Thorogood family in Fulham

Eileen Thorogood lived in Greyhound Mansions, Greyhound Road, Fulham.

In 1939 she was a shop assistant in “Home & Colonial” at the top of Greyhound Road but later moved to their Chiswick branch. When air raid sirens went off they had to close the shop and stay inside, sometimes for hours.

Eileen was called up in about 1941 and went to work in an aircraft factory in Coventry. After about 18 months she was allowed to return to London because the noise in the factory was making her ill.

Fulham memories:
Sitting on the communal stairs in Greyhound Mansions, Greyhound Road, Fulham when a land mine went off in a small street nearby (off the main road where Lillie Mansions are). Greyhound Mansions actually rocked with the blast. All the little terraced houses in the small street were demolished.

The night the roof of Greyhound Mansions caught fire and the residents had to put it out. This incident really frightened her father who until then had refused to leave their flat during a raid.

There was a “Rag & Bone” shop on a corner in Greyhound Road, Fulham. The family who ran the business lived on the premises and used to “go out into the country” during air raids but one night they had no petrol for their van so they went into the basement of the premises. 21 people was in the basement and all were killed by a blast that night.

Coming home from Coventry at weekends Eileen and her sister Phyllis would buy material or wool to make new clothes. They bought dress fabric at 6d a yard and used their mother’s hand turned sewing machine.

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