Sid Callaway - Millionaire Rainham Farmer
If you had walked along Rainham High Street during the 1970s and the 1980s you would at some point have passed an old unshaven man wearing a worn, creased and old fashioned grey woollen suit, a grubby shirt, a baggy cap and hobnail boots. He usually carried a sack full of oats over his shoulder to feed his horses on his land at Rainham Mark. He regularly caught the bus from outside the present day Lukehurst furniture store. Many people may have felt sorry for this old man as somebody down on his luck but in reality this was no poverty stricken individual. This was Sid Callaway, fruit farmer, millionaire and at one time the richest man in Rainham.
A humble and shy individual who lived in a big old house in Pudding Lane, Sid generally didn’t say much and got on with his life. He had been involved in fruit farming all his life and had worked hard for his father in his younger days on the family land in Rainham. His father tended to be hard on him, making him work long hours on the farm and even refused to give permission for him to marry his girlfriend Doris. Many years passed before the courting couple were able to get married.Although Sid led a very hard and spartan existence in his younger days, he lived for cricket and football and became a regular supporter of Gillingham Football Club but if they were playing away he would venture down to Rainham Recreation Ground to watch a game on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning for enjoyment.
During the cricket season Sid spent most of his free time at Berengrove Park as a player and patron of Rainham Cricket Club who he first joined in 1919 and he still holds the record for being the longest serving member of the club. Although he wasn’t a gifted cricketer he spent many years as Second XI captain and proved to be a capable catcher in the field as he possessed unusually large hands for a man of his size. He could also capably hold up one end in the lower order when batting but didn't score large amounts of runs or get many wickets. Ex- Rainham First XI captain Terry Glazier recalled that during the early 1960s when Sid had reached his mid-sixties and still turning out for the Second XI, a batsman hit a ball like a bullet to mid-off where Sid was fielding. Instinctively Sid thrust up one giant hand, the ball stuck and the batsman was dismissed. Sid was heard to remark to the passing victim, "Not bad for a 65 year old".
Sid became wealthy during the Second World War when food became scarce leading to high prices in the markets for his fruit. After this he became super rich after selling portions of his land for building, including the site for the construction of the Howard School during the 1960s. This sudden wealth had few effects on his life as he continued to work on his land, he didn’t drink, smoke or drive and he and didn’t have any children to maintain. He gave himself very few luxuries, he used the public bus service for transport and spent time at Maidstone market every Tuesday. He travelled there with his brother and wife where he sold small amounts of farm produce taken in his brother’s vehicle to earn some pin money and where he had the chance to chat with other local farmers.
Sid had become fixed in his ways and found it difficult to change. Late local historian Freddie Cooper once asked him why he didn’t go to Australia to watch the Ashes cricket series between Australia and England but he replied that he felt that he wouldn’t fit in. Instead, he remained in Rainham where he felt comfortable and continued to spend time at Berengrove Park where he made significant financial contributions to Rainham Cricket Club. From the 1950s to the end of the 1980s he paid off club debts, he bought sight screens and gave the club money to purchase a new clubhouse in 1976. He even tried to buy Berengrove Park from the owner Colonel Iremonger during the mid-1950s but the colonel refused and sold it to Rainham builder George Ward instead. After finishing his playing days with Rainham Sid became the club president, a position he held right up to his death and he continued to patronise the club.
Being a kind-hearted man Sid tried to help people he knew in need. After one of the Rainham cricketers had experienced a particularly difficult financial period baskets of fruit and eggs began appearing on his doorstep. Although the player concerned could not identify the person everybody knew that Sid Callaway was responsible.
During the 1950s when Rainham cricketer John Richardson lost his accommodation due to the death of his employer, an old retired colonel for whom he worked as a batman (a commissioned officer’s personal servant), Sid offered him accommodation at his house in Pudding Lane. He also employed him as an odd job man on his property and as full time groundsman at Rainham Cricket Club. John Richardson lived with Sid and his wife right up to the time of their deaths. After Doris Callaway died followed by Sid in the late 1980s, John Richardson, who had become almost like a son to them, inherited much of Sid’s wealth, including his house until he also died a few years later after which the house was demolished to make way for new housing now known as ‘The Old Orchard.’
Although old Sid sometimes gave the impression of being an unfortunate and needy individual, he used his money to help others, he played a massive part in the development of Rainham Cricket Club and became a well-known resident of Rainham where he spent the whole of his long life.
