L & R GRAVES - Key Persons

Fanny Begg, Alex Begg, David Mathieson and Christina Mathieson (c1901). I went to Prestonpans school until a school was built at Cuthill almost next to our house. Then I finished at Prestonpans when I was 14. My father insisted that I was to get further schooling so I went to Musselburgh Grammar School and stayed till I was 16. From there I took a secretarial course in Edinburgh. I worked in an Edinburgh office for 2 years and then went to Glasgow to stay with my mother's sister- Fanny.

The district has lost one of its real characters in the death of Mr. Lionel Edward Graves, aged 84 years, of Eldoret, Burford. A real countryman of the old school he will be sadly missed. Born at the Crow Hotel, Tenbury, son of Thomas Henry Graves, wholesale fruit merchant, Lionel Graves started his career at the Tenbury Post Office at the age of 14 years in 1902. Later he transferred to the Birmingham General Post Office and thence to Southport where he applied to join the Kenya and Uganda Post Office. He arrived in Mombasa on "the-day war broke out" in 1914. He enlisted in the East Africa Pioneer Corps as a telegraphist, seeing service in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika. After the war he returned to the postal service and was stationed in Nairobi. In 1925 he married Miss Christina Mathieson at St. Andrew's Church, Nairobi and had two children, Lionel and Jean. Later, after service in Eldoret and Jinja he was appointed Senior Postmaster at Nairobi and then Mombasa, acting for a short time as Postmaster General of Kenya. He retired in 1935 and after a short stay at Welford-on-Avon he returned to Tenbury and became licensee of the Market Tavern for three years before taking up residence at Longfield. He was a good all round sportsman and played hockey for Tenbury and Birmingham Clubs. He also played football for the G.P.O. in Birmingham and subsequently for Kenya. He was a keen tennis player, swimmer, and cricketer. He was secretary of the Tenbury Cricket Club during the period immediately after the Second World War also holding for a spell the office of chairman. He was a keen member and supporter of the Worcestershire Cricket Club. He won many trophies for golf, was captain of Jinja Golf Club, and represented East Africa. After Iris retirement he joined Ludlow Golf Club and carried off many prizes, including the Sitwell Cup. He won the President's Prize on his 71st birthday. He enjoyed shooting and was a member of several local shoots. During the last war he was one of the local organisers of the National Savings movement and fund raising activates. He was a member of the Tenbury branch of the Royal Observer Corps at the time of the Birmingham air raids and also assist in the signals training of the Air Training Corps. He served on the Burford Parish Council and was its chairman for a number of years, in addition to being chairman of the Burford School Managers. He was always interested in amateur entertaining and performed in many concert parties. In a programme for the Magpies Concert in aid of St. Dunstan's Hostel in 1919 we read of a programme with the "Misses Sophie and Mary Banfield, Mabel Anthony, Kitty Nott, Elgie Armstrong and Messrs. Lionel Graves, Fred Miles and Barney Robinson." In his life he had an enduring interest in all things of the countryside generally and of the Tenbury area m particular. His knowledge of nature and wild life had been gained after years of observation and he derived greatpleasure from this interest. He will be sorely missed by his family and many friends as he was of a breed of man now rapidly disappearing.

(Betty's godfather was Willoughby Cale . He was born at Bosbury in 1881 and later lived at the Church Farm Coddington.)