Reuben George and the Christmas card

The re-imagined story …

I thought the days of families going short of food and unable to heat their homes was a thing of the past. I’m glad dad isn’t alive to see how low his country has sunk. Was this the future he fought for in two world wars?

I’ve got a battered old biscuit tin full of election pamphlets and newspaper cuttings he kept along with meticulously copied letters he had written in the 1920s and 30s. There were replies he had received from local politicians and national ones as well and a whole batch written by Jimmy Thomas. Every railwayman in Swindon knew of Jimmy Thomas, a former engine driver who became the youngest ever president of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants and went on to become Labour MP for Derby.

There was even a Christmas card sent to dad in 1921 from Swindon Mayor Reuben George. I remember dad saying it was a travesty that Reuben George had never been elected an MP.

“Reuben George was a champion of the under dog,” dad used to say. I’m sure this isn’t the future he worked for.

The facts …

“It was the greatest public demonstration of spontaneous affection for a public figure that the town of Swindon had seen for very many years,” reported the Advertiser on the funeral of Alderman Reuben George, one of the forgotten political heroes of the town.

Born on September 11, 1864 the son of Stephen George, a bootmaker and his wife Elizabeth, Reuben grew up at Highfield Cottages in the hamlet of Barton St. Mary, Gloucester.

Reuben George moved to Swindon where he worked as an agent for the Wesleyan & General Insurance Company and by 1891 he lived with his wife Clara and their son, two year old Herbert Gladstone George, in two rooms in a shared house at 97 Princes Street. The rest of the house was occupied by Albert Bick, an iron turner at the GWR Works, his wife and her sister.

Socialist, pacifist, member of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society, an authority on Wiltshire local history, one of the founder members of the Worker’s Educational Association and supporter of the Richard Jefferies Society, George’s list of interests and achievements is a long one.

Elected to both Swindon Town and Wiltshire County Councils, he served on numerous committees, including the education committee of both authorities.  His lifelong interest in education stemmed from his own humble beginnings and early lack of opportunities.   

Reuben George stood as Labour Candidate for Chippenham in 1918, the first Labour Candidate to stand in that town, with the slogan – ‘You have King George, you have had Lloyd George, and all you want is Reuben George’. …

During his lengthy political career George served as Mayor of Swindon 1921-22. George inaugurated the original wooden diving stage at Coate Water opened in 1921 and celebrated the occasion by being the first to dive off.

Reuben George died in the Victoria Hospital on June 4, 1936.  Described as a champion of the under dog he was a socialist reformer inspired by William Morris, the 19^th century artist, poet and political activist. George’s fame was not confined to Swindon.  

“The news of the passing of Ald. Reuben George was broadcast to the nation in the second news bulletin of the National programme on Friday night,” the report of his death continued in the Swindon Advertiser.

During a funeral service attended by not only local dignitaries but also the ordinary people to whom George had devoted his life, it was reported that ‘men and women sobbed audibly.’

A letter of condolence was sent by May Morris, daughter of the aforementioned William Morris and among the floral tributes were wreaths from the employees from local firms and Swindon schools. The pall bearers were six members of the Swindon WEA Executive Committee.

Among the family mourners were Reuben’s widow who attended her husband’s funeral against her doctor’s advice, his three surviving brothers John, Alfred and Walter and his two sons, Granville and Stanley (eldest son Herbert had died whilst on military service in India).

Bareheaded crowds lined the streets and blinds were drawn everywhere along the route as the funeral cortege made its way from Christ Church to the Radnor Street Cemetery.

Today Reuben and Clara George’s modest grave has been adopted by Radnor Street Cemetery volunteer Jo, who has lined the grave with a membrane to reduce the weeds and added new chippings. Jo has also planted daffodil bulbs, which will bloom again for years to come.