James Leslie Hicks Eytle was born on 3 August 1922 in British Guiana (now Guyana), the fourth of the seven children of James Alexander Eytle (1882-1956) and Gertrude Caroline Viola Eytle née Hicks (1888-1965). His father was a gold miner.
His siblings were: Dorothy Marion Eytle (1914-1995), Julian Alwyn Eytle (1916-2012), Ernest Benjamin Eytle (1918-1968), Gwendoline Henrietta Eytle (1924-2010), Thomas Daniel Hicks Eytle (1926-2007) & Patricia Daphne Eytle (1930-2021).
He is shown in the London Gazette of 6 October 1944 as having been commissioned on 23 August 1944 as a Second Lieutenant in the Caribbean Section in the Infantry General List. On the 18 August 1950 he and his wife, Doreen Eunice Eytle née Wilkinson (d.2017), arrived in Liverpool, Lancashire, having departed from New York, USA, aboard the MV Georgic of the Cunard White Star Line. The ship's manifest gives his occupation as a civil servant and their proposed UK address was to be 15 Victoria Street, London. Their last country of permanent residence was shown as British West Indies. His parents separated in 1951 and his mother and siblings moved to London.
They had two children: Joan A. Eytle whose birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1951 in the Marylebone registration district and David M. Eytle whose birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1957 in the Surrey North East registration district.
Electoral registers from 1952 to 1954 show him listed at 3 St Quinton Avenue, North Kensington, W10. In 1957 & 1958 he was registered at 27 Ringford Road, Wandsworth, SW18 and from 1959 to 1961 at 27b Ringford Road. From 1961 to 1964 the registers show him at 86 Breakspears Road, Brockley, SE4 and telephone directories continued to show him at this address until 1984. Electoral registers in 2003 & 2004 list him at 11, Brockley Park, London, SE23 1PT, and in 2008 at 238, Ardgowan Road, London, SE6 1XA.
The Lewisham Heritage Wikidot page contains much information about this man including that he was the first black mayor of Lewisham, serving in 1984-1985 and again in 1990-1991.
He died, aged 87 years, on 8 March 2010 and was cremated on 26 March 2010 at Hither Green Crematorium, Verdant Lane, London. SE6 1TP.
We published the above information in June 2022 and in January 2023 we were contacted by Pamela Jocelyn Eytle, the eldest of the three children of James Leslie Hicks Eytle. We are very grateful to her in pointing out our error in stating he only had two children and our omission for not including her as his eldest child. Pamela wrote and advised that:- "Your article states that he and his wife had two children - David and Joan. This is incorrect. I am the first born child of my father/Leslie and his wife, my mother/Doreen. I was born while they still lived in what was then British Guiana, in Bartica. Documentation of my birth was lodged there and I hold a copy of my birth certificate. My father departed to study temporarily in the UK leaving my mother pregnant with my sister and myself - still a baby - in Guiana. Later my mother also departed for the UK, leaving me with my grandmother. At about the age of 4 a close friend of the family leaving Guiana for the UK agreed to take me with her and I re-joined my parents, sister and extended family at 3 St Quintin Avenue. My brother is 8 years younger than I am and so was born later".
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk and Andrew Behan.
