The wonderful shop of Mr Rowe, jeweller

 I think if any of Marlow's historic shop keepers could sell coal to Newcastle, it would probably be father and son Frederick and Frederic Rowe, jewellers, silversmiths and watchmakers of the High Street. Prolific advertisers, their shop windows and promotional material really shows the changing fashions and concerns of the day.  

The Rowe's premises will be remembered by many as the site of fellow jewellers F Hinds. At the time of writing (2025) it is occupied by The White Company. Previously the site was occupied by the premises of Richard Harding who is famous for building the magnificent pleasure barge The Star Of The Thames in the land locked garden. More of that here.  Earlier still it was the site of the Turks Head inn (aka The Saracens Head). It was rented from the Williams family of Temple House until 1905 when the Rowe family purchased the shop themselves. 

A man with a shocking talent 

Frederick senior was a native of Barnstaple, arriving in Marlow c 1862 as a young man. He married Anna, youngest daughter of Marlow Baptist minister, bookseller and stationer John Winch Burnham in 1870 at Bloomsbury Chapel, London. Frederick himself was associated with the Congregational church and assisted in their Sunday School for many years. So far so conventional. But in his spare time, our man has some interesting hobbies. He clearly loved mechanics and had a great curiousity about the technology of the day. Frederick could be found at many fetes and fundraising bazaars accompanied by his galvanic battery in the 1870s and 1880s.  Patrons paid for the novelty of being - relatively - gently electrocuted. I say relativey as a report of an event he attended in 1883 said the shocks were quite large and made people cry out. Customers were told to hold on tight to something to steady themselves during the experience! 

If you wished to be entertained in a quieter manner, Frederick could cater for that too. His flea circus was almost as much of a staple of local events as his battery. But the items I would most like to have seen were Frederick's collection of working models. I don't know if he made them all himself, but his expertise as a watch and clockmaker suggests he'd have the skills needed to do so. One was a model of Marlow bridge complete with vehicles going over it and boats going under. What a charming sight that must have been. 

Frederick was a committee member and strong supporter of the Victorian era Mutual Improvement society, which hosted lectures, talks and debates for mostly working class men and traders. They eventually amalgamated with the Marlow Literary and Scientific Institute. More on that can be found here

Advert used 1903-7, showing some of Rowe's ever popular Marlow souvenirs. 

In his youth Frederick played for Marlow Football Club right at the start of its life in the 1870s. Match play was unconventional to our eyes as fewer rules had been standardised or at least successfully so. Many of Frederick's matches were played 15 a side, with perhaps an hour each half and this was quite acceptable. Some games extended for longer than the agreed match play time because both teams were enjoying themselves too much to stop! 

Frederick may sound quite a fun man to be around but there were two sources of amusement he did not approve of - Marlow Fair and Sunday opening of places such as museums and art galleries. The fair was held at that time in the street right out side his premises and was generally unpopular with shop keepers who had to watch people spending money there and not with them. The fair was also noisy but it was popular with a large portion of the town. When Frederick suggested at a 1879 public meeting that it should be cancelled for good, his idea was met with boos and hisses. The full story of the highs and lows of the event can be found here

His opinions on Sunday opening were expressed in debates with the Mutual Improvement Society and Marlow Institute on this subject in the 1890s. He said Sundays should be kept a day of rest for as many as possible. If educational attractions such as museums were allowed to open he feared it would lead for a demand for places such as refreshment rooms and fruit sellers to do the same to cater for guests and then where would it all end? Those speaking for the other side said that many of those in favour of Sunday closing themselves employed servants who worked at least part of that day. Frederick was one of those with at least one servant but he may have followed other non conformists who made a point of doing their own meals and fires on Sundays. Frederick said he thought in general working men had never had so many holidays and in fact they had too many altogether! 

Frederick and Anna retired to live at Fernbank, Cookham Dean and their eldest son Frederic who had acted as his assistant was then in charge at Rowe's. 

The Shop - something for all occasions 

It's in the era of Fred junior from the 1890s that the shop advertising took off. To avoid generational confusion I'm going to refer to this son as Rowe.  