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Richard Wakeley and the Founding of Rainham Cricket Club in 1856
Born at Moor Street Farm in 1832, Richard Mansfield Wakeley entered the family farming business and became the farm manager during the 1850s. He also excelled as a cricketer and played for Gore Court at their old Bell Road ground in Sittingbourne from 1855 to 1856. He left the Sittingbourne club in 1856 and with the assistance of fellow Rainham farmer Thomas Dodd, gathered together a group of interested local Rainham men, trained them in the art of cricket and formed Rainham Cricket Club. The players were drawn from different occupations and backgrounds.
Thomas Stanley Wakeley worked as a corn merchant, James Atkins, a malster, William Burley, a tailor, William Moss, a grocer and draper, Charles Rich, James Mansfield, Thomas Dodd, Edward Dodd and James Miles, farmers and George Dodd and John Stevens, farm workers. All these men resided in Rainham.
James Miles, the owner of Siloam Farm in Rainham allowed the newly formed club the use of his meadow, situated in Chapel Lane (now Mierscourt Road) opposite the present day Primary school and this became known as ‘James Miles Meadow.’ According to the ‘East Kent Gazette’ dated July 18th 1857, Rainham Cricket Club awarded him a silver cup at one of their quarterly meetings with the inscription:
Presented to Mr. J Miles, by the members of the Rainham Cricket Club, for his kindness in allowing them the use of his meadow. July 1857.
A photograph of the cup still hangs on the wall of the present Rainham clubhouse. The actual cup was brought to the ground in 1957 during the club’s centenary season (celebrated one year late) by James Miles grandson. From that time until recently the cup remained in the vault of the Midland Bank in Rainham but when the bank closed the cup went missing and has not been traced.
It isn’t clear how long Rainham Cricket club played at Siloam Farm but they had stopped playing there by 1883 when the owner James Miles sold the farm. The club then had to play on numerous grounds, including Berengrove Park by courtesy of Mr. William Walter the owner until a permanent venue at Rainham Recreation Ground was obtained in 1890. When Richard Wakeley junior took possession of Siloam Farm the club returned there for several seasons during the period 1902 to 1910.
According to the ‘Rochester Gazette’ dated July 8th 1856, the first match involving Rainham Cricket Club took place against the Angel Club Strood on Wednesday July 2nd 1856 at Siloam Farm and after a close game they lost. They played other local clubs in the area and these included Gore Court, Milton, Selling, Throwley and the Star Club Rochester. After home matches the teams went to the ‘White Horse’ pub in Rainham High Street for tea and entertainment provided by the publican and host Mr. Conningsby whose name also appeared on some scorecards.
Richard Wakeley became the team captain in 1856 and stood out in the side as an all-rounder. He took five wickets in the club’s first game against the Angel Club Strood. He also helped to build up the strength of the club until Rainham became one of the strongest clubs in the area by the end of the decade.
Richard Wakeley played regularly during the 1850s before going to the Royal College of Agriculture in Cirencester where he represented the college cricket team. Unfortunately, without his services and influence Rainham deteriorated in strength during the 1860s. After his marriage in Cirencester in 1867 he returned to Rainham where he maintained his links with the club up to his death in 1907 both as a player then as a vice-president. Two of his sons Seymour and Richard Mansfield Wakeley junior later played for the club.
Apart from his cricketing ability Richard Wakeley had strong religious convictions and served as pastor at Providence Chapel in Orchard Street which his family had built. He also served as a local politician and a Guardian of the Parish. According to his obituary in the ‘East Kent Gazette’ in September 1907 he remained a kind hearted and generous benefactor to the people of Rainham during his lifetime. In his later years he wrote a book entitled ‘Gathered Fragments,’ a profile of his brother Thomas Stanley Wakeley.
As a farmer and employer in the parish Richard Wakeley became very well-known and instrumental in the establishment of ‘Wakeley Brothers’ fruit and hop growing business which existed until recently in the Rainham area.
League cricket didn’t exist when Rainham Cricket Club first started and it wasn’t until 1896 when the club joined the Chatham & District League that they had their first taste for one season. The games played before this were friendly social matches which usually took place on Saturdays and Wednesdays.
On August 3rd, 1858 the ‘Kentish Gazette’ reported a match played on July 28th:
On the 28th past a match was played between the gentlemen of Throwley and eleven of Rainham on the Belmont ground, the residence of Thomas Townsend esq, whose hospitality to the players on this and former occasions has been such as to merit their rarest acknowledgement.
As in recent times the players retired to a pub for a drink after matches and sometimes had a few too many as Richard Wakeley pointed out in his book ‘Gathered Fragments’ where he wrote that after one match near Sittingbourne during the late 1850s his brother, Thomas Stanley Wakeley, challenged the team to a race back to Rainham. With Wakeley in his personal horse and trap and the other players in a horse drawn coach the race took place which Thomas Stanley Wakeley won after which he gave the reins to his driver and then laid down in the back of the trap and fell asleep on the last part of the journey home.
