| AdminHistory | Henry George Chesterman Allgood was born in 1862 in St Giles, London. He married Alice Amelia Seagar in Hackney in 1896. Henry was resident at 21 Sydney Street, Bethnal Green, in 1894, when he was elected as a vestryman for the South Ward of St Matthew Vestry; he initially served on the Finance, Parliamentary, and Assessment Committees of the Vestry. He served as a vestryman for just a couple of years as his name is not listed in the Annual Report for 1896; by that time Henry and Alice Allgood had removed to Cardiff, Wales where Henry died in 1917 aged 55. Alice later remarried to Arthur Gadd.
Henry Allgood had a keen interest in the history of Bethnal Green (he became a member of the Royal Archaeological Institute). He did much of his research among the Vestry records with the help of the then Clerk Robert Voss. An initial volume of the 'History of Bethnal Green' (prefixed with 'Stray Leaves From the Past of Our Village') was published in 1894, with a second edition following in 1905. The manuscript of the second part of the history - also with the projected part-title of 'Stray Leaves' - was never actually published in book form; it was, however, serialised in the 'East London Advertiser' between July and October 1915. |
| CustodialHistory | The manuscript of the second part of Allgood's history of Bethnal Green and a few additional letters and papers were gifted to the Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green by Henry Allgood's widow Alice, the material arriving in June 1920: see the correspondence towards the back of P/ALG/1/1.
Another letter makes it clear that a second group of historical items - possibly collected by Allgood during the course of his researches - was sent to the Library in 1933 by his brother Arthur Allgood; these items have not yet been traced. It is unclear if this was published material or manuscript notes and other research papers. |