Subject

Chairman Works Committee for the Chiltern Street car park in 1965.

Luckily for us some of his miniature medals were auctioned in 2009 and the lot description gives some information about Flight Lieutenant Herbert Henry Sandford, Royal Air Force, O.B.E., D.F.M.. He went on to serve as a Councillor for Marylebone and then Westminster and was awarded the OBE in 1963 for his work in the field of road safety. "One of his political colleagues jested that his first award was for bombing the Germans, whilst his second was for action against the British motorist!"

Andrew Behan has kindly provided this research: Herbert Henry Sandford, O.B.E., D.F.M., was born on 19 November 1916 in Islington, the eldest of the three children of Herbert Charles Sandford (1892-1938) and Grace Ellen Sandford née Onley (1891-1977). His brother was Reginald Arthur Sandford (1918-1977) and his sister was Betty Doreen Sandford who was born in 1930. Electoral registers for 1924 show his parents living at 236 Wightman Road, North Haringey, but from 1925 to 1931 they were registered at 119 Princes Avenue, London, N13. The passenger manifest for the 'Balmoral Castle' ship belonging to The Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co Ltd shows him, his parents and both his siblings arriving at Southampton, Hampshire, on 11 August 1932 having departed from Natal, Union of South Africa. Their address in England was recorded as 353 Liverpool Road, London, N1 and his father was shown as an engineer.

The electoral registers of 1933 and 1935 show his parents at 71 Church Street, Stoke Newington, but the 1937 register shows them at 71/73 Church Street, Stoke Newington. The electoral register for 1939 and the 1939 England and Wales Register both record him living with his widowed mother and two siblings at 4 Howard Court, Howard Road, London, N15. His occupation was recorded as an insurance clerk and his mother was a sewing machinist.

He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, service number 1152503 and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal whilst serving as a sergeant with 35 Squadron. This was published in the London Gazette on 20 November 1942, but by then he had already received a commission as a Pilot Officer on probation as published in the London Gazette on 27 July 1942.

Electoral registers from 1946 to 1948 show him and his mother at 1 Howard Court, Howard Road, London, N15.

In 1949 he married Jessie I. Traver in Islington and electoral registers from 1949 to 1957 show them both at 15 Alma Square, London, N.W.8. From 1956 to 1965 he was a councillor representing the Hamilton Terrace Ward on the St Marylebone Metropolitan Borough Council. The electoral registers from 1959 to 1965 show them both living at 6 Knoll House, Carlton Hill, London, N.W.8. He was awarded an O.B.E. in the 1963 Queen's Birthday Honours List as Chairman of the Works Committee, St Marylebone Metropolitan Borough Council. When London boroughs were restructured in 1965 and the St Marylebone Metropolitan Borough Council was abolished, he was elected as a councillor for the Lord's Ward on Westminster City Council and from 1968 to 1978 he served on the council as an alderman. He was a member of the Conservative Party and represented them from 8 April 1976 to 31 March 1986 on the Greater London Council for St Marylebone and was the Chairman of Planning for the Central Area from 24 May 1977.

He died, aged 82 years, on 11 March 1999 in Westminster and was cremated in Islington on 17 March 1999.