The Lamorbey and Sidcup Local History Society has had to cancel monthly members’ meetings from April but we are still working behind the scenes to move forward on the second stage of our current project.

Last year we created ‘Famous People of Sidcup’ banners to erect from lamp posts in the two main thoroughfares of Sidcup in conjunction with Sidcup Partners Ltd. We also created accompanying leaflets to distribute in schools and libraries. They form a celebration of the national achievements and local contributions of individuals in the Lamorbey and Sidcup district. We hope that learning about them will encourage a greater understanding of our local history and pride in our town.

Our ‘Famous People of Sidcup’ include composer and suffragette Dame Ethel Smyth, polar explorer Birdie Bowers and Douglas Macmillan, founder of Macmillan Cancer Support. We also have Sir John Pender, pioneer of undersea cabling, and surgeon Sir Harold Gillies, who worked tirelessly to establish The Queen’s Hospital for facially injured soldiers in 1917. Gillies and the hospital had been a prominent feature of our HLF-funded project to investigate ‘Sidcup’s Home Front in the Great War’.

The first group of banners and leaflets were so well-received that we are now working on a second group of new ‘Famous People of Sidcup’.

Further details from www.lam-sid-lhs.co.uk. Follow us on Facebook at Sidcup Past or on Twitter @SidcupPast

If you're a local history organisation and would like to share a message, please email webmanager@balh.org.uk.