Many Marlow people have a family keepsake that was designed and made by Rowe and his father. As silversmiths they produced the cups, medals and prizes for dozens of local events, not least the Marlow Regatta.  They also produced a large number of patented design tourist souvenirs too. These tourists may well have dined at hotels graced with fancy silverware also made at Rowe's - they specialised in kitting out such places including Marlow's Crown Hotel. He also supplied items like official badges for members of the rowing club and Marlow Urban District Councils new seal (1897). 

Throughout the year, Rowe could use any occasion to suggest you might like to pay him a visit to part with your cash. Severe fogs reported in London? Stay safe in Marlow and shop with him instead. (1909) Nights drawing in? Better order an alarm clock there to make sure you got up. 1907 models were known as the "Rousem" and the "Wakum". New year's Day? Just the time to go to Rowe's for a gift for the people you forgot at Christmas. 

Whatever the fashion was, Rowe could cater for it. Bohemian glass Christmas decorations were selling well in 1894 and self pouring teapots the following year. 

In 1904  the congregational church Maidenhead saw the marriage of Rowe and Miss Dora King of that town. They made their home at Thornwood, Cromwell Gardens. 

Rowe's in the First World War 

During the war trading was difficult for all. When in 1916 the town severely reduced the number of street lamps lit to save fuel (and the length of time those left were kept burning) Rowe announced he would have to close his shop early in the winter. Shop hours were routinely longer than is often usual now, so early closing meant 6pm on weekdays and 8pm on Saturday. Shoppers say they didn't feel safe walking to and from the shops in unlit streets. Businesses were also encouraged to save gas and gloomy premises did not show off Rowe's sparkling stock very well. 

Frederick appealed to the local tribunals for exemption for some of his highly skilled assistants from war service. He said they had unique specialised skills that could not be easily learned by someone stepping into their place who may be medically exempt from fighting for example. He was successful at getting their call up delayed but only temporarily. 

In 1915 Rowe's offered a discount on wedding rings to men in uniform. If your loved one was away, he suggested suitable gifts for those serving at the front could include a photo pocket case (from 1s each)  or an illuminated watch (from 21s). In 1917 Rowe offered to turn bits of Zeppelins into war mementos such as brooches or buttons. I wonder how many took him up on this offer? 

Roll onto 1918 and 1919 and Rowe could sell you an enamelled "Peace Flag brooch" instead. (1s) At the peace celebrations Rowe was in charge of the abundant flares and rockets that left the crowds ears joyfully ringing. 

Above, an advert from 1931 

Rowes in the 20s - 40s 

After the war there was a rush to both buy and sell gold and jewels.  Rowe said he was forced to work late to keep up with the demand generated by high prices. He placed adverts suggesting those who had family pieces to sell should take advantage of what may be never repeated high prices. You needed a licence to trade in these items and Rowe advertised cash rewards for those who had information to offer about those engaged in any illegal dealing locally. There was a long delay with the availability of parts for mechanical devices etc so stock levels were problematic at times. The arrival back on sale of items like alarm clocks and and Thermos flasks after years of shortages was a subject of celebration. (Rowe said he was the person to introduce a Thermos into Marlow)

The shop continued to offer innovative or fashionable  products and services such as self stropping razors (1922) and ear piercing (1930s). 

In the second world war came the familiar stock and supply problems. Rowe suggested antique jewellery as a good alternative to hard to find new pieces - and better still they required no coupons. For the man himself there was no better accessory though than a buttonhole of sweet peas - he was a champion grower of them. 

Throughout the war (and before) both Mr and Mrs Rowe were steady helpers at the Congregational church and the Marlow Cottage Hospital. He was a deacon in the church and a much beloved Sunday School superintendent there. Rowe was said to walk about with sweets from his ration in his pockets to give to children who he loved to stop and chat to on his daily walk. The couple had no youngsters of their own. Mrs Rowe ran the congregational Pleasant Tuesday Afternoon group which was a big feature of the social and spiritual life of the town in its time. In fact she is never absent from the list of helpers at church events, often contributing piano and violin numbers. Both supported the hospital in numerous ways from donating goods and acting as a lady visitor (Mrs Rowe) to winding and repairing  the hospital clock free of charge (Mr Rowe).  

