Steve Reeves

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Steve Reeves

Rita lives in the house where she was born.
She went to school around the corner and loved it. She left at 15 and got a job in a local photo studio in their development and printing department.
Film photography was huge in those days. Every town had studios where people had their photos taken, and thousands were employed in the industry.
Unfortunately, the boss was "A bit free with his hands", but Rita had to put up with it to keep the job.
She then got a job at a different studio, where an 'old timer' taught her how to retouch photos by hand. The images were on glass plates. Rita learnt the fiddly job of painting out blemishes, whitening eyes, and improving eyelashes. She's always loved painting and drawing, so she enjoyed this job.
Rita's aunt loved the arts and greatly influenced her niece. Rita got her love of clothes from her and her love of the theatre.
Rita especially loved Shakespeare. When she was small, the sermons at her church were in Elizabethan English. This made it much easier for her to understand Shakespeare.
The actors she loved the most were Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. She first saw them in 'The Sleeping Prince' at the Phoenix Theatre in London. Their performances had a profound effect on the then-20-year-old Rita. She went on to see all of their plays and films.
Rita much preferred the theatre to the cinema. To her, the contact between the actors and the audience was something special.
Through her theatre visits, she made friends and discovered that some would wait at the stage door after a production. Rita would never have done this alone, but because they went, she decided to join them. As Vivien Leigh left the theatre, she would always take time to talk to the fans. This was so exciting for Rita. At the time, Leigh was one of the most famous actors in the world, having won 2 Oscars for "Gone with the Wind" and "A Streetcar Named Desire.”
When Leigh was rehearsing for an Old Vic tour of Australasia at a theatre in Finsbury Park, Rita waited at the stage door with some flowers.
When Leigh arrived, she was delighted with the flowers and invited Rita to watch the rehearsals. Afterwards, they chatted about Leigh's upcoming tour, and Rita said she would miss her. Leigh then gave her a list of all the addresses she would be staying at while away and asked her to write.
Rita did and was thrilled when the first postcard arrived from Australia. Over the following years, the pair wrote over 50 letters to each other right up to Leigh's death from TB in 1976 at just 53. Leigh's letters to Rita were often very personal. She was surprisingly open in her letters to her fans.
After her death, Rita wanted to do something to help preserve the memory of Vivien, so along with her friend Joyce, she set up the 'Vivien Leigh Circle', of which she is still president.
The club grew as more members joined, including younger people who weren't born when Leigh was alive.
The group met regularly and went on trips to see the places where Vivien lived and performed.
Rita donated all her correspondence and photos of Leigh to the V&A, where it is held as part of the 'Vivien Leigh Collection'.
Many images of Leigh in books and online are often credited as 'from the Rita Malyon collection.'
Rita's love of the theatre and Leigh has made her many friends and given her an insight into a world far beyond her suburban home.
Watching the 90-year-old enthusiastically go through her memorabilia, one can still see the star-struck young girl from 70 years ago.
When she goes out, Rita always wears a headscarf—just like the Hollywood legend who shaped her life.

I recently heard that Stella, a member of the Windrush generation, passed away aged 93.

I first met her in 2022 and immediately loved her gentle sense of humour. As I fumbled around with my camera trying to take her photo, she said, "Take your time and hurry up."
Stella came to England from Guyana in 1955 at the age of 23. Her husband, Cecil, had already made the journey and was working as a carpenter in Tooting. Stella left her young son with his grandparents while she got settled and found work.
She crossed The Atlantic on an Italian ship but can't remember the name. She enjoyed the 2 week journey. On board were families, single men and women and children all excited about starting a new life in England.
The boat docked in Dover, and when she arrived at Victoria Station, she didn't like seeing all the big buildings. It looked like a prison to her - She was probably seeing the high wall that goes around the gardens at the back of Buckingham Palace which is very close to the station. Stella wasn't sure about England at first but it was her sense of humour that helped get her through those early years. A white woman once looked at her hands and said, "Oh, look at that, you wear a wedding ring just like us". Stella replied, "We normally wear our rings through our noses but put them on our fingers before we get off the banana boat."
She remembers seeing snow for the first time and assumed that everyone would go into hibernation and couldn't believe that people still had to go to work. Having lived through 70 British winters thinks it's funny now.
Stella and Cecil lived in a single room in Tooting. Cecil worked, and Stella trained to become a nurse. Stella also had a baby daughter called Wendy

Stella and Cecil lived in a single room in Tooting. While Cecil worked, Stella trained to become a nurse.

