SPIKE MILLIGAN
A BIT ABOUT TERENCE ALAN MILLIGAN ➤ April 16th 1918- 27th February 2002 ➤ Irish father , English mother ➤ ‘ Spike’ following a band he heard on Radio Luxembourg,’ Spike Jones and the City Slickers ➤ Father Captain in the British Army, India ➤ First marriage in 1952, three children, second marriage in 1962, One child. Third marriage in 1983. ➤ writer, comedian, musician an entertaining and complex man
EARLY DAYS …
1934 Stones' Engineering in Deptford (Arklow Road) Chislehurst Laundry. sacked from a tobacconist for stealing cigarettes labourer at Woolwich Arsenal. won a crooning contest at the Lady Florence Institute in Deptford, a talent show at Lewisham Hippodrome St Cyprians Church Hall in Brockley and Ladywell swimming baths. ukulele, bass and trumpet and guitar "My mother bought my first guitar for eighteen shillings from Len Stiles’ shop in Lewisham High Street" music classes at Goldsmiths in New Cross. He played with local dance bands member of the Brockley Communist party
“ I was thrown without warning into a totally di ff erent life. We left the brilliant Indian sunlight, the white-hot blue skies, all the marvellous colours of India , and we ended up entombed in South London. It seemed like a slum. It was a slum. I think I was thrown into a state of shock from which I never properly recovered’
Catford 1933 The light creaks and escalates to rusty dawn The iron stove ignites the freezing room. Last night's dinner cast off popples in the embers. My mother lives in a steaming sink. Boiled haddock condenses on my plate Its body cries for the sea My father is shouldering his braces like a rifle, and brushes the crumbling surface of his suit. The Daily Herald lies jaundiced on the table. 'Jimmy Maxton speaks in Hyde Park', My father places his unemployment cards in his wallet - there's plenty of room for them. In greaseproof paper, my mother wraps my banana sandwiches It's 5.40. Ten minutes to catch that last workman train. Who's the last workman? Is it me? I might be famous. My father and I walk out are eaten alive by yellow freezing fog. Somewhere, the Prince of Wales and Mrs Simpson having morning tea in bed. God Save the King. But God help the rest of us.
“ Brockley , land of my dreams!
“ Well, Goldsmiths was the nearest I ever had to a musical education. I suppose I wanted to show o ff a bit.To show that I didn't only strum ,and that I took music seriously Spike
➤ Harlem Club Band ➤ Spike’s girlfriend was called Lily Gibbs ➤ she lived at 45 Revlon Road, Brockley with her parents and brother ➤ worked as a typist at a wine merchants in Shaftesbury Avenue ➤ she commuted from Brockley station 5 and a half days a week ➤ Saturday weekly dance at St Cyprians Church Hall ➤ first date at The Rivoli, Crofton Park ➤ He would wait for her every evening at Brockley station ( for the first year) and walk her home
READING FROM ‘SPIKE’ BY PAULINE SCUDAMORE…
“ That was my first trumpet, girl called Lily gave it to me. She saved up months to buy it for me. She was my first real love”
“ I still see Lily Dunford, she lives in Revelon Road, Brockley,and then there’s Ivy Chandler who lives in Breakspears Road, in the same neck of the woods, but don't tell their husbands!
“ To get to work I walked down Riseldon Road to Brockley Rise and took the workman’s tram, either 35 or 74 to New Cross’ -
➤ Spike joined the army on 2nd June 1940 ➤ ‘to fight for Lewisham’ ➤ stationed at Bexhill ➤ served in North Africa and Salerno, Italy ➤ memories made famous in his diaries, ‘ Hitler, my part in his Downfall.’
“ Me from Brockley standing where Agrippa stood; it was as absurd as Agrippa queuing for fish in Catford’ -Spike, on visiting the colosseum in Rome, following battle fatigue
“ I have travelled extensively in Lewisham, Catford and Brockley, but somehow never Austria, the trams didn't go that far’ -while on a charabong trip to Austria
“ “Looks just like Catford”. Fighting in the North Africa campaign he and his wartime mates visit ancient Carthage.
out-patient treatment at Lewisham hospital for back pain apparently caused by overdoing weightlifting at Ladywell Recreation Track in an effort to impress the women working at Catford Labour Exchange after World War Two, Milligan moved in with his parents for a while at 3 Leathwell Road, Deptford, before leaving South London and finding fame through the Goon Show on radio.
SPIKE’S LASTING CONNECTIONS … ➤ Spike continued to speak of his time in South East London. ➤ patron of Lewisham Council Quality Homes Awards ➤ patron of Lewisham environment Trust, supported the planting of new trees in the borough 1980s/90s ➤ Spike planted a tree which was marked with a plaque ➤ patron of Lewisham Theatre Jazz Festival 1980s
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