My mother was born in Moseley Green on 19 August 1909, she had one sister & 4 brothers.
Some members of the family lived in the Barracks. The properties my mother's family lived in
were demolished in the 1950s. My mother, Lilian Ellen Preest left Lydney Grammar School and trained to be a nurse in London 1929-1933. She met my father when she was a nursing sister in a mobile unit, part of the Middle East Forces during WWII. She married my father on 1 September 1943 in Aleppo, Syria.
My grandfather George Preest was the deputy underground inspector for the New Fancy NCB colliery, died December 1949. He was a freeminer as were many of the Preests from Bream, mostly.
I am searching roots for the surname Preest which our family believes comes from Carmarthenshire, Wales. The National Archives holds an early record for a John Preest in Gloucestershire, a tax document from the 13th century.
The surname Preest, also others eg. Preece have derivations to ap Rhys - Lord Rhys, Rhys ap Gruffyd and the ancient rulers of Wales. Lord Rhys died in 1197. Have much info. on this guy if anyone interested in researching family links to the Forest.