Rupert Walter Finch (1902-1965)

Rupert Walter Finch (1902-1965).
My great-uncle.

Rupert was Walter Finch and Annie Budgen’s oldest child, born in Bynes Road, Croydon, Surrey, on 14 July 1902 and baptised at the old family church of St Mary’s Church in Reigate on 28 December of that year.

Records show him registered as a pupil at Brighton Road Junior School in Croydon in 1910 and living at home in Bynes Road at the time of the 1921 census, at which point he was working as a stockbroker’s clerk in the City of London.

In 1924 Rupert married Edith Madge Parish in Croydon. She’d been born in Littlehampton, Sussex, on 17 August 1903 but by the 1911 census was living with her siblings and widowed mother Eliza, who was the landlord of the Prince Albert pub in Mitcham Road, Croydon. The Surrey Mirror of 24 July 1925 reported on a number of speeding cases before the Reigate magistrates, of which Rupert’s was one. This gave his address as 33 Hathaway Road, Croydon. Edith and Rupert had a son, Rupert David Finch, who was born on 28 September 1925 (and died in 2006). The family then lived for a time at 4 Greenhill Avenue, Caterham, Surrey, at the same time as his brothers Geoffrey and Gerald and their wives lived in the road. According to Rupert’s niece, he did some sort of deal with the builder for them all.

Rupert cropped up in a less-than-gripping story from the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette on 20 July 1934:

• Barnstaple salesman sustains fractured leg
  Alfred Southcombe of Bradiford, Barnstable, aged 63, salesman employed by Messrs Dornat, mineral water manufacturers, was admitted to North Devon Infirmary on Friday suffering from a complicated fracture of the right leg and cut head, the result of a road accident near Bishop’s Tawton. Southcombe had descended from one of the firm’s lorries on to the road when a car driven by Mr Rupert Walter Finch, of South Croydon, staying at Atherington, passed and there was a collision. The car capsized and the driver suffered a slight cut but the other occupants were not injured.

The 1939 Register listed Rupert as an agent with the Co-Operative Insurance Society but during the Second World War he served with the RAF Police. I’m unclear why his service didn’t start until 21 July 1942 but after this he was sent for training at the RAF Police school and then to the RAF station at Castle Bromwich. During the war this was mostly a base for testing fighters and bombers, including Spitfires, that were being built locally at the Castle Bromwich Aeroplane Factory. In 1943 he was posted to the south of Port Said in Egypt at RAF Ballah, which was mainly a training school and during Rupert’s time was home to the Middle East Central Gunnery School. His record shows that he then served at Provost HQ. By 1945 he was ranked as a Temporary Sergeant and at some point during his career he was mentioned in despatches, although I’ve yet to find out why.

Rupert divorced Edith and in 1947 married Joan Thompson in Westminster. They had a daughter in 1954.

After the war Rupert managed several pubs including the Green Man near Heathrow (probably Feltham) and the Jenny Lind in Hastings (the Hastings and St Leonards Observer of 13 January 1951 reported the switch of licence). His final stop was at the Elephant and Castle (now The Speaker), a pub at 46 Great Peter Street in Westminster. Electoral rolls showed him there from at least 1957 to his death at Westminster Hospital on 31 December 1965. The causes of death were given as lung cancer and broncho-pneumonia. He left effects worth £5,365.

The Westminster & Pimlico News of 14 January 1966 reported on Rupert’s death and cremation at Streatham, South London. It noted that he had started in the pub trade in 1928 before taking a break, returning in around 1950. The report also noted that he was a keen snooker player and referee.

Joan remarried in 1966, her new husband being Albert Austin. She died in 2002.

Rupert’s son, who was known as David, was a civil engineer/surveyor who worked for councils in Cornwall and Wiltshire among others.

Sources: BMD records from Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Surrey Records Office. The British Newspaper Archive. Family memories. National School Admission Registers & Log-books 1870-1914. RAF Police personnel files with the Ministry of Defence.