Photo of TS Wakeley, Rainham Cricket Club
The Wakeley family had a big influence on Rainham Cricket Club from 1856 to 1910 with six members of their family playing and three of these R. M Wakeley, T. S. Wakeley and R. M. Wakeley Junior holding the captaincy for periods of time. They also furthered the interests of the club through the local parish council contributed a ground at Siloam Farm and maintained the pitch at Rainham Recreation Ground when the cricket club played there. Wealthy Rainham farmer Sid Callaway later patronized Rainham Cricket Club right up to the late 1980s.
The game of cricket played by Rainham in 1856 more or less resembled the game today, including the length of the wicket, the size and shape of the bats and the weight of the ball, although there were a few differences. Firstly, an over consisted of four and not six deliveries but when there was a change of bowling the new bowler was allowed to have two practice deliveries at the batsman before the statutory four deliveries in his first over. Bowlers could also bowl underarm which ceased at the end of the 19th century.
Today, Rainham is a much bigger club than when it first formed with three teams turning out on a Saturday and two on a Sunday with an assortment of boy’s teams playing midweek. The First and Second XIs play in the Shepherd-Neame Kent County League and home matches are played at Berengrove Park.
The Unsolved Wigmore Murder of 1965
Cambridge Road in Wigmore is usually a very quiet and peaceful area where nothing much of great consequence happens, but in April 1965 the local newspapers reported an event that sent a feeling of revulsion and a shiver of fear down the spines of local residents and shook the Medway area.
A 77 year old widow named Florence Lewis heard a knock on the front door of her bungalow on a Saturday evening just before Easter and she opened it to investigate. Unfortunately, she had made a fatal error and a short while later she was dead. It’s unknown if she knew the person who had knocked or what motive that person had but whoever it was and whatever they wanted no mercy was shown for Mrs Lewis who was known in the area as a friendly and unobtrusive lady. Unfortunately, as a pensioner living alone the criminal may have thought she had a lot of money stashed away and could have viewed her as a soft target.
The murderer, once in the bungalow, shut the door and battered the old lady to death with unbelievable brutality, repeatedly and callously striking her with a heavy object on her head. The police estimated that 14 blows were delivered which left Mrs Lewis dying in an armchair. The murderer then escaped without leaving a single clue and disappeared into the night without being seen by anyone.
Mrs Lewis wasn’t found until the following Monday lunchtime when insurance agent Roy Bishop discovered her corpse in an armchair covered in blood. Whatever had happened in the short meeting between Mrs Lewis and her murderer is unknown but the killer had obviously gone into a killing frenzy as the bloody condition of his victim showed that a vicious attack had taken place.
Detective Chief Superintendent Arthur Hall who led the investigation said at the time that it could take weeks to find the murderer but after a massive investigation which included the searching of every garden in Cambridge Road, the combing of local woods and the interviewing of more than 7,000 people, the crime has remained unsolved and the murderer free.
The police checked all of Medway’s laundries with the hope of finding blood-stained clothes belonging to the murderer. They also looked for the murder weapon which they suspected as being a heavy hammer or poker but they remained empty handed after a long and meticulous search.
The only clue about who did the murder arose in the week after the event when two people said they saw a man and then a woman call at Mrs Lewis’s house a short time apart at about 8-30 p.m. They also said they saw a small grey van in the vicinity. Confusion was also added to the case when three other people said they saw Mrs Lewis being driven in a car on the Sunday afternoon after the estimated time of her death.
At Mrs Lewis’s funeral 18 days later detectives swooped on Gillingham cemetery to check on everyone entering and leaving in case the murderer had attended but they failed to find a suspect. During the following weeks the police continued interviewing neighbours but they came up with nothing. An appeal was made by the police on national TV and the case was also broadcast on the TV programme ‘Police Five’ but although a large number of people phoned in with information it led to nothing.
Finally, the Northeast Kent coroner Mr W J Harris wound up the case in June 1965 by announcing a verdict of murder by a person or persons unknown. In one of the most despicable and brutal crimes committed in the Rainham and Wigmore areas the killer has remained free for almost fifty years, barring death, and the case remains open.
Photo of the Style and Winch pub The Bredhurst Bell in around 1910. Style and Winch were a local Maidstone brewery and many local Medway and Maidstone pubs sold their ales.
The licencees name above the door is James Monday. In the early years of the 20th century pubs were only allowed to sell alcoholic drinks to travellers on a Sunday. A traveller was defined as someone who had walked at least 3 miles. It is possible that this rule was part of the Defence of the Realm act introduced during the First World War.
