Subject

Councillor in the Borough of Hammersmith in 1948.

Our colleague Andrew Behan has researched this man : James Bishop Bennie was born on 11 July 1898 at Manse Road, Corstorphine, Midlothian, Scotland, one of seven children of Alexander Malcolm Binnie and Margaret Nisbet Binnie, nee Bishop. His father was a Mason's Labourer and they were still at this address at the time of the 1901 census. In late 1917 he married Dorothy Mary Amy Byron in Hammersmith and in early 1920 their son George Malcolm Binnie was born. Electoral registers show that from 1926 they were living at 17 Avenue Road, Hammersmith, W6. In 1938 the council changed the name of the road to Sycamore Gardens, W6. Electoral records also show that from 1945 they were living at 107 Percy Road, Shepherds Bush, W12.

He was elected as a Labour Party councillor onto the Metropolitan Borough of Hammersmith, serving on the Housing and Town Planning Committee, and in 1946 was also elected as a member of the London County Council for three years. He was appointed as a Justice of the Peace. In 1952 his wife died in Hammersmith followed by his son a few months later in Marlborough, Wiltshire. He continued to live at 107 Percy Road, W12 until 1957 when he moved to 9 Fairway, Woodford Green, Essex. He died in Wanstead Hospital, Makepeace Road, London, E11, aged 64 years, on 1 May 1963. Probate records show his estate totalled £261-17s-0d.