They had a daughter, Wendy, and once Stella had qualified and settled, she tried to bring her son over from Guyana. But by then, her in-laws had grown too attached to him and refused to let him leave. Stella told me that although many English people think that West Indians live in shacks, her in-laws had a big house with 6 bedrooms and said there was no way they were sending their grandson to share a single room in South London. Stella’s son remained in Guyana, where he still lives today.

Once Stella passed her nursing exams, she worked in the infectious disease ward at St Georges Hospital in Tooting�She said that the hospital had a strict hygiene policy. You'd scrub your hands, go into the ward, put on overalls, and then scrub your hands again. There were no disposable surgical gloves in those days. She said you had to go through the same process on the way out and that all the hand scrubbing made her hands sore.
The nurses were given castor oil cream to soothe their hands, but it had a strong smell that Stella was self-conscious about on the bus ride home. The whole time Stella was a nurse, there was never any cross-infection.

Stella's daughter Wendy became a teacher. Something that Stella was incredibly proud of.
Wendy went on to have five children who often visit Stella. Stella feels blessed that she has her grandkids around her. She says when they leave the house after a visit, 'The silence is deafening.'

Cecil died in 2009. He loved gardening and would grow veg in the back and flowers in the front. Stella remembers that back then, everyone in their Tooting street used to pop in and out of each other’s houses, sharing plants, seeds, and vegetables. It was a friendly, close-knit community.

Cecil planted two beautiful rose bushes in the front garden. In later years, when looking after the garden became too much, Stella had it paved but made sure the builders left Cecil’s roses untouched. Every summer, they still bloom without fail.

RIP Stella 2025

Yesterday, I got a message from Joan’s son Nigel saying that Joan passed away peacefully aged 103. Joan was one of the nicest and most dignified people I’ve photographed, and I’m reposting her story to celebrate her life of quiet resilience.

Joan used to faint at school. After this happened a few times, the doctor was called who said she was anaemic. She was put on iron tablets and cod liver oil and told to stay at home. Joan wanted to go back to school, but the doctor said that she must rest and that it didn't really matter whether or not she went to school because she was just a woman. So at 13, Joans' education abruptly ended.

Jobs were scarce in the countryside, but at 15, Joan got work in a sports shop in the town of Lymington. She lived in the attic room above the shop and worked as a housemaid and in the shop itself.
Once a week, she got a half-day off and would cycle the 8 miles home to the hamlet of Bucklers Hard to visit her parents.
She got friendly with a boy called Charlie who worked in the greengrocers. His mum liked Joan and said she could visit them instead of cycling home if it was raining.
Charlie didn't like working in the greengrocers, so one day he cycled to Bournemouth to join the Grenadier Guards. He was too young, but they let him in because he was a 'tall lad.'
Joan and Charlie married. By their first wedding anniversary, WW2 had broken out. Being a member of the British Expeditionary Forces, Charlie was sent off to France before the regular soldiers.
Joan enlisted into the ATS - Auxiliary Territorial Service - the women's branch of the Army (swipe).
She was posted to Northampton to do her basic training. She learnt to march 'square-bashing.' She was sent to Wi******er and then York, where she worked as an army cook.

Meanwhile, over in France, Charlie got shot by an enemy aircraft on the way to Dunkirk. He was shot in the thigh. Luckily the bullet didn't hit the bone. Joan still has the bullet.

Charlie made it to Dunkirk and was ready to board the hospital ship to take him back to England when it was bombed in front of him.
He was eventually taken back amongst the flotilla of small ships that came to save the soldiers who were stranded on the beaches of France.

Joan loved the ATS. She loved the camaraderie and the responsibility of it all; she also loved all the cooking. She left when she got pregnant with their first daughter. Charlie went on to serve in North Africa and in Italy. He survived the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy, which cost Allied troops 55,000 casualties.

After the war, Charlie became a painter and decorator, and the couple had 2 more kids, Brenda and Nigel. They moved into their council house in 1962, and Joan still lives there today. Sadly, Charlie died of cancer at just 70.

Joan gets up a 7 and has cereal or porridge every morning. She cooks her main meal from scratch every lunchtime and has something small in the evening. If there's nothing on the telly, she's in bed by 9pm reading. Joan loves reading.
Perhaps it was the discipline of her time in the women's army, but Joan has always been independent and only gave up cycling when she was 85. Her house is immaculate, and she still bakes a cake every week. Fruitcake, sponges, or scones.

Her only regret in life is not finishing school. She would love to have had more of an education and would love to have run her own bakery. One of her 5 grandchildren is now a top patisserie chef (something he must have inherited from Joan). She also has 6 great-grandchildren.

Last year Joan got a letter from a fellow member of the women's army - Queen Elizabeth congratulating Joan on her 100th birthday. Next month she will be 101. (2022)

RIP Joan Collins 1922-2025

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