Rowe retired in 1946 when the shop was taken over by F Hinds.  He died age 74 at home at Thornwood, Claremont Gardens two years later. 

Here's a couple of nuggets relating to the Rowes to end with: 

 - The artist E J Gregory rented one of their properties in Cookham Dean in 1893. 

- In 1893 an "artistic doorstep" was installed at the shop. This was a mosaic bearing the Rowe name in a central scroll. There's no apparent trace of it now. 

- Percival J Rowe, son of Frederick senior was the architect and surveyor for Wethered's Brewery.

- Among Rowe's contracts were to re-nickel the helmets of the Marlow Volunteer Fire Brigade. 

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

Related posts:

For more about any specific shop or business or premises see the index 

To find every mention of a Rowe or any other family see the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. 

Some sources: 

Census information from the transcripts of Jane Pullinger. 

Marlow "Almanack" & directory 1907.

Bucks Advertiser & Aylesbury News 18th June 1870, 14 July 1883

South Bucks Free Press 17th February 1871, 12th November 1879, 28th July 1882, 26th October 1883, 14thbDecember 1894, 15th February 1895, 8th November 1912, 5th March 1914, 10th December 1915, 30th June & 27th October 1916, 16th February 1917

South Bucks Standard - 23rd December 1892,  7th September 1894, 6th April 1897,  8th January 1909, 25th November 1910

Bucks Free Press 25th July & 22nd November 1918, 4th March 1921, 4th January 1924, June 3rd 1927, 20th February 1931, 4th March 1932 to 26th November 1943, 21st January 1944, 6th February 1948.

Maidenhead Advertiser 3rd March & 30th August  1893, 8th June 1904

William's Estate Sale map 1905, with thanks to the local history group, Marlow Society. 

Kelly Directory for Bucks 1911, 1920, 1923, 1939. 

Marlow Town Guide 1931 

©Marlow Ancestors. 

The Dreaded Pox In Marlow.

 Smallpox (not for the squeamish!)

You are feeling a bit tired, and at the back of your mind there is the thought that you might be going down with a cold. You check the funds in your purse or pocket and contemplate a visit to the reliable Mr Foottit in the High Street or perhaps good old Mr Cannon. Those chemists always have some promising pick-me-up when you feel yourself sagging. I'll go later, you think, it might pass. Save my money for now.

By the afternoon there's no doubt that you are sick. You ache all over. Your head throbs. You stand shakily on the threshold of your home. The shops are only a couple of streets away but suddenly such a walk feels too far. Standing up worsens the growing pain in your back. You call to one of the neighbourhood children playing nearby and send him to the nearest chemist with the promise of a coin for his trouble. See what there is for a cold, you say. No, say influenza. This can't be only a cold.

You receive a powder, and the bill from the boy, dose yourself and retire to bed. There you remain for days, feverish. The powder is doing nothing for you and your throat feels raw. Pushing up the sleeves of your nightshirt you notice spots on your skin. A fearful possibility has entered your mind. With all the strength you can muster you get out of bed to find your looking glass. With a little prayer you raise the mirror to your face, opening your mouth. The bursting sores you see inside leave you in no doubt. There are no other disease rashes like this. You have smallpox and within days there is a one in three chance that you will be dead...

Few diseases were the source of such terror as smallpox or "the dreaded pox" as it was known. Those that didn't die from it frequently bore deep scars on their faces for the rest of their lives to the degree that some covered their faces in public or refused to go out at all. The marriage possibilities of numerous young women and even some men were felt to have been destroyed by the pox's ravages on their complexion. Scarring also occurred elsewhere on the body as the pox spots would spread from the initial mouth area to much of the body including the soles of the feet and palms of the hands. These spots started flat before hardening and filling, bursting open, and then scabbing over.

