Laburnum Terrace

Victor & Sarah Organ of 10 Gloucester Road

From 1927 onwards the next occupants of the house were Victor Henry Organ and his wife, Sarah A. 

Victor was born in 1887, the son of Ernest and Susannah Organ.  In the 1891 census he is shown as aged 3, having been born in Kington, and was living with his parents in Churngate Farm, Kington.  Ernest was described as a farmer.  By 1901 the family had moved to the White Hart in Olveston.  Ernest was now working as a publican and farmer.

In 1914 Victor married Sarah A. Tanner at Madeley in Shropshire in 1914.  We do not know what took Victor to this part of the country.  They settled to live in Olveston where they had two sons, Robert E. V. born on 5th April 1914 and Bernard Rymer born on 23rd October 1915.

The 1927 Electoral Register lists Victor and Sarah as living in Gloucester Road for the first time.  The Council School records also show that in 1927 Robert Organ and Bernard Rymer Organ were enrolled at the school.  They were shown as the sons of Victor H Organ and had previously been to school in Olveston.  Victor died shortly afterwards on 6th June 1928.  He was aged 40 and buried at Olveston, where he had farmed before moving to Thornbury.  tthe report of his death describes him as the proprietor of the Thornbury Coal Company, which was based at Thornbury railway station. 

Only Sarah is listed in 1928 Electoral Register and later ones.

In 1940, the Gazette reports on the marriage of Bernard Rymer Organ, son of Mrs Organ of Gloucester Road, Thornbury to Miss Lily Giles of Yeovil.  We know also that Robert Ernest Victor Organ, their other son, married Amy Green from 3 St John Street (since re-numbered 5 St John Street) in August 1941.  The photo on the right shows Sarah at Robert's wedding in 1941.  Robert was a journeyman baker at the time.  In July 1942 when he was still living at 3 St John Street, he got in trouble for 'failing to isolate his pigs from other swine for 28 days after their removal' for which he was fined £2 5s!

These records do not say specifically that Victor and Sarah were living at number 10, but we know that Sarah Organ, a widow, was living there in 1954.  She is mentioned in the deeds of number 8 Gloucester Road as being the occupier of number 10 which was then still owned by the Hodges Estate.  Electoral Registers show that Sarah lived there until about 1958.

Furthermore, a young local girl, Winifred Webb, had a newspaper round towards the end of World War Two and she remembers delivering newspapers to Sarah Organ at number 10.  Years later, after marrying Ron Jenkins, Win and her husband moved into number 10 house in 1958 and they thought it had been empty then for about 18 months.

This page was last updated: 18/05/2012