A port romance revealed

The romance between one of the Port of London’s first female police officers and a former chief planning officer at Havering Council has been revealed, thanks to a new exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands.

A photo of Evelyn Chadderton (nee Thorn, pictured third left, with five other female recruits to the port constabulary in 1954) has been used to promote London: Port City, which chronicles the port’s history over two centuries.

It was spotted in The Guardian by her son, Tim now living in Germany, who contacted the museum to shed light on his parents’ romance.

Tim explained: “My parents first met at the end of the war in Devon – father, Frank, in the army, and mother in the Wrens.

“Mum declined dad’s first offer of marriage in 1946, when she was 19, because she felt she was too young for married life.

“Nine years later, he spotted the picture of her in her uniform in the press and managed to track her down to Ilford, coincidentally next door to Romford, where he was living.

“Six months later they were wed.”

The couple travelled by train and ferry to Pollensa in Majorca, which inspired the name of their family home.

Evelyn, who was crowned “Miss PLA” at Poplar Baths in 1954, died in 2017, Frank in 1982.

They are survived by their three sons, Tim, Richard and Paul.

Today would have been Evelyn’s 96th birthday.

London: Port City continues at the Museum of London Docklands till 8 May 2022.