Photos and papers from the 1940s

Hove Street Fire Station, Hove in the snow, 1940

Photograph of two fire engines inside Hove Street Fire Station

Two fire engines inside Hove Street Fire Station, c1940

Photograph of Albert Catten and Arthur Johnson in their Fireman's uniforms

Albert Catten and Arthur Johnson in their Fireman's uniforms, 1937

Albert Catten started at Hove Fire station, Hove Street as a part time fireman in 1934, serving full time from the outbeak of the Second World War in 1939 until being demobbed in 1946 when he set up his own building service. After the first year of the war when things were quiet for the firefighters, a party was formed from men with building experience to go to Tenterden in Kent to build a rest camp for London firefighters. Albert Catten spent much of the war on this project.

Albert Catten died at the age of 95, and a set of his photos was passed by Winifred Flowers, his daughter, to Darren Eaten. Darren now works at Hove Fire Station, and is creating a small archive of papers related to the fire service. Darren in turn contributed these photos and some other papers to the Letter in the Attic project.

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Author

From the Letter in the Attic project

Page created

26/11/2008

Comments about this page

My father, Charles Adams, was also a fireman at the same time as Albert Catten, at the Hove Street Fire Station. After my father died in 1955, Albert Catten eventually married my mother, Winifred Adams.
By John Adams (19/03/2010)
It is my Grandfather Arthur Johnson in the picture with Albert Catten. I have another picture of Arthur in full dress uniform after receiving a trophy, but not sure how to add it to the site.
By Alex Robertson (04/04/2018)