance of 7 miles.
The Public Morality Council had a permanent outdoor platform at Hyde Park and my Grandfather was the chairman. Each week he spoke on the subject’s of morality, spirituality and health, along with regular guest speakers whom he had personally selected.
My Grandfather was due to speak at Speakers Corner at his usual time of 2pm on a Sunday. Due to a massive air raids on East London the previous day, all public transport was closed. He didn’t own a car and there weren’t any taxis were running either. In anticipation of delays, he left home at 9am for a walk that would usually take two hours. He finally arrived late, at 4pm, 7 HOURS later!!
‘19th May 1941
East Ham, London.
Dear Mr Tomlinson
What a fearful blitz a week last Saturday and the result was that all trains, buses, underground, railways etc. had been stopped from our end-the City was absolutely closed to traffic and East Ham is a long way. I could not get a taxi so I began a long HIKE – a terrific long, long, trail through still blazing streets. I was sent hither and thither, up and down, backwards and forwards through all kinds of sidestreets, slums, etc but like Felix I kept on walking and WALKED FOR 7 HOURS JUST MEASURE THE DISTANCE.
I eventually got to the Corner but Miss Whateley our guest speaker had gone I should say a couple of hours before. Then I had to walk back as I was booked to speak at the Sunday School Anniversary at my Manor Park Church. It is a good thing I have trained myself to walk.
Yesterday my speaker DID NOT TURN UP so I took the whole afternoon and had a very BIG CROWD. I began at 2-30 and finished about 4-15. In one sense it was a record afternoon because of a LAWYER who was TRYING to floor me and got floored himself and two other bright sparks, who were silenced eventually.
You can safely leave Sundays with me. I shall be be there each Sunday and if our guest speaker fails I will carry on.
This week I have the Royal Navy, Army and Air Force Board Meeting.
I will call one of these days…
Yours’
About George Tomlinson
His friend George Tomlinson was born in 1890. He left school age 12 to be a weaver in a cotton mill. He joined the Weavers trade Union and in his 20’s became the area representative . He was elected as a Labour MP in 1938 and in 1941 he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour (DWP) in Churchill’s War Cabinet during WWII
After Labour won the election in 1945 George Tomlinson was appointed by Prime Minister Clement Attlee to be the Minister of Works (in DCMS brief today). In 1947 Tomlinson was promoted to Secretary of State for Education. He set up the modern education system over the next five years (the second longest term as an Education Secretary in history). A year after Attlee lost the 1951 election to Churchill, George died age 62.
