Subject

Chairman and Secretary of Webheath Tenants Association for over 30 years, and married for 56 years.

From the Camden New Journal "Bill Abbs was primarily known in Camden as an “old school” fighter for tenants’ rights who devoted his life to the Webheath Estate in Kilburn." "A painter and decorator, Mr Abbs was born in 1917 and grew up in Church Street, Paddington. He was an amateur footballer and supported Queens Park Rangers. He married Daphne, a model with Marks and Spencer, after the Second World War. Mr Abbs was 83 and Daphne, who died a few months before him, was 79."

Since publishing this in 2018 our colleague, Andrew Behan, has researched this man and found that the 1917 year of birth in the Camden New Journal would appear to be a typographical error. He found that William Samuel Abbs was born on 16 December 1926, one of the 16 children of George Henry Abbs (1890- 1951) and Emily Rose Abbs née Grubb (1891-1963) who had married in 1909. His birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1927 in the Marylebone registration district.

Electoral registers in 1934 and 1935 show his parents listed at 28 Delamere Terrace, Paddington, but by 1938 they were listed at 4 Abourne Street, Maida Vale. He became eligible to vote in 1948 and he is also shown on the registers at this address until 1954.

He married Daphne Doreen Miles (1930-2009), the marriage being registered in the 2nd quarter of 1954 in Marylebone registration district. Electoral registers from 1956 to 1965 show them at 10 Eresby Road, London, NW6, next door to his wife's parents at 8 Eresby Road. Telephone directories until 1973 show him still listed at 10 Eresby Road, but from 1974 he was the telephone subscriber at Flat 177 Webheath, Netherwood Street, NW6.

He died, aged 83 years, in 2010.