In 1837 nearly 100 people died of smallpox in Marlow. Two years later the town suffered another outbreak which killed 164 people and infected many more. Periodic smaller outbreaks occurred regularly in the 1800s. In the closing years of the 1800s a Marlow magistrate recalled a time within living memory when as many as a third of those you met in the streets carried smallpox scars. At the time of his speaking you would still meet similar people but nowhere near as regularly. 

The above magistrate was speaking well after the introduction of a smallpox vaccine. Marlow was a place known throughout the Victorian age and into the 1900s for vaccination reluctance. In 1859 Marlow doctor Robert Colbourne lamented that forty nine out of fifty children he met had not been vaccinated against smallpox. The vaccines were suitable even for babies. This was critical as at least half of the children under the age of one who caught the disease died from it. In some outbreaks that figure was even higher. A foetus could, it was reported, contract the disease from the mother in utero and thus be born with it.

Vaccine refusal was usually on the grounds of safety concerns but perhaps was also sometimes on religious grounds, as local non-conformist Christian families seem especially likely to have refused all vaccinations, not just the smallpox one. They may have felt vaccinators were wrongfully "playing God". Vaccination did not necessarily prevent smallpox infection, far from it, but it made death less likely. Also counting against the arguement for vaccination was the fact that some of those who received the vaccine came down with a form of pox as a direct result of it. This was not typically fatal but it could still cause disfigurement and days of illness (and thus unemployment) which poor families could not afford to endure. 

In 1920 in a council meeting it was stated that about 1 in 7 Marlow children still had not had their available childhood vaccinations, smallpox or otherwise. Councillor Harvey said that he thought vaccines were largely a money making scheme for doctors, which caused the present Dr Dickson, a smallpox survivor himself, great offence. Smallpox vaccines were free to the patient but doctors received money from health authorities for giving them out. They would come to your home to inject you and also visited places such as schools. 

While Drs Dickson and Colbourne were firm advocates for vaccination the efficacy of the smallpox vaccine received a more lukewarm response from other local medical men. In 1894 the Wycombe Union district number one chief medical officer said that he couldn't really say whether smallpox vaccines worked to prevent smallpox though he thought they were worth persisting with until they were conclusively proved to be ineffective. This was just after the town's last major outbreak of the disease in the 1800s, when 28 people were infected. Thankfully this was by a milder form than usual and no deaths were recorded.

As a survivor Dr Dickson would have got reasonable though not absolute protection from reinfection. For this reason women who had pox scars to prove that they had been infected were much in demand to nurse the newly infected, saving members of the patient's household running the risk. Even if there was no active outbreak in their home area some people in the 1700s and 1800s decided to employ smallpox survivors as servants as a matter of routine as they were unlikely to bring the pox into the family.

Families also liked their doctors to have had smallpox previously if possible. You didn't want to arrive at his house with indigestion and go home with the pox. There is evidence that during outbreaks people held back from consulting doctors on other matters for fear of infection. This had a bad effect on their businesses. Dr Culhane during the 1893 outbreak was estimated to have lost £50 of his expected income through his, heroic and dedicated, serving of patients effected by smallpox and the reticence of others to be seen by him as a result. The authorities compensated him slightly over half of his losses which is all he asked for. This was somewhat begrudgingly given by the local poor law union, especially by one member who asserted that smallpox was a big fuss over nothing and could be cured by the application of cream of tartar!

A two month closure order on the schools also brought unintended financial consequences for the town's educational staff. Teachers were unable to collect the usual fees from their pupils if the children weren't allowed to come to school and to add insult to injury the dim-witted education authorities threatened to cut funding from Marlow schools for their "poor attendance rates" during the time they were officially closed. The mistress of the Bovingdon Green School didn't know how she was going to keep her school going.

Who got the pox?

Children often seem to have brought smallpox into the home of affected Marlow families. Once there it spread easily between people by way of shared bedding (most children shared beds with their siblings), or by the affected person talking in close proximity to, coughing near, or otherwise being in close contact with others. The responsible variola virus wasn't sufficiently contagious to affect those not in very close contact and contagion usually flowed from patients who had reached a stage of feeling quite ill (and thus not likely to be out and about) rather than from those still in the earliest stages of smallpox.

