My mum remembered going to his workshop off Rathbone Street, as a child. There he, and his brother Henry, worked as wheelwrights, making the wheels for the pushcarts and barrows of the costers of Rathbone Market, and also wheels for the gypsy vardoes.
I have tried to find the exact beginnings of his relationship with the Romany of Canning Town, but have never completely managed to. There are 2 possibilities.
My first thought was that the connection was forged when his brother-in-law, Daniel, married the granddaughter of the then-Queen of the gypsies, Urania Boswell. For many years, my nan's tales of us being related to "Gypsy Rose Lee" had led me to believe we were descended from her, but my research sadly proved the connection was by marriage only.
Their marriage prompted questions, as usually Romany did not marry gorgers(non-Romany), as to how THAT relationship began.
Further research though, gave me my second theory, as I found that Sam grew up on Forty Acre Lane in Blenheim Cottages, which led to Cherry Island (where Romany camps were set up when they were staying over in Plaistow/Canning Town, at that time). This led me to wonder, whether the meeting of Danny and Louisa might have come through Sam.
Maybe, as a young boy, he might have kicked a ball around with some boys from Cherry Island? And that friendship might have continued until adulthood, and then, after his marriage to Polly, her brother also met some of them. It is a puzzle and one which I don't think I'll ever unravel.
I do know he spent years working at the Thames Ironworks as a rivettor, and was told many years ago by one of my mum's cousins, that while there he met Louis Mountbatten, later Earl Mountbatten of Burma, whilst a ship that he was commanding was in for repair.
Thames Ironworks football team later became West Ham FC but I have found nothing to imply that he ever played for the works football team at any time.
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