Bredhurst Bell customers in early 1900s. The pub sold Style and Winch fine ales
Sir Cecil Wakeley – Famous Surgeon
A long standing Rainham family, the Wakeley’s have produced numerous well-known people over the years including cricketer Richard Mansfield Wakeley, local preacher Thomas Stanley Wakeley, national rose grower William Wakeley and more recently international fashion designer Amanda Wakeley. Sir Cecil Wakeley also became very well-known and respected in the medical profession as a top class surgeon.
Born into a large family on 5th May 1892 at Meresborough House in Rainham, Sir Cecil had a quiet country life as a child, an early interest in horse riding and he owned his own pony. In 1904 he attended King’s School Rochester but his education was interrupted in 1906 when he contracted pneumonia but he survived after being seriously ill. He then continued his education at Dulwich College after his family moved to the area in 1907. After he left school in 1910 he entered King’s College Hospital in London with whom he maintained a life-long connection and qualified as a surgeon.
He joined the Royal Navy in 1915 as a surgeon lieutenant, serving aboard the hospital ship Garth Castle at Scapa Flow where the only major naval conflict of the First World War took place. When the First World War finished he maintained his links with the navy. Firstly, he became a consultant then Rear–Admiral Surgeon at the Royal Naval hospital at Haslar near Portsmouth.
Photo of Sir Cecil Wakeley – Famous Surgeon
His career had numerous successes starting with his acceptance at King’s College Hospital to work as a surgeon in 1922 followed by promotion to senior surgeon. He then became consultant to the Belgrave Hospital for Children, the Royal Masonic and the Maida Vale Hospital for Nervous Diseases. He later became member of the Council of King’s College and then he served as president from 1949 to 1954. He also became President of the Association of Physiotherapy, the Hunterian Society, the Medical Society of London and the Royal Life Saving Society. He also served as an examiner for the Primary and Final Fellowship exams as well as for medical degrees at various universities in the UK and overseas.
In other areas Sir Cecil became a Hunterian orator, Hunterian professor and an Erasmus Wilson, Bradshaw and Thomas Vicary Lecturer. He became Chairman of the Trustees of the Hunterian Collection and received the College’s Gold Medal for his services. He also received various honours including the Order of the Nile in 1936, he was made Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1941. He also became Knight of the Order of the British Empire and received the Legion of Merit from the USA in 1946. He also received the Chevalier de la legion d’honneur from France in 1950 and he was awarded with a baronet in recognition of his work in the medical profession in 1952. Finally, he became an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh.
Colleagues considered Sir Cecil to be very positive with a very clear mind, a very affable and cheerful individual with great powers of observation. He never forgot a face and liked to give encouragement and advice to those around him. He was also a very efficient surgeon who carried out operations very quickly and meticulously.
Throughout his life Sir Cecil remained a devout churchman who became President of the Bible League and followed in the footsteps of his father Percy Wakeley who preached at Providence Chapel in Orchard Street and his grandfather Thomas Stanley Wakeley who became an ardent and well-known Rainham churchman and Baptist preacher during the second half of the 19th century.
Sir Cecil presided over the Lord’s Day Observance Society and became the author of various medical textbooks and edited Rose and Carless. He also edited theBritish Journal of Surgery and he founded the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He also edited the Medical press and circular.
In 1925 Sir Cecil married Elizabeth Muriel Nicholson-Smith in Lewisham and they had three sons. John and Richard entered the medical profession while William got involved in the farming business ‘Wakeley Brothers’ in Rainham and he still lives in Hartlip. Sir Cecil’s granddaughter Amanda, daughter of his son John, became a famous fashion designer from the 1990s onwards and was awarded an OBE for her contribution to fashion in 2010.
In 1975 Sir Cecil celebrated his golden wedding anniversary with his wife. At retirement age he maintained connections with the medical world and he also got involved in local activities such as opening village fetes. He eventually died in Chatham on June 5th 1979 aged 87 after a long and highly successful life.
Photo of Amanda Wakeley, daughter of his son John, became a famous fashion designer from the 1990s onwards and was awarded an OBE for her contribution to fashion in 2010
Subcategories
Historical tales Article Count: 3
Historical tales
Rainham Life Article Count: 10
Rainham Life
Local Events Article Count: 48
Local Events
Photos Article Count: 143
Photos
Action Forum Article Count: 234
Action Forum is a free monthly magazine that is distributed to the Rainham area covering Wigmore, Parkwood and Hempstead as well. This archive covers old copies of the magazine dating back to its initial publication in 1969 and give a fascinating glimpse into life in Rainham over the last 50 years.
Link to Article Index - Action Forum Index - Photos and Articles from 1969 onwards