George Nelmes (General)

by peteressex , Saturday, August 14, 2010, 14:34 (5216 days ago) @ bingo

Glad it helped.

I can now add that I was at Gloucestershire Archives for a couple of hours during the past week to research that photo among other things. I found from Lydney Rural District Council minutes for 24 June 1952 that on that day, through arrangements made by my grandfather W F Essex, certificates of completion of Civil Defence training were presented to a number of men including the Nelmes, Beeley and Richards who are presumably those already identified in the photo.

It is therefore highly likely to be a photo of some of those thus awarded and presented with certificates, since it would also explain what my grandfather is doing planted centre stage in the front row and why the shot was taken at Lydney Cross in front of the Town Hall.

Jim Nelmes, it also transpires, when not running the "Cross Keys" pub, was a rural district councillor at Lydney for a good few years from 1946 in common with W F Essex. Mr Nelmes was also a manager of Lydney Grammar School for similar years (which is more than W F Essex ever was.)