REQUEST
We have lost a photo album that was at one time in George & Queenie's possession.   It is full of photographs taken at their 50th Wedding Anniversary.   If you know of its whereabouts, please please contact us as we would dearly love to have copies of those family photos.   Thank you.


Ernest George Lea (known as George) was born on 15th July 1908 Tythe Farm, Longcot, Oxfordshire.   He was the last of six children of Fanny (nee Curtis) and Albert Hope Lea.   George lived in Cricklade Street, just around the corner from his future bride who lived in Church Road.

On 24th October 1931 he married Queenie May Glass, at the Swindon Registry Office, Wiltshire.   They lived at the Toll House, Shrivenham Road, Swindon, where their first child Anthony was born, and moved to 107 Bright Street where they lived until a move to 366 Cricklade Road.

George and Queenie had eleven children - Anthony, Donald, Dennis, Vera, Brian, Margaret, David, Valerie, Dianne, Barbara and Linda.

George died on 23rd June 1983.   His funeral was held at the chapel at Whitworth Road Cemetery, Swindon, followed by buriel (plot 244).


George was Mandy's grandfather.   She doesn't remember him very much but what she does remember was when she did visit he always seemed to be asleep on the sofa!   The other thing Mandy remembers about him was he had lots of budgerigars in a big cage in the living room.   Perhaps better qualified to write about George is Donald, his son; the following is taken from information collected by Donald in the early 1990s.   Please follow the 'Lea Family' link at the bottom of the page to read more about George, Queenie and the family.

"Born at Tythe Farm, Longcot on the 15th of May 1908, Ernest George Lea was the sixth and last child born to Albert and Fanny Lea.   There was some doubt initially as to the location of his birth which was eventually verified by his eldest sister Edith Emily, some eleven years his elder.   Edith recalled her surprise when arriving at Tythe Farm during a family move to find her mother there with a new baby.   “Where on earth did he come from?” she asked, “Under the bush in the garden” her mother replied.   Edie, believing her mother, actually went into the garden to see if there were any more there.   Armed with this information I wrote to the registrar of Berkshire and confirmed this to be his place of birth and a copy of his birth certificate followed.

Apprenticed as a bricklayer, he was regarded by the building fraternity of the Swindon area as an exceptionally good tradesman.   He was inseparable from his half brother Bill Gladwin, often working together and just as often drinking together until an unfortunate accident in 1952 that Bill did not survive.

Queenie and George were married at the Registry Office in Swindon on the 24th of October 1931 in the presence of Fanny Lea and Arthur William Lea.

Their first home was at the old toll house in Shrivenham Road, Swindon, although the address on the marriage certificate reads Oxford Road, Stratton St. Margaret.   The toll house was more commonly known as the 'Pike House' and was pulled down many years ago for road widening purposes.   Sadly no photographs have emerged of this fine old house that I understand had stood on its own in beautiful countryside since 1830 until it eventually found itself surrounded by redevelopment that made its own position rather precarious.   The first child of George and Queenie was Anthony George who was born at the Pike House and I myself was conceived at this house before they moved to 107 Bright Street, Gorse Hill some two miles away.

Following Anthony George the next born was myself, Donald Edward and then my brothers and sisters, Dennis Percival, Vera Joan, Brian, Margaret Ann, David Richard, Valerie Jean, Dianne, Barbara Joyce and Linda Doreen, eleven children in all.   Everyone being born in the two bedroom terraced house that sadly has also fallen foul to redevelopment.

All of the children of Queenie and George are still living in and around the Swindon area with the exception of two daughters, Dianne and Barbara, who for many years have lived in Sydney, Australia.   Their return every few years is reason enough for many family get-togethers and outings.   Not that this family needs any excuse for a party!   It has been an ongoing event for many years to go on a double-decker bus outing to the seaside each summer, a Christmas party with a band or disco to help the one hundred or more family and friends enjoy their evening.

I collected my mother from her home in Cricklade Road at 11 am on boxing day 1992 to take her to my own home in Toothill where we were to spend the day together with my family.   Thinking that a short ride around the town may be a change for her I made no effort to hurry from home to home.   I drove the car into Church Road where my mother was born, and asked if she could remember the stone cottage in which her Auntie Rose lived.

“Oh Yes” she replied.   “It stood at the end of the road on that piece of wasteland pointing to the corner of Church Road and Little London.   I turned the car around and into the narrow road that would take us down the hill to Cricklade Street, but half way down my mother stated that my father and Bill Gladwin, his half brother, had built the wall along side the cottage.

“Is that how you met?” I asked.

“Well yes and no, I would sometimes see him when I was playing ball with my friends at weekends and evenings, he only lived in that house there.” She pointed to the rear of the house in front of us.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.   “Do you mean to say that dad lived in that house there with granny and grampy Lea?”

“Yes, and Bill lived with them as well.”

Of all the conversations I have had with various members of the family, no one has ever mentioned that my father lived at Cricklade Street, Old Town.   I was very surprised, to say the least, but sensing that I was close to finding out how their lives became entwined I pursued with the questioning.

“Well how did you start going out together?” I asked and in the next few moments all was revealed.

“The first job I had was working for a Mr Brown at 69 Croft Road as a maid and one day when I was busy in the front bedroom I happened to look out of the window and saw your father working on a house that was being built across the road.   He waved his trowel at me and I waved my brush at him.   He later offered to take me to work each day on the back of his motorcycle and that was the beginning of our going out together.   We were courting for four years before we were married.”

During the time my mother and father were courting, my father had an accident with his motorcycle and was found lying unconscious by a soldier on the Highworth Road.   He was taken to hospital in Swindon and after recovering vowed never to ride a motorcycle again and to my knowledge, never did.

I well recall the time my father, a little worse for drinking, had to return to the pub he had just come from in a taxi to retrieve his bicycle which he had ridden there earlier that evening.   His bicycle was often the subject for humour because of its rusty condition but his answer to that was his bicycle would take him anywhere a new one would take him, and he could leave it without fear of it being stolen.   A valid comment I think."