MITCHENALL FAMILY HISTORY

Ernest Cecil was born in Lee in October 1896, He was his father Williams fourth  son, and the first born in Lee, the family having moved closer into London from their origins in Kent. Their home in 1901 was in Beverley Cottages, and was probably alike Dacre Square, These properties were off Dacre Street, Lee, SE13, and the family stayed in this area around St Margarets, Lee, until affected by bombing in the second world war. 

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By 1911 the family had moved to 23 Lenham Road, and Ernest, at the age of 14, was a clerk at a grocers. 

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Ernest saw service in the Navy, at first with the Royal Naval Air Service, during the first world war, working as a machine hand. on the 3rd July 1916 he received a scar on his forehead. He served on the President II, possibly the Daedalus ( nominal depot ship for the RNAS), and other "ships". Both President II and  Daedulus were land based "ships". Later in 1918 he is recorded as an air mechanic with the Royal Air Force as an absent voter from home. As the RAF was only formed in 1918, he was an early serviceman - there as a result of his work in the RNAS. His relative George Samuel Mitchenall was also serving for the RAF at the same time.

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In June 1922 he was married at St Barnabas Ritherhithe to Violet Maud Simmonds, and their first son Stanley Ernest Reginald was born in September of 1923. The family were now living in Bermondsey, at 8 Maynard Road, but moved back to Catford (56 Barmeston Road) by 1927. In 1930, womens suffrage meant Violet was also listed.

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Their younger son was born in 1932 (living), and they lived in Barmeston Road until  1937, moving to 10 Morehead Road, Lewisham where the 1939 war census records them. After the war, in 1947 they were at 10 Otterden Street, Lewisham, and later at 91 Knaphill Road. There is an almost complete electoral registration record from 1927. They were still in Knaphill Road in 1960 when Ernest died in 1960.

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