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WATKINS, Alfred Charles was born on 9 October 1866 in Marylebone, London. His mother was already widowed at 44 with seven children. Watkins joined the Company's service early in 1894 as a shorthand writer. On 1 January 1899 he left his clerical duties to learn the practical aspects of the catering trade, working in the Trocadero Kitchens as butcher, fishmonger, pastry cook and the many other occupations. His early mornings were spent in the various London markets from where Lyons bought their fresh commodities. From the kitchens of the Trocadero he progressed to train as a waiter thence to the banqueting department to learn the skills of catering for large numbers. From here he undertook further training in the many outdoor catering events and in some of the larger restaurants such as the Throgmorton. He returned to the Trocadero Restaurant as a manager in 1902 where he remained until 1922. In 1922, in recognition of his work, he was appointed a Employee Director and retired in 1933. He died one year after his retirement on 11 January 1934.
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WILLANS, Harry CB, CBE, DSO, MC, TD (1892-1943). Major-General (16877), 28th Bn., London Regiment (Artists' Rifles) and General Staff, died in a flying accident in the Middle East on Friday, 5 February 1943, age 50, and is buried in Tobruk War Cemetery, Libya. Born in 1892 at Hendon, Middlesex, he was the son of James Tetley Willans and Henrietta Mary Willans (nee Robson), and the husband of Dorothy Joan Willans (nee Beale), who lived variously in London, Purley, Stevenage and Tunbridge Wells. Harry was educated at Aldenham School, Elstree, between September 1907 and July 1910 and was co-opted onto the Governing Body of the School on 4 February 1942 but was only able to attend one meeting of the Governing Body before his death in February 1943. By 1913 he was an Articled Clerk and at this early time was already a Territorial in the Artists Rifles which, according to the Lyons Mail of March 1938, he joined as a private in 1911. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1921. Harry Willans was serving in the ranks of the Artist Rifles in 1914 and was selected to become a Second Lieutenant in the 1st Bn., Bedfordshire Regiment. In August 1914 he landed in France as a Lieutenant, attached to the 5th Division. His regiment fought at many of the well-known battles of the First World War including Cateau, Marne, Aisne, Bassée,Ypres, St Julien and the Somme Offensives. By 1918 he had been awarded the Military Cross and by 1919 the Distinguished Service Order. He was promoted to Captain and moved to the Reserve of Officers. After the war Harry Willans became the General Manager of the Association for Promoting the General Welfare of the Blind. Not wishing to lose touch with the Army he rejoined the Artists Rifles again but because the pressure of work prevented him from devoting as much attention as he wished to soldiering, he served for a period in the ranks. He was also Assistant Secretary of the British Commonwealth Union. In 1933 he become a Lieutenant-Colonel commanding a Territorial Battalion and in the same year joined Lyons' Tea Agents Department where he worked until the outbreak of war. In August 1939 Willans was gazetted to a London Division as Major-General which he commanded until 1940. On 8 June 1939 (in the King's birthday list) he was made a CBE. By the end of 1940 the Army Council decided to encourage and expand the Welfare Directorate and to allot to it additional functions. In pursuance of this policy Major-General Willans was appointed Director-General of Welfare and Education in December 1940. The fact that Willans was made Director-General of Welfare and Education is of special significance as indicating the importance attached by the Army Council to war-time education in the Army. In the New Years Honours List of January 1942 Harry was made a CB. Willans spent some four weeks in December 1942, and January 1943, touring India and the Assam front. On his return journey, and after spending a few days in the Middle East Command, he met with a fatal accident at El Adem, an airfield near Tobruk, on 5 February 1943. Harry Willans had two daughters, both of whom served in the ATS during the Second World War.
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WRIGHT,
Frederick (1904–1963). Frederick Wright was born into a large
family – mainly boys who were connected with a taxi business
– on 11 Oct 1904 in Fulham, London. He joined J. Lyons in
1921 and trained as a baker and subsequently worked in several sections
of the Bakery Department at Cadby Hall. He met his wife Florence
Dormon in the mid 1920s, when she was working in the French Pastry
Department. They married in 1932 and had two children: John (16
May 1934) and Brenda (30 November 1938). During the 1939–1945
war Frederick was a member of the Cadby Hall Fire Brigade, which
boasted a fire appliance which was kept in a corner of Cadby Hall
yard. At the end of the war, he transferred to the Bakery Wholesale
Rounds Department both as a driver’s assistant and driver.
He later returned to the Bakeries at Cadby Hall where he became
a foreman of the Sponge Cake Department. Later he transferred to
the Swiss Roll Department as General Foreman. Frederick Wright was
an enthusiastic support of Fulham Football Club. He excelled at
darts, winning a singles trophy in 1938 and also the Lyons Club’s
J. H. Allen Cup for the pairs championship. Frederick died of melanoma
on 12 January 1963 aged 58.
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