The Symes Family

The Children of Charles and Jane Symes

 Charles and Jane Symes had eleven children in all.  They all lived in The Georgian House.

There were six daughters and the thumbnail photograph here shows the four eldest girls; Ellen, Annie, Rose and Dorothy.  Please click on it to see it in a larger view.

Ellen had been born on 7th March 1880.   The census does not show an occupation, but Jack Pridham, one of their descendants, has told us that she worked in her parents' shop until her marriage to George Bartlett a policeman, with whom she moved to Cheltenham and then to Gloucester.  In 1899 Ellen placed a notice in the classified adverts of the Bristol Mercury 'Wanted: situation as Children's or Young Lady's Maid; aged 18, tall, 3 years' experience; dressmaking'.

The next daughter was Annie Symes.  Annie was born 5th February 1882.  In the census it says that Annie was a dressmaker on her own account.  Annie married Charles Arthur Pitcher in 1903 and they ran the post office in Thornbury for many years.   For more information about Charles and Annie Pitcher, please click here.

Rose Symes was born 2nd October 1887.  She was only 13 years old in the 1901 census.  However, we have learned from her nephew, Jack Pridham, that Rose went into the family business and after her father's death, she ran the seed store on the corner of Gloucester Road and The Plain.  Jack said that Rose was engaged to a soldier who died in World War One and that she never married and always seems to have had very poor health.  Rose lived in The Georgian House with the Pridham family.  She died in March 1970 aged 82.  Please click on the thumbnail photograph on the right to see an advertisement for Rose Symes' shop.

Dorothy Kathleen Symes was born 1st November 1891.  She married Sydney Harriss Gayner, a draper and milliner in the High Street.  They had two daughters, Pamela and Jean Frances.  Sidney died in July 1965 aged 79 and is buried in Thornbury Cemetery with Dorothy who died in June 1965.

The next daughter was Gwendoline Irena Symes who was born on 15th June 1896.  Gwen worked as a morse and telegraph operator for Charlie Pitcher at the Post Office.  Sadly she developed an auto-immune disorder and died in 1921 aged just 25.  A thumbnail photograph of Gwen is shown on the left here.  Please click on it if you wish to see it in a larger view.

The youngest daughter was Marjorie Iris Symes who was born 5th May 1903. She too worked in the house and the shop until she married Albert James Pridham in 1927.  Marjorie and "Bert" Pridham, as he was generally known, lived in the house for many years and so we have created a separate page to deal with this part of the family.  Click here to read more

The eldest son was called Percy Symes.  He was born February 3rd 1884.  The 1901 census shows that at age 17 he was training to be a carpenter.  At some stage, he married a lady called Howard who lived in Southampton.  They had a son, Ronald. We understand Percy's wife died and he emigrated to Australia a few years before the outbreak of World War One.  When the War began he joined the 48th Battalion of Australian Army.  The enlistment record dated 18th January 1915 shows that he was a widow with one son, Ronald, who was living in Southampton, with his wife's sister.  The record describes Percy as being 31 year 1 month, 5ft 10 inches, chest measurement of 34 inches, 36.5 inches when expanded, sallow complexion, grey eyes, brown hair and of the Presbyterian religion.  Percy was sent immediately to fight in Gallipoli on 'Argyllshire'.  After several months there he had had a series of injuries and periods of sickness and he was sent back to Hospital in England in September 1915.  He re-joined his unit in March 1916 and appointed Lance Corporal.  Further promotions happened quickly to Corporal, Lance Sergeant and by March 1917 he was promoted to Sergeant. 

In August 1917 he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct medal "for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty, by encouraging his men he established them rapidly in a strong defensive position, afterwards taking water up to the outposts and bringing back a wounded man from 'No Man's Land' under heavy fire.  He also did invaluable work with bombs and rifle grenades during a hostile attack on a neighbouring unit".  In September 1917 he was returned from France to attend an Officer's Cadet School in Oxford and he returned to the fighting in France as a 2nd Lieutenant being promoted to Lieutenant in May 1918.  During 1918 he was hospitalised on several occasions, once he was sent to back to England, to the Lord Derby Hospital, Winwick near Hulme.  Here he met the lady who was to be his second wife, Constance Furey, who was a charge-nurse there.  They married when Percy was home on leave in February 1919.  Percy was then aged 54 and Constance was 27.  Percy was finally sent back to Australia with Constance in May 1919.  We understand that they had a son, Victor, in Australia.

