HMS Thunderer was the last ship to be built by the Thames Iron Works Shipbuilding & Engineering Company of Victoria Dock Road, Canning Town.

‘Thunderer' was launched on 1st February 1911 and at 22,500 tons was the largest ‘dreadnought' afloat, she went down river to the specially built Thunderer Jetty at Dagenham Dock to be fitted out as she was to big for the Royal Docks,

She went on to fight at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and was armed with ten 13.5-inch guns in pairs and sixteen 4-inch guns. ‘Thunderer' remained in service after the end of the Great War and was decommissioned in 1921. She was used as a cadet training ship from 1921 until being sold for scrap on 27 December 1926.

My great Grand Mother Bridget Murphy, late of Denmark Street & Croydon Road, her son Richard was my Grandfather, (my mothers father)

At the site of the old Transport Depot in Greengate Street, there is a memorial to the members of the West Ham Tram Department killed in the Great War (World War One).

A service was held regually at the Memeorial up to the start of World War two. It was then revived after the war when in 1946, a service was held by the Vicar of Plasitow. A march-past by Ex-servicemen and the Home Guard and a band conducted by Mr W Challis led the Hymn singing. (thanks to an item by the London Transport Old Comrades Association).

The memeorial reads to the Heroic dead and there are 54 names on it, including one Holder of the Militery Medal (MM).

The names are as follows,

Allery.H

Beckwith.A

This is a story written by my Late Great Uncle Horace (Ted) Barber of the beginning of his life as a tugboat man on the River Thames. Eventually he came to own a fleet of tugs.

" I was born on 4th January 1892.

When I was thirteen and in the Ex 7th Class I went to school in Stratford one Saturday to pass what was known as the Labour Examination. If you passed you were entitled to go to work at the age of thirteen instead of fourteen. Having passed, I made up my mind I would go on the water the day I was fourteen. On that day I strolled down to the Victoria Dock.

There were two barges moored in between two Dolphins, which supported the gangway. Also it was by tugs crew to relieve. In fact it was used by everyone to get in and out of their craft awaiting to go go up the river or in the docks. This was private property and belonged to William Cory and sons Ltd.

Harold Mugford, was East Ham's third Victoria Cross winner. He was born in London in 1884 and attended East Ham Grammar School. Mugford's later life was spent in Essex, he died on 16 June 1958 and was buried at Southend. His Victoria Cross is on display at the Imperial War Museum.

Harold Sandford Mugford was 22 years old, and a Lance-Corporal in 8 Squadron (Cavalry), Machine Gun Corps at Monchy-Le-Preux, France.

Private Sims V.C., born in Bloomsbury, London in 1835, one of two Victoria Cross winners buried in the City of London Cemetery, Manor Park. Sims died a pauper in the Union Workhouse in the City of London on 6 December, 1881. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the City of London Cemetery. The memorial plaque was erected in April 2003 by the management of the Cemetery.

Private Sims of 34th Border Regiment was only 19 years old when posted to the Crimea.  He was mentioned in Dispatches published in the London Gazette, 24th February 1857

"For having, on 18th June 1855, after the Regiment had retired into the trenches from the assault on the Redan, Crimea, gone out into the open ground under heavy fire in broad daylight and brought in wounded soldiers outside the trenches."

Sergeant Patrick Mullane V.C. 1858-1919, a veteran of the Defeat of Maiwand, Afghanistan, 1880, was living with his sister, Mrs E. Mahoney at 31 Coronation Road, Plaistow when he died on 20 November 1919.  Aged 61, he was then working as a Writer at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. He was buried in an unmarked grave in St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, Leytonstone. There is a memorial plaque in the cemetery chapel, given by his regiment, the Royal Artillery.

Mullane, an Irishman, was born in Ahmednager, Deccan, eatern India in October 1858.

During the 2nd Afghan War, Sergeant Mullane of the Royal Horse Artillery earned his Victoria Cross at the Defeat at Maiwand, north of Khandahar on 27 July 1880.  On the day of battle, the Afghan hordes surged forward overwhelming the British infantry.

Sergeant Patrick Mullane V.C (1858 - 1919) of 31 Coronation Road, Plaistow

The plaque, in the chapel at St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, Leytonstone, was given by his regiment, the Royal Artillery.

Sergeant Patrick Mullane VC of E/B Battery RHA at the Defeat of Maiwand, Afghanistan, 1880, who won his medal when the gun position was overrun by the enemy."

George Drewry is one of two Victoria Cross winners burried in the City of London Cemetery at Manor Park.

He was accidentally killed whilst on active service on HM Trawler ‘William Jackson' at Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands. A block fell from a derrick and fractured his skull.

Midshipman George L. Drewry VC

George Drewry was born on 3rd November 1894, the son of Thomas and Mary Drewry of 58 Claremont Road, Forest Gate. He attended Merchant Taylors' School in the City of London.

He was 20 years old and serving as a Midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve on HMS Hussar when he won his Victoria Cross during the Gallipoli landings on 25 April 1915.