Buckinghamshire.

George Christopher Joseph Challis 1919-2012

What of their son George Christopher Joseph Challis? He was born in 1919 at 30 Fulham Road, Kensington, one article noted his father was a chauffeur, another said he was an engineer and car designer. He went to Kings College School, Wimbledon later joining Gaumont British News as an assistant in the camera department. He went on to be a distinguished cinematographer on more than 70 feature films including Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Now how much time he spent on Canvey is pure guesswork. The family were here from before 1929 until at least 1934. George Christopher (he preferred to be called Christopher) may have been a border at Kings College so it would only havebeen on Canvey during school holidays and/or weekends.

My personal feeling is Christopher Thomas and Eliza Marie were the first to live on the island, they were already elderly. Perhaps the extended family had spent holidays here. Perhaps they needed help as they got older and infirmed so George and Marie came to stay to help them and with George Christopher boarding at Kings they felt free to do so. George Christopher wrote his memoirs ‘Are They Really So Awful?’ in 1995 perhaps I need to read them to find out if Canvey had any influence on his life. He died in 2012.

The Challiss Family do not appear in the Spring 1924 Electoral Roll or Poor rate book. But they do appear in the 1924 Autumn Electoral Roll and