It was understood that isolation of patients should occur but that was a hard ask for families living in one or two room homes which was the case with some Marlow households in the early and mid Victorian era and of course earlier. 

Being in the overcrowded workhouse also increased your smallpox risk. Marlow Workhouse in Munday Dean Lane had no ability to isolate the sick from the well. Skin infections and lice were a routine problem as a result and in 1841 came smallpox to add to the woes of the inmates. The Wycombe Union houses where Marlow paupers were sent after our own workhouse closed in 1843 suffered their own regular outbreaks. Fourteen inmate children were found to have smallpox in 1864. The workhouse used two rooms at the top of the main building to contain the infected and all inmates were banned from leaving the premises for a fortnight as a precaution. It isn't known whether any Marlow children fell ill during this outbreak though Marlovians were at several other times blamed for bringing the pox into the union house.

Infected domestic homes would be disinfected, the patient's clothes burned and everyone within the household offered vaccination. As I stated above, vaccination did not bring complete protection from the disease. It was thought wise to re-vaccinate someone every time they were suspected of having come into contact with the disease, rather than trust to the continued effectiveness of any previous vaccinations that they had been given. Some people's arms became so marked with vaccination scars that they joked that they were more disfigured by the cure than the disease. Vaccination within 4 days of exposure was considered best for protection. 

Supplies of lymph from calves infected with cowpox were sent from London at a cost in 1893 of two shillings for a tube that could vaccinate three against the related smallpox. Those three people were then used as human wells for vaccine and the next three people to need it were vaccinated using lymph drawn from their arms once the initial vaccination was thought to have sufficiently "taken". The bodies of the second lot of people would then be used as a source of vaccine for three more people and so on. This "arm to arm" programme was cheaper then using bought in calf lymph for each potential person to be vaccinated but it could be fiercely resisted. Outside of times of outbreaks the main people to be vaccinated were very young children and many parents took a dim view of this repeated cutting of their children. It was painful and left scars. 

Technically from 1852 receiving vaccination against was compulsory for children who did not have poor health or whose parents did not get an exemption on the grounds of ethical beliefs against vaccination. This was little enforced before the 1870s and even then parents often secured exemptions if they wanted them and a great many local authorities simply refused to prosecute refusers right into the 1900s.

Eventually a permanent isolation hospital was built for the Wycombe district at Booker. A temporary hospital had been erected earlier at Marlow Common in order to contain the 1893 Marlow smallpox outbreak. On that occasion a milder form of the disease predominated and of 28 infected Marlow people (all from Dean Street) sent to the hospital, none died. Dr Culhane treated the 28, plus 2 sent from Wooburn, and monitored the families of the patients who had to isolate in their homes with the help of nurse Mary Menday, sent from the Wycombe Board of Guardians.

Servants living in the homes of their employers stood at great risk of being dismissed or at least temporarily sent away if they were so much as suspected of having the disease. In 1870 smallpox suspect Miss Jones was paid off and told to leave by her panicking employers when she began to feel unwell at her job in London. She did indeed have the disease and her return to her parents in Bovingdon Green caused an outbreak in Marlow. The poor girl almost collapsed with exhaustion in trying to reach the care of her parents. She walked home to Marlow from Bourne End station after catching the train from London Paddington where she had had to endure a five hour wait, alone and unwell, for the right train. Understandably this abandonment of a young, very sick girl by her employers caused outrage. Not all employers were so unfeeling. The girl's father worked for Wethered's Brewery* and they continued to pay him during his enforced isolation at home with her. Without such payments rental obligations could not be met and eviction and homelessness was a very real possibility for families stricken with the disease. The local guardians of the poor promised to cover the rent of some families while they isolated but there was, with good reason, often distrust that sufficient money or any money at all would indeed be given to them. A case in point was Mr Bowles of Marlow who suffered illness for six weeks during the 1893 outbreak. His wife did not become ill but couldn't go out to work as she was required to isolate and the family were pushed to the brink. They had been promised in front of witnesses money to cover their rent and to replace the contaminated clothes they had burnt but received nothing. 