Percy's son, Ronald, was shot down and killed in the Second World War.  

Edward Ewart Symes was born 2nd March 1886 and was baptised 7th March 1886 in St Mary's church in Thornbury.  He was still a schoolboy aged 15 in the 1901 Census.

The photograph on the right is of Ted and Fanny and appears to be taken at their wedding.  Click on the thumbnail for a larger photograph.  They were married in the December quarter of 1913 in Thornbury.  We have been told by his nephew, Jack Pridham, that 'Ted' went to Birmingham during World War One, where he and his wife, Fanny (nee Ashcroft) worked together on the trams.  The photograph on the left shows Fanny at this time. 

We were told that "after the war," Edward returned to Thornbury and his peace time occupation as a gardener to work for Sir Algar Howard.  We do not know how long after the war it was that Ted and Fanny came back to Thornbury.  We do know that they did not appear in  the Electoral Rolls  of the 1920's and 30's in Thornbury.  The first record we have found so far is in 1946, which suggests that it was after the Second World War that they came back to Thornbury.  Their address then was at The Stables in Thornbury Castle.  However we believe that before this they spent a short time living at the Georgian House.  By 1950 their address was East Lodge at Thornbury Castle.  In the 1954 Electoral Roll they were living at 36 Castle Street.  This was still his address when he died in Thornbury Hospital on 16th May 1958 aged 72.  They had one son, Edward Symes. 

Charles Howard Symes was born 3rd March 1889, sadly he died 9th February 1891.  Christopher Symes who was born in 1891 also failed to live very long.  He died in 1892.

Cecil Bernard Symes was born on 20th February 1894 and was known by his family as "Nard".  He spent 7 years at the Council School and then moved on to the Grammar School on 16th October 1907 having received a total exemption from his parents having to pay the school fees.  This was awarded by the Governors for 4 years.  He passed the Cambridge Junior exam in July 1909 and Cambridge Senior exam in 1910.  When he left the school on 28th July 1911 he took up the teaching profession becoming an assistant master in an elementary school.  He is pictured here below in a thumbnail photograph with his sisters, Ellen and Annie.  Please click on the photograph to see it in a larger view. 

Due to a heart condition, he was originally rejected by the army but he eventually joined the Royal Army Medical Corps.  One one his nephews, Jack Pridham, has told us that staff Sergeant C B Symes was mentioned in a despatch from Field Marshall Sir John French on 30th November 1915 "for gallant and distinguished service". A letter signed by Winston S Churchill says " I have it in command from the King to record his Majesty's high appreciation of the service rendered."

In the army he became an expert on malaria carrying mosquitoes.  On his  discharge from the army he joined the Colonial Office.  In 1919 studied at the Royal College of Science (later Imperial College) for a one year diploma in entomology.  Afterwards he worked for the Colonial Office in Southern Rhodesia and then Nairobi where he continued his work on malaria carrying mosquitoes and created the Entomological Section of The Medical Research Labs.  The studies he did on the behaviour of malarial mosquitoes between 1925 and 1945 in Kenya are still acknowledged in papers on this subject.   As well as Kenya, he  also worked in Mauritius, Fiji, Portugal and Brazil.

A new species of mosquito is actually named 'Anopheles symesi' after him.

"Nard" spent his leaves from the Colonial Service in the family home  (the Georgian House).  He maintained his Colonial routines even in Thornbury by having cold baths early every morning and pink gins every evening!  His first wife, Betty, apparently declined to join him in Thornbury, preferring the bright lights of London.  Charles Bernard Symes was awarded the CBE, presumably for his work in the Colonial Services.  After the death of his second wife he retired to Somerset where he died in his nineties.

This page was last updated: 06/07/2010