Alf Bolding Jnr

 

Alfred Forrester Bolding Jnr

 

Alf Bolding Jnr was born in 1891 in Bethnal Green, the eldest child of Alf Bolding Snr and his wife Amelia.

 

He followed his father into the Company in 1905, working as a scalemaker.  In October 1914 he joined up, enlisting in the 7^th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment, and shortly after being ‘demobbed', married Elisabeth McAllister in 1919 in West Ham.

 

Alf is pictured in the ‘Herberts Two Hundred’ feature in the Meat Marketing Journal dated February 1960 with the following caption “ Long service is the rule rather than the exception at Herberts. Champion to date is pictured left. He is Alf Bolding, 54 years with the firm. Formerly he was an outside man fitting rails in shops and slaughterhouses.”

On his retirement in 1961 after 55 years' service, he was presented with a cheque from the Company and a gold watch from his colleagues, and Jim Herbert paid tribute to Alf’s cheery grin and thanked him for his loyal service to the firm.  The Lion News later reported that Alf had ‘thanked everyone in a few suitable words’ and that ‘those who were present at the Works Canteen … when he said farewell will not readily forget that event’.

 

The BBC 6 o'clock news of Friday 28th July 1961 carried a news item about the 108 years of combined service of the two Boldings.

 

Unfortunately Alf died only a year after his retirement, on 2nd August 1962.