HENRY

Henry was born in 'Snell Hall' village in St Vincent, Grenada. The village was named after slave owner William Snell. 1720-1779.

On June 15th, 1961, Henry took the boat to England. His mum was so upset that her boy was leaving, that she couldn't bare to look when he got on the bus to take him to the port.

Just a few days after arriving, Henry was working as a carpenter for Wandsworth Council. He'd also found somewhere to live in Shepherd's Bush, so he sent for his wife, Marge, to come over from back home in Grenada.

One of Henry's first jobs was doing the 'shuttering' for the Winstanley Estate in Battersea, which was under construction at the time. Henry's job was to build wooden moulds that concrete was poured into to create the walls of the tower blocks.

Henry and Marge had four children together. When she was in her forties, Marge visited her sister in America. After returning, she was at the market when she had a stroke and died. Henry told me that Marge had always suffered from headaches. "My wife was so good that she died early. It's only the good that die young."

Henry is 94 now, and his eldest child is a pensioner. He walks without a stick and always sits on the top floor of the bus. He said, "When people get to my age, they get aches and pains but lucky for me, I don't have any."

Henry doesn't take any medication and never visits the doctor. "I'm happy in my own way, and I don't worry about nothing. The trouble with people is they all want to be rich. All you should want in life is to see the daybreak - that's all you need."

"I had my little job, I worked for Wandsworth Council until I retired - I still get my pension money from the government - what's better than that?"

"Every day, I'm up at 6am. I get a cup of tea and get out of the house. All I want is to keep going."

Henry told me he was in Clapham because he’d been doing a carpentry job. He always keeps his leather holdall in a Sainsbury's bag. "Because if people see you with a leather briefcase, they will want to steal it."

He told me that even though Marge died 47 years ago, he still has conversations with her in his sleep. Last week, she said, "Have you made up your arrangements for your funeral yet." Henry told me that he replied, "I ain't going nowhere."

"I was born in the gutter, and I lay in the gutter smiling, waiting for the water to take me to the big sea."