Lives in Cricket No 34 - Frank Mitchell

114 Chapter Nineteen Blackheath, Nigeria and family days Towards the end of World War I, Frank Mitchell and his family settled back into a life based around their successive homes in Blackheath. When he first travelled to Nigeria in 1917 he gave his address as 57 St John’s Park, but then he moved to 107A Shooters Hill Road where he remained until 1929. That house was later demolished to make way for the present Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road. His third child Antony Philip was born there in May 1919, and the birth was registered by Mrs Mitchell, who gave her husband’s occupation for the certificate as ‘Stock Broker’. Because of his bankruptcy Frank Mitchell would not have been permitted to practise in stockbroking on his own account or as a partner with others, but immediately after the World War he could well have gained employment in a firm of brokers. His name does not appear as a stockbroker in the official lists of members of the Stock Exchange. In 1930 the Mitchells moved to 31 St John’s Park, which had been until 1926 the building occupied by Stratheden House School, where Thomas Mitchell was a pupil. After the school had closed the property was converted into four flats, one of which was leased by Theresa Mitchell as a family home. It remains as a very large Edwardian house, now converted into many more flats. To live there in the early 1930s would to have been living in a fashionable part of Blackheath. In 1934 the Mitchells moved to Heathend, 3 Montpelier Row, a delightful terraced house overlooking Blackheath Common, which would have been an even more fashionable address. It was there that Frank Mitchell was to die. Journalism for Frank Mitchell may have remained a primary aspiration and interest, but after his war service he developed overseas business interests in the mining industry, which enabled and required him to travel quite frequently to Nigeria. Mining for coal and metal had become an attractive industry in Nigeria at the start of the twentieth century, but ultimately too many companies were chasing the same potential opportunities and not many survived for any length of time. Before the end of the World War Frank Mitchell’s energy led him to explore the prospects of again working abroad. This biography already records his journey to Nigeria in September 1917, and there is a record of his return to Liverpool, using the Elder Dempster Lines Ltd, in March 1918. He left again for Lagos in December 1918 using the title of Colonel but again travelling as a stockbroker, and another shipping record shows him returning to Liverpool in December 1919. There were probably other journeys not yet transcribed for family history sites, with as an example the Hull Daily Mail in 1924 recording that Mitchell had sailed to Nigeria for a three month stay.