The Butcher’s Shop at 26 Upper St James Street, Brighton: John Povey Goodridge

John grew up in Brighton, and was educated at York Place