Frederick Joseph Eid, of 37 Albert Road, Silvertown, was born on 17th July 1906 and died 16^th June 1979. Mr Eid served in the Guards as a regular soldier between the wars, transferring to the Royal Tank Regiment and later to the Royal Army Service Corps (In this photograph he is wearing the RTR shoulder flash and tank badge). His medals are: 1939-45 Star; Africa Star (a clasp is missing from this, which was probably awarded for service in the 8th Army); Italy Star; the Defence Medal and War Medal.

The Eid family came to Britain from Prussia. According to the 1891 census Jacob Eid was a baker and he and his wife, Louisa, lived at 36 Andrew Street, Silvertown. The 1901 census lists the family at 40 Constance Street, as a grocer and baker. By 1949 this was Eid Bros., bakers. The family continued trading into the 1960s from a shop in Cranbrook Road, West Silvertown.

Part of Newham Heritage & Archives collection

Patrick O'Keeffe served as a private in the 1st battalion Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment).

  Ships from all over the world used to berth at the Docks to unload their cargoes - grain, meat and tobacco among them. Here is a glimpse of that era.

"A Walk Through the Victoria and Albert Docks"

Extract from London-over-the-Border Church Fund Grand Historical Bazaar Handbook 1914

By J. G. BROODBANK - Chairman of the Dock and Warehouse Committee of the Port of London Authority.

"During the last ten years there has been a marked revival in this country of the Imperial spirit. The seed was sown in the English nation when the adventurers of the Elizabethan period stepped out into the world to see what was to be seen and to take what could be taken. Fortunately the moderns are not guided by the buccaneering impulses of the 16th century, and without making invidious comparisons we may fairly claim to say that the ideals of the true British imperialist of to-day show a considerable advance on those of his ancestors. Those ideals are varying, but underlying them is a real desire for co-operation in the best interests of everybody in the British Empire.

How can this co-operation best be achieved? Undoubtedly it is greatly assisted by the exchange of neighbourly and pleasant sentiments and acts; but to my mind not the least practical method is that of the exchange of goods, in other words, by the relationships created by trade.

If this point is a good one, then the Victoria and Albert Docks can be reckoned as one of the chief elements in the promotion of the imperial ideal, for there is no place in the whole of the British Empire where so many goods are brought in from the Colonies and overseas possessions, and where so many goods are sent out to those parts of the Empire.

MEMORIES OF CUSTOM HOUSE AREA AND THE DOCKS.       

BY J. H. R. HAMMOND, B.A.