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My thanks to my aunt for additional information.
[BMD] [Biography] [Farm Life] [Married Life] [Photo Gallery]
BMD
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Born:
Father:
Mother:
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09 February 1920 at Kenilworth, WAR
Harvey George Leeson
Lizzie Boneham
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Married:
Spouse:
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27 August 1960 in Gerrards Cross, BKM
still living
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Died:
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29 July 1989 at Chalfont St. Peter, BKM
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[Page Index]
Biography
The children of Lizzie and Harvey Leeson fall naturally into two separate groupings; the three born before World War 1 and the three born after. Geoffrey was the first of this second group. He was born on the 09 February 1920 at 11 Henry Street in Kenilworth. Harvey was working as a fitter at the local gas works, but the birth certificate proudly records that he was an ex-sergeant of the Royal Engineers.
By August of the following year, when sister Phoebe was born, the family had moved to 31 Winifred Street, Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan. Another son, William Ronald was born in 1923. The family fortunes then took a turn for the worse, with Lizzie succumbing to tuberculosis in 1925. Harvey became too ill to work and was in receipt of parish relief. He too was suffering from tuberculosis and died in 1927. Geoff’s eldest sister Maud kept the family together for as long as she could, but in 1930 changes to the Poor Laws resulted in the three youngest children being admitted to the workhouse.
The case papers for Jeffrey [sic] Leeson show that he was admitted to the Merthyr Tydfil Union on the 15 January 1930. His entry in the Admission and Discharge Register incorrectly records his date of birth as 05 March as well as misspelling his name. Geoff was admitted to the workhouse ‘school’ on 24 March 1930. In practise this meant that he was sent to the orphanage at Llwydcoed, Aberdare. Peter Higginbotham’s workhouse web site describes it as a series of cottage homes with an administrative block and receiving home. Geoff was formally adopted by the Public Assistance committee under the Poor Law Act 1930 on 11 August 1931. Although Geoff and William were at the same orphanage as their sister Phoebe, they were not aware of this and they never saw each other.
[Page Index]
Farm Life
Geoff was taught farming skills while under the care of the Merthyr Tydfil Union. Therefore it is not surprising that on 02 May 1935 he was sent to the service of Mr. B. J. Griffiths at Cilwern Farm, Broad Oak in Carmarthen. Sadly the current owners of Cilwern have no connection with the Griffiths family and they were unable to find anyone in Broad Oak who recalled Geoff. Perhaps that’s just as well, as Geoff never really settled in and wasn’t altogether happy. He told his wife that he and the other boys were worked very hard, doing all kinds of rough work. They were not allowed in the farm house and had to wash in the stream. All this hard work helped Geoff to develop muscle; physically Geoff was short but ‘very stocky and strong,’ Geoff had gingery fair hair which he always wore in a quiff, which need patient combing to get it to lie just right..
Luckily for Geoff his second placement proved a more positive experience. He arrived at Pen-yr-Allt, Whitemill, Carmarthen sometime between 1936 - 1938 to work for Mr. Jones, who had four sons of his own and a daughter. One of the younger boys, Haydn Jones, recalled that Geoff was regarded as one of the family. He described him as ‘a very kind, lovely man’ and a ‘real character’. Haydn told me that he had a lot of fun with Geoff, who used to play with him when he was a boy and he described him as ‘a hell of a nice bloke’. The boys didn’t speak much English at this time but Geoff had learned to speak fluent Welsh. The Merthyr Tydfil Union records show that Geoff returned to Llwydcoed for a holiday between 15 - 22 November 1939 and then returned to Pen-yr-Allt.
 When World War 2 broke out the eldest Jones boys joined up and went off to fight. Eventually Haydn too joined the RAF. When the war ended and the oldest Jones boys returned Mr Jones had more manpower on the farm than he really needed. Rather than letting any men go, Mr Jones took on the tenancy of another farm called Llystyn at Brechfa, where Geoff then lived and took over the running of the farm. However, in 1945 Geoff visited his sister Lucy in Hayes, Middlesex for a holiday and whilst he was there, he decided not to return to Wales. He stayed with Lucy for some while, though his singing made Lucy’s daughter cry. Haydn said that Geoff had gone by the time he returned home in September 1945. He recalled that his father was bitterly disappointed that Geoff had gone. However, he seems to have kept in touch with the Jones family for many years afterwards. Llystyn was given to Haydn’s older brother Glyn, who later became famous for his method of training sheep dogs and his success in sheep dog trials.
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Married Life
 Geoff met his future wife through correspondence and were married within six months, on the 27 August 1960 at St. Josephs Church, Gerrards Cross. At first they lived with his wife’s parents but soon moved to a one-bedroom flat nearby. Geoff was always a hard worker and was employed for a while as a lorry driver in a brickyard, when he would come home covered in white dust. Then, after being injured in an accident when he fell off the lorry, he worked at a home for epileptics, where he’d come home covered in soot! His final job was working as a labourer at the aluminium company in Chalfont Park. Their only child, a boy, was born in 1962.
 Geoff bought a second hand Morris Minor to help him and his disabled wife get about. It took him two years to pay the instalments on it. He used the car to drive his family on holiday but he only ever drove to places to which he already knew that way. So they went to Weymouth 23 years running! My aunt informs me that he was always a very polite driver. However, Geoff was not always easy to live with. My aunt has told me that he was often uncommunicative and that he was very reluctant to talk about his childhood. He could also sulk for days if he didn’t get what he wanted. His speech was very ‘broad’ and he could be rather rough, both in his manners and his dress. My aunt says she only saw him in a suit on their wedding day. He wouldn’t even dress up when they celebrated their Silver Wedding.
I only recall Geoff visiting my mother once in Dartford in the early nineteen sixties. I remember a big, well big to a six year old anyway, jolly man But he rather blotted his copybook with me by coming into the bathroom to take a photograph of me in the bath. I was just getting to the age where you become self-conscious and I was not amused. I still have the photograph though and nowadays I think it’s a very sweet picture.
Geoff enjoyed the cream cakes and puddings in the factory canteen rather too much and put on weight. He recovered from two heart attacks before collapsing at home with a third attack. He was rushed to hospital but never recovered consciousness and died soon after from heart failure on 29 July 1989
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Photo Gallery
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