George Bristow, Stan's Grandfather

 

This photograph shows Stan's father, George, on the left and George's father (Stan's Grandfather), also George, on the right.

George (senior) was born on 4 November, 1874, in Cranwell, Lincolnshire.  George's older brother, Charles had moved to Essex and married an Essex girl and in the early 1890's George also moved to Essex.  Here he met Sarah Challis and they were married on 16 September, 1897.

George and Sarah went on to have seven children.  George (junior) was the oldest.  George (senior) got a job as a 'chainman' on the railways and lived in several different parts of England, travelling with the job.  At some point before 1911 he left the railways and began working as a labourer at Frickley Colliery, near South Elmsall in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

George was known to be very 'close' with his money, but all the time he was saving and in the mid-1920's he was able to buy the village shop and post office in Cranwell and return to live there with his wife and younger children.  By that time George (junior) had married Mabel and their son, Stanley, was a small child.  George and Mabel remained in South Elmsall, but travelled to Cranwell regularly.  When Stan was small they often cycled there and back on a tandem with Stan in a sidecar!

George died on 26 July, 1944, a few months before his 70th birthday.  He had cancer of the pancreas and liver, which would have been developing for a long time.  Cancer of the pancreas remained difficult to diagnose even into the 21st century.   George was buried in Cranwell churchyard on 29 July, 1944.

The photograph below shows the shop and post office at some point in the 1930's.  You will see from the signs that in addition to being the village shop and post office they also served 'Teas' and refreshments, mainly to airmen and officers from the Royal Airforce base in Cranwell.