Miss Jones wasn't the only person to bring smallpox home from London. The same month Jones returned, a man with smallpox did the same and started his own small outbreak in Marlow. A decade earlier five female rag sorters at Temple Mills fell ill with smallpox after handling London rags which were noticed too late to "smell of smallpox". The peculiar and distinctive smell which clung to smallpox patients, their clothing and bedding, mostly in the late stages of the disease, was reported quite often by ordinary people but medical journals rarely mention it.

The 1893 outbreak in Marlow also began when a rag sorter handled contaminated rags. She passed infection on to her little daughter who then unwittingly spread it further. The little girl and her mother had the last name Ford but lived in the household of the mother's employer Mr Simmonds, the rag and bone man. 

The perception was that smallpox in London began most often in the autumn and then spread out to the nearby counties by way of travellers packed tight into stagecoaches or, later, railway carriages. There seems some evidence to suggest infections were at their most severe around April and May. 

We can't blame London for all Marlow infections. You can bet the severe outbreaks at High Wycombe in 1870 and at Reading back in 1772 affected Marlow too. 

There was a belief that rubbish and dirt could harbour the pox and that bad smells could make you more vulnerable to infection. James Beckett in complaining to the Marlow Urban Council council in 1898 said that he believed that the piles of refuse dumped in an old gravel pit next to his marlow home had caused a smallpox outbreak in the immediate vicinity. 

Treatment 

Symptom management was the best that could be hoped for from doctors. Either your immune system could cure the disease or it could not and there was nothing that anyone could do about it. 

Cooling drinks such as chilled milk and lemonade (non fizzy in those days) were recommended for those in the grip of the fever which was such a prominent early symptom of the disease. Eating wasn't easy for small pox patients so liquid strengthening foods like the ubiquitous "beef tea" (the water beef has been cooked in, no tea involved) or gruel had to be resorted to. Opium was proscribed for pain. Severe back ache in the lumbar region was one of the diagnostic features of small pox. A lesser known complication of the disease is blindness so the eyes of sufferers needed careful bathing and care if the conjunctiva became inflamed. The rest of the body was gently sponged to clean the patient and to soothe them. Olive oil was dabbed onto your skin sores if the person nursing you was a gentle soul, carbolic acid if they had more a more savage approach to patient care. Both the oil and the acid had their advocates as means of decreasing smallpox scarring.

You will note that too many of these remedies were well out of reach for the poorest patients, the very ones most likely to suffer the disease. Beef, lemons for making lemonade and olive oil were all rare luxury items for them. If they had no well or water supply at home (and during the earliest most severe outbreaks most would not) they would be dependant during their isolation period on kind neighbours bringing them water with which to wash the patient or make up gruel. In cases where diarrhoea and vomiting accompanied the disease maintaining the hygiene of the patient without a domestic water supply must have been impossible.

Once isolation hospitals, temporary or permanent, became available, life for the affected poor became somewhat easier as while in hospital they were fed and treated at taxpayer expense not according to their own meagre means. If room ran out in the hospital the patients forced to isolate at home instead were delivered the necessities that they would have received in hospital. 

Smallpox is now extinct worldwide so that vaccination occurs only with those working in places such as research labs. The last cases locally were apparently in the 1920s. 

Written and researched by Charlotte Day. ©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use my research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog .

*A biography of Miss Jones' characterful mother Emily is available on the blog here

You may also interested in=

The 1890s flu epidemic in Marlow here Romantic troubles for Doctor Culhane here. Dr Dickson biog here

Selected Sources=

The World Health Organisation.

A Treatise On The Theory And Practice of Medicine by John Syer Bristowe of London. 1879 edition. Published by H.C Lea.

Transactions Medico-Chrirugical. The Journal of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, London. 1896. Volume 79.

The Lancet, April 2nd 1870. Google Books.

Reports to the Medical Officer of Privy Council 1866.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/10855-smallpox

Bucks Free Press 15th April 1859, 5th February 1864, 22nd Dec 1893, 11th April 1894, 30th December 1898 and 7th May 1920. Bucks Free Press Archives.

