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Beddington - On The Wandle Prior to 1906. And the Death of Heinrich Himmler.

            The Postcard

A Valentine's Series postcard that was posted in Croydon on Sunday the 23rd. December 1906 to:

Miss C. Hazell,
9, Kings Road,
St. Leonard's-on-Sea.

The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:

"Sunday Dec. 23rd. '06.
Wishing you a very
Happy Christmas.
With love from
Edie".

Sidney Excell

So what else happened on the day that Edie posted the card?

Well the 23rd. December 1906 marked the birth of Sidney Excell who became a major in the British Army during World War II. He is remembered for the 1945 arrest of Nazi Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in Bremervörde, Germany.

Educated at marine school in Chatham, Excell worked as an apprenticed shoe maker before volunteering for the Palestine Police, in which he served in the 1930's. There he met his wife, Lisa, a Russian-Polish immigrant. 

They then left Palestine and went to England because British police were not allowed to fraternise with Jews or Arabs in Palestine.  They were then married in Epping Essex.

On the 22nd. May 1945, the British Army were manning a checkpoint at the Bremervörde Bridge in West Germany when three men were brought in for questioning and their documents examined. 

One, claiming to be "Heinrich Hitzinger", raised suspicion, and Excell arrested all three. British soldier Arthur Britton soon identified "Hitzinger" as Heinrich Luitpold Himmler. However, the next day, while in custody in Lüneburg, Himmler committed suicide by poison, biting into a capsule of potassium cyanide before he could be interrogated.

Excell continued to serve in the British Army until he was medically discharged after contracting rheumatoid arthritis in his hands. Later, he worked for the London Electricity Board as an electrical engineer until he retired.

He died from heart failure in December 1990, and is survived by two sons, four grandsons and three granddaughters, all of whom still carry his surname.

Taken on: April 8, 2021

Tags:

postcard

old

nostalgia

nostalgic

Beddington

River

Wandle

1906

Valentine

Series

Croydon

23/12/1906

28BED43

Miss

Hazell

Kings

Road

St.

Leonard's

Sea

Christmas

Edie

Sidney

Excell

British

Army

1945

Chatham

Lisa

Epping

Essex

rheumatoid

arthritis

electrical

engineer

1990

heart

failure « less

Sets appears in: • Croydon and Environs • Suicides more » • UK « less

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