Henry Allingham - world's oldest man lived at Heyford Avenue

Thanks to Tradescant Road & South Lambeth blog for the heads up on Henry Allingham, the supercentenarian World War One veteran who was buried yesterday. TR&SL reported that Henry attended a London County County school in South Lambeth Road - this may have been Wyvil School.

The 1911 census, taken when Henry was 14, shows that he was living in a three-room dwelling (probably a flat) at 21 Heyford Avenue with his mother, Amy Jane, a laundry manageress.

In 1901 Henry is listed as living at 23 Verulam Avenue, Walthamstow with his mother, grandparents, Eleanor and Thomas E. Foster (a publisher's warehouseman), and Henry's uncle, Charles R. Foster, a 24-year-old box maker. Amy Jane had been widowed when Henry was a baby.

In 1905 Amy married again, to Hubert George Higgs, and in 1907, according to Wikipedia, they moved to south London. I don't know when or if Hubert dropped out of the picture but in the 1911 census there is a Hubert G. Higgs living with the Port family and another boarder at "Whitehill Bordon" in Alton, Hampshire. He was a 40-year-old jobmaster. This Higgs was born in Gloucester.

Amy died in 1915, and her illness delayed Henry's enlistment in the army - he had wanted to sign up in 1914. Later, Henry signed up with the Royal Naval Air Service.