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Note: Gerald Norman Powney Gerald Norman Powney was born on the 15th of February 1911 at 64 Alma Road, Clifton, Bristol to parents John Gerald and Deborah Jane (nee El laway). He was the fourth child to be born to John and Deborah havin g two sisters and a brother - Deborah Joyce (1903), Phyllis Irene (1905) and John Hugh (1906). Later in 1916, they added another daughter to the family named Elizabeth Olga (Betty). Gerald's father was employed as a stationer, travelling around the country, representing a stationery supplies company and was away from home for most of the week.
By the time Gerald was of school age, the family had moved to Bath possibly to a house owned by his aunt Margaret at 9 Williamstowe, Combe Down and he eventually attended Widcombe School at the bottom of Ralph Allen Drive. At the age of 15 years, Gerald had to obtain a copy of his birth certificate (presumably as the original had been lost) to secure employment with the United Yeast Company of Temple Street, Bristol . The family were now living at 42, Hampton Road, Redland, Bristol and his father was described as a commercial traveller which indicates he was still representing a stationery supply company. 1926, the year that Gerald started work, was also the year of the General Strike and the country was in the grip of an economic depression. How long he remained at the yeast company is not known but he may have left due to illness. At some stage he worked in the furniture trade.
Gerald's older brother, Jack, was working for David Gregg & Company, a grocery chain of shops at their branch in Gloucester Road, Horfield , working in the cooked meats department. He was later to become manager of their Orchard Street, Weston-super-Mare shop. Sometime during the early 1950's, Gerald's father bought a newly constructed shop wit h living accommodation over at 88 Coldharbour Road, Horfield, Bristol . This shop, selling confectionery, stationery and fancy goods was also a lending library called Longmead Library, the name taken from the nearby Longmead Road.
About this time, Gerald left the yeast company and joined his mother and father at the shop, living on the premises with the family. It was whilst working at the shop sometime in 1934 that he met Edith Eileen Meese-Kennedy, (known as Eileen) who was employed as a maid to the Hosegood family of nearby Westbury Park. The Hosegoods owned a flour milling business at Avonmouth Docks and Gerald was later able to gain employment with them. When Eileen was out one day with one of the Hosegood infants, the wheel came off the pram she was pushing. She sought help from Gerald and from that day they became friends. Friendship blossomed into romance and Gerald and Eileen were married on 3rd August 1935 at Westbury-on-Trym Parish Church. Gerald was at that time 24 and his new wife, 20. Following the marriage ceremony, Gerald and Eileen lived with Eileen's parents at 5 Royston Walk in Southmead and on 20th October, 1935, their first child was born whom they named David N orman. Eileen's father was working as a labourer at the Bristol Aeroplane Company at their Engine Division in Gypsy Patch Lane, Patchway. He had moved from Rhydfelin in South Wales, where he had been working as a miner, to Bristol in the 1920's as a result of the depression in he coal mining industry. It was probably his father-in-law who secured Gerald a job as a fitter with the aircraft makers who were desperately in need of workers in the years before the Second World War in 1939 . With a steady job and financial help from his aunt Maggie, his father's sister, Margaret, the couple were able to purchase a new house in 1937, number 6 Elgin Avenue, Filton Park, a 3 bedroomed semi-detached house with gardens to front and rear. Gerald continued to live here for the rest of his life.
Work at the Aircraft Factory continued for Gerald throughout the war, called to work each day by the works hooter at 7.30am and each night he did his 'bit' for the war effort as fire watcher with the local Air Raid Precaution Group, based at Charborough Road School. In April 1941, a second son was born and they called him Colin Michael to be shortly followed by a daughter, Mary Sylvia late in 1943.
Gerald continued to work at the Shadow Factory, so called because it d uplicated work at the Filton factory against damage by enemy bombs, i n Gypsy Patch Lane until about 1952. It was then he decided he needed a more secure job, as work at the factory was getting very uncertain a nd so it was then that he obtained a position in the transport office of flour miller, Henry Hosegood & Son in Queen's Square, Bristol. Eil een's brother, Len was also working for Hosegoods after his army war s ervice and, it was thought, put in a good word for Gerald. As an offi ce worker, his hours of work were now different and much improved and he was able to leave home around 8.00am and return on the bus by 6.00p m. Gerald was to remain with Hosegoods for the rest of his working life and eventually progressed to Transport Manager at the Queen's Squar e office. The company subsequently opened new offices at Backwell, some 7 miles south of Bristol so in 1957, Gerald took driving lessons wi th a Mr Bunn and in due course, passed his test thus enabling him to drive to and from work. He bought his first car, a Morris 1000 Traveller, opening up new travel opportunities for the family.
As a child, Gerald suffered an attack of pleurisy which probably left a weakness of the heart. When young and throughout most of his life, he was stout to overweight and was called Billy, by his own family, after Billy Bunter, the fat schoolboy depicted in stories by Richmal Crompton. To Eileen's family, he was Gerald but at Hosegoods, he was always known as Gus. In about 1970, a kitchen fire at home probably set off diabetes, an illness to which Gerald became obsessively concerned . This resulted in the loss of a small toe and as the age of 64 he took early retirement as part of a redundancy package. During that yea r he was taken ill, eventually being admitted to Ham Green Hospital where he died of a heart attack on 18th March 1975.
Changedatetime: 18:45:23
Changedate: 3 JAN 2010
Changedatez: 2010-01-03T00:00:00.000Z
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