\u201cI became interested in the war about 10 years ago and started researching its effect on Southend, where I was born in 1947. I was at the Essex Record Office in Chelmsford one day and the archivist showed me a \u2018bomb map\u2019. This fascinating record marked the location of every one of the 800 bombs that had fallen on Southend during the Blitz<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cI studied it and was shocked to discover that bomb number 333 exploded near 44 Mount Avenue, where Mum and Dad lived at the time. I was amazed that they had never mentioned it. Suddenly I realised that there was a whole period of my parents\u2019 lives that I knew little about. It was too late to ask them, because they had both passed away, but my curiosity was awakened.\u201d<\/p> In a labour of love, Stephen has spent five years researching his father\u2019s wartime service and his mother\u2019s challenge to run their confectionery business and raise a young family. \u201cI started writing up my research for my relations, and self-published it as a book.\u201d\u00a0<\/p> Humbugs and Doodlebugs: A Wartime Story of Seaside Sweetmakers<\/a><\/em> offers a fascinating insight into an era that many of our parents and grandparents lived through. It is also a tender homage to a remarkable couple.\u00a0<\/p> Stanley George King was born in 1911 in Middlesex. Forty years earlier, his grandfather Sam had opened his first sweet factory in Holborn and it became a thriving business. Sweets had historically been the preserve of the wealthy, but in the late 19th century cheap sugar imports made confectionery available to the masses.\u00a0<\/p> Stan trained to be a mechanic and also worked for the family business in South London. In 1936, he met Doris Cockshull at a local dance hall<\/a> and they started courting. \u201cDad had a car, an Austin 7 Convertible, and he used to take Mum for days out at the seaside in Southend. It must have become a special place for them.\u201d<\/p> In 1937, Stan set up his own confectionery business in Southend with his brother James: J&S King Ltd. They set to work with sugar-boiling equipment, ingredients, sweet moulds, boxes and labels.\u00a0<\/p> Stephen explains, \u201cIt was a production line of Black Jacks, seaside rock, humbugs, nut-rock bars and \u2018cokernut\u2019 toffee. I remember helping in the sweet factory as a boy and watching my father boil up huge pans of toffee. The smell was amazing.\u201d Demand for seaside treats made the \u2018Sweet Kings of Southend\u2019 a thriving concern, and orders flooded in from confectionery shops located across East Anglia, Kent and Sussex.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cIt was a production line of Black Jacks, seaside rock, humbugs, nut-rock bars and \u2018cokernut\u2019 toffee”<\/p><\/blockquote> Stan and Doris married in 1940, and set up home in Southend. The area was at risk of invasion, and only residents or those with official permits could enter. Bombs raids were a frequent occurrence, and Spitfires and Messerschmitts fought the Battle of Britain<\/a> overhead.\u00a0<\/p> After a short spell at the Ford Dagenham motor plant for war work, Stan enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) in 1941. This was the Army\u2019s main transport service. Doris worked hard to keep the confectionery business going with help from Stan\u2019s father Samuel.\u00a0<\/p> Wartime brought desperate tragedy to Stephen\u2019s family. \u201cAs a child, I had visited my Uncle James\u2019 grave with my parents and grandparents,\u201d he says. \u201cAll I knew was that he had joined the Royal Artillery, and died in a train crash during the war.\u201d<\/p> Stephen began researching online, and horrific details emerged. James was killed in a rail disaster on 11 February 1942 at Beighton Station near Sheffield. A troop train carrying 170 sailors and 90 Royal Artillery soldiers was travelling at night. A goods train transporting a massive steel plate had been shunted into a siding and, unknown to its driver and guard, the plate had slid out of place to protrude over the main line. As the troop train sped past the siding the steel plate sliced through three carriages, killing 14 soldiers and injuring many more.\u00a0<\/p>![\"Black](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2024\/04\/Humbugs-1.jpg\")
![\"Black](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2024\/04\/Stan.jpeg\")
![\"Black](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2024\/04\/Doris.jpeg\")
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