Buckingham Express 28th January 1871. South Bucks Standard April 13th 1894. British Library Archives accessed via the BNA.

Marlow in World War Two 1944-45

This is the last in a series of posts about Marlow during WW2.

Part One dealt with preparations for, and the early months of, the war here

Part Two covered 1940-41 here.

Part Three Covered 1942-3 here.

February 1944

Mr Ball of Westfield Medmenham is calling for local farmers to donate animals to a charity auction at Reading in aid of the Red Cross.

April 1944 

In the last 12 months, 43 Marlow families have experienced their family members being held as prisoners of war.

The Marlow Red Cross commanded by Julia Wethered of the High Street, plans to open a medical supply depot in the coming weeks.

The Ministry of Fuel reduces the amount of coal and coke that households can order, acknowledging that for some the new limits will not be enough for their needs.

Expectant mothers can now order an additional rational book for their unborn child so that they can access extra eggs, milk and meat (when available) during their pregnancy.

May 1944

A series of fundraising events take place in the town as part of the national Salute The Soldier Week fundraising drive. The aim is to encourage both cash donations and (in particular) investment in war bonds and savings bonds. To sell such savings products the savings committee hut in Marlow Bottom will open every day. The village has set its own target of £300 raised. Dwight D Eisenhower sends a letter to the town as a whole wishing Marlow luck with their efforts. His letter is itself auctioned off as part of the fundraising and is sold for £3 9 shillings. Novelist Rebecca West takes part in a charity quizz event at Court Garden as part of the week. A town parade to mark the week is joined in by 1300 people. The villagers of Marlow Bottom raise more than double their £300 target, while Marlow as a whole raises an astonishing £290,000. Later in the year the government gives Marlow a plaque to commemorate this success but where this was put we do not know (somewhere in town centre was the planned place).

June 1944 

Marlow Bottom's Red Cross volunteers arranged a fete to raise money for interned British residents of the Channel Islands.

July 1944 

Marlow Urban District Council has a target of collecting 10,000 books from the town for paper recycling. Children from the Girls, Boys, Roman Catholic and private Dial House schools are all dispatched to do door to door collections. Books of educational or antiquarian interest are not desired. Before the end of the month this target is exceeded by 2,000.

The volunteers at the British Restaurant in Marlow have been so overworked in recent months that there has been a fear that some will breakdown. The restaurant has had to stop serving suppers as a result, and is making a loss but at first refuses to follow official guidance as to raising their prices as some Marlow people cannot afford to pay more. In November losses are so great they are forced to increase prices against their wishes.

August 1944

Harry Belcher of West Street is fined for missing 5 Home Guard drill sessions (he was compulsorily enlisted into the Guards). His wife has been ill and in need of attendance plus as a private hire car driver his business is dependant on him being available in the evenings when drill practice is held. Harry feels he will lose his business if he keeps being called to practice when he needs to work and points out that he is hardly a war shirker - he joined up to fight in the last war when underage and suffered captivity as a prisoner of war then. Him and his wife have already lost their son in the current war and clearly with his grief and financial worries he has had enough. He tells those trying him that he has done enough for his country. 

October 1944

Leading Aircraft woman Betty Sweetman of Oak Tree Avenue has been working at RAF Fighter Command as an operations room "plotter" but has now been posted to similar operations in France. 

November 1944

Mrs Allen of Holland Road writes to the Bucks Free Press complaining about the terrible food in the British Restaurant at Marlow. Her veg was undercooked and her treacle tart dry and hard. Wycombe and Maidenhead she says have fine restaurants but not Marlow.

December 1944

Helga Stene, an escapee from Norway, gives a talk on life under the Nazis to a large audience at Court Garden.

 

Quarry Laundry organizes a Christmas Quizz to raise funds to buy every Marlow P.O.W 200 cigarettes. Any leftover funds are to go to their employees away serving in the war.

January 1945

The British Restaurant closes for good. Later this year it reopens as a canteen for schoolchildren.

The Marlow Bottom.W.I resolve to knit warm clothes for children in liberated countries.

February 1945

Marlow Urban District Council are on the urgent hunt for the blankets they gave out to the evacuees who came to the town, most of whom have now gone home, some probably with their blankets. The Ministry of Health has told the council that they will be charged for any blankets not collected and returned to the Ministry.

Car headlights can now be unmasked in a lifting of blackout regulations .

May 1945

May 7th - Germany unconditionally surrenders with the surrender coming into effect on the 8th, known as V.E Day. The official announcement comes over the radio. However everyone knows about the Allied victory already, and before the King's public address the town is festooned with flags and bunting and the churches have already hosted thanksgiving prayers.

The official announcement is broadcast in the cinema in Station Road and to the dancers at Court Garden at a quickly organized celebration event. A collection is made at the dance for POWs. Impromptu street parties spring up around the town before the surrender announcement, followed on V.E Day by more organized ones. One of the latter is in Glade Road and involves not only a tea in the street but sports and games in a nearby field for the children, a magic show, singing and dancing. Another tea is organized for  children jointly by the mothers of lower Newtown Road and Dedmere Road. Mr and Mrs Hodges of Victoria Road organize a party to which those of Station Road are also invited. Poor Mrs Hodges, falls over in one of the associated running races and fractures her arm.

A hundred children from upper Newtown Road and Little Marlow Road attend a celebration tea in the church hall followed by games in the park.

At Whitsun a victory fete is held at the Red Cross hut at Marlow Bottom. 

Prisoners of war returning home to recuperate after their release from medical treatment will temporarily get double rations every week to help them rebuild their strength.

Salvation Army band member Arthur Furmston returns home after over 5 years as a POW and is given a welcome home tea and social by other church members.

A special church service at All Saints gives thanks to the civilian volunteers that have helped during the war, as they are about to be dismissed. These and various youth groups gather and parade to the church beforehand.

Land girl Miss J Duncalffe gets a scarlet armband in honour of her four years continuous service at Seymour Court Farm.

July 1945

The parents of some of the last few child evacuees in Marlow have proved untraceable so they will need to stay for now.

August 1945

Victory over Japan is announced by the Prime Minister on the radio. The next two days are declared holidays but some Marlow people haven't heard the news and turn up for work anyway on the first day. Flags and bunting are again brought out across the town and people dance on the lawns of Court Garden. Thanksgiving services are held in the parish church and the Baptist church. Residents of South Place and Platts Row in Mill Road have a joint V.J Day street party complete with fireworks and a bonfire. The town's children are treated to a tea, sports competitions along with more informal games like pillow fighting and more fireworks. There are similar treats for children at Little Marlow.

Wethered's brewery have their own celebrations for their employees and families.

William Perry of Berwick Road dies after celebrating in the pub with his friends, drinking and dancing. When he gets home a little worse for wear he vomits and chokes as a result.

At Medmenham there is a garden party at the Vicarage, a dance in the village hall and a tea for the village children for V.J Day celebrations.

September 1945

Councillor Kibblewhite, hopes the Ministry of Agriculture will be able to give back Gossmore Recreation Ground as the town sorely needs space for football etc. At the moment a crop of clover is growing in it.

Mr Whalley of the Lawn is told by the council he must postpone plans to extend his home as due to the war labourers have been in very short supply and are more needed elsewhere in the town. In particular they are going to be building some long planned council houses in Seymour Park Road, which have had to be put off repeatedly because of labour and material supply problems.

October 1945

Marlow residents visit High Wycombe Guildhall to view a display of crucial war items secretly made in Wycombe during the war. These include tank and bomber plane parts.

November 1945

Memorial services are held as usual for the dead of the previous war. The Vicar in his address acknowledges that the recent war has robbed many of their last faith in God and they have turned from the church.

Late in 1945 

Marlow building company Y.J Lovell is building "prefab" accommodation in Reading. These are an emergency response to war-derived housing shortages.

Some Sources=

Bucks Free Press 25th August 1944, 25th May 1945, 16th November 1945. Bucks Free Press Archives.

Personal Interview.

Bucks Herald 18th February 1944, British Library Archives, Via the BNA.

British Journal of Commerce, Post War Trading Edition, 1945. London.