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Monsieur Norbert champion of Bohemia

Bert Northwood  remembered as a good friend of Bohemia

Bert Northwood remembered as a good friend of Bohemia

A look at the life of Bert Northwood, nicknamed by his French friends ‘Monsieur Norbert’

When Herbert Northwood died in 1988, Bohemia lost not only one of its most well-known figures, but also a man who devoted himself to the local community and its causes. He was an advocate and a campaigner for local people, fearlessly defending Bohemia against any person or persons whose actions seemed likely to be to its detriment.

Bert was born in 1913 in Coventry, where his father was an upholsterer for the Daimler Motor Company. When Bert and his brother and sister were still young children, their father died, and their mother decided to leave Coventry to escape some unwanted suitors. She had acquaintances in St. Leonards, so she moved down with her family and worked as cook/housekeeper in Warrior Square. Bert and his brother Harold obtained places at Hastings Grammar School, a very difficult achievement in those days, and received a good education. As their mother could not afford school uniforms, the lady who employed her generously paid for them.

After leaving school, Bert’s first job was weighing up 1lb bags of sugar at Fuller & Swatland grocers in King’s Road. He then set up his own business, a wireless shop in Bohemia Road, where he made up wirelesses himself and re-charged accumulators. However, the venture did not last long. “He was too kind-hearted to be a successful businessman, and he let his customers have things on credit,” said his son Geoff, who now lives in Worthing. “Two or three big customers didn’t pay.”

Bert then joined the GPO, and became one of the highest qualified engineers in the Tunbridge Wells area. He was responsible for doing all the telephone engineering work at Baldslow sub-station, where he spent most of his working life. He was a staunch union man, and was one of the early instigators of the Post Office Engineers’ Union. “It effectively ruined his career in the GPO,” said Geoff. “In those days you didn’t go at loggerheads with your bosses over your rights!”

When the second world war broke out, Bert became a wireless operator in the Navy, and was soon promoted to chief petty officer. He moved to Bohemia in 1945, living first in St. Paul’s Road and later Salisbury Road. About 1962, Bert, together with Yves Goeau, founded the Hastings & District Anglo-French Club. Bert could speak fluent French and through the club made a lot of contacts in Chablis, Burgundy, where he went for the wine harvest and was nicknamed by the locals “Monsieur Norbert”. In the 1970s Bert became a Labour councillor for the Old Town. It was during this time he brought the French fishermen and the Hastings fishermen together. “He was very much the friend of the fishermen, the local artists, and the Winkle Club.” said Geoff.

When Bert retired he spent his time fishing, promoting the aims of the Winkle Club and the Anglo-French Club, and fighting for the rights of Bohemia (see panel).  He was also a governor of two schools, St. Paul’s School in St Paul’s Road, and Hastings Grammar School. “He got involved in a lot of community things,” said Geoff. “Father was always either out at meetings or away on courses, so he was always trying to improve situations. He got very depressed because he could see the way the world was going.” As well as his community activities, Bert wrote lots of stories and poetry. “He was always writing. He had such an active brain!”

BOHEMIA

“Bert was a champion for Bohemia. If a shop shut, and they started to turn it into a house, he tried to stop them. When the Home & Colonial (104 Bohemia Road) closed down, he nearly went mad!” said his brother-in-law Peter Powell of Salisbury Road. He continued, “Bert fought like hell to keep the Horntye allotments. He also tried to keep the Summerfields fives courts, which were made as a tribute to the boys of Summerfields who were killed in the first world war.” Bert started up the Bohemia Area Residents’ Association (now the BAA) and edited and published its magazine, Bohemia, in the 1980s.

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