Stanley Robert HOOKINS was born on 4 July 1909 at 19 Tarver Road, in Newington, the 9th of 14 children born to Henry Edward HOOKINS and his wife Grace Elizabeth (formerly HALE).
In his first Census in 1911 Stanley was living at 4 Mason Street, Old Kent Road with his parents + 6 siblings and 10 years later at 11 Otto Street in Kensington with his parents and 6 siblings.
There were obvious difficulties in subsequent years as there were 55 recorded instances of admissions and discharges from Christ Church Workhouse in Southwark between 1926 and 1929.
In 1934 the following newspaper article appeared entitled Literary Burglar Statement in Court:
"A prisoner's literary effort was praised by Mr Charles Martineau, Chairman, at Kingston Quarter Sessions recently . It had been written by George Leonard Barnes aged 28 signwriter who was jointly charged with Stanley Robert Hookins 30 Labourer with breaking and entering a house at Horne and stealing rings and other articles valued at £60. Barnes pleaded guilty and in his statement said:
"About eight o'clock in the morning of Friday January 12 1934 a casual observer would have discerned my comrade Hookins and myself emerging from the stately portals of the Epsom Poor Law Institution.
No event of consequence occurred between Epsom Town and Redhill except that we called at the domain of a venerated justice of the peace and having acquainted him with the degree of our adversity were promptly regaled with shepherds pie of comely proportions."
The statement continued that later in the evening Barnes and Hookins became hungry again so Barnes knocked on the door of a house at Horne to ask for food. He added:
"Receiving no answer to my knocking I assumed that the proprietors had departed in search of pleasure and acting on a sudden impulse I forced a window with a pair of scissors in my possession and entered the house. I then summoned my comrade Hookins who thinking I had received an invitation to tea, sallied blithely forth, but on observing my position his countenance registered intense consternation and profound deprecation. When I offered him an orange it was accepted with marked reluctance. My intentions to invade the larder were frustrated owing to the apartment where that worthy closet is usually situated being occupied according to the sounds emanating from there, by several members of the canine persuasion. Being anxious to retain my nethere extremities in a state of preservation, I vacated the apartment in question, and acting upon an impulse went upstairs and purloined the articles of jewellery.. After this we went to a field and examined the spoils but being unable to discriminate between the products of Woolworths and Bond Street, we decided to dispose of it and forthwith interred it in Mother Earth."
When this statement was read, Mr Martineau said, "It is a great pity that anyone who has such talent and capabilities as the man who wrote it should be in the dock."
Barnes, who had nine previous convictions, was sentenced to two years' hard labour.
(Presumably the innocent party Hookins got off!!)
By 1939 Stanley was living at 93 Trafalgar Street in Southwark with Veronica although no marriage has been located. Stanley was a General Labourer. Veronica later died in 1941 at St Charles Hospital in Kensington.
in 1942 Stanley was Sapper 2199772 in the Royal Engineers and was also a member of the Air Raid Precaution Rescue Squad. He lived as 338 Harrow Road, Kilburn. In that same year he married Elizabeth Annie LEWIS at Paddington Register Office with Stanley classed as a Bachelor with Dock Labourer being his stated profession.
From 1945 until 1965 he lived at 32 Edenham Road, Kensington with Elizabeth. In 1985 he is found at 62 Farm Lane in Fulham and he died at Charing Cross Hospital on 4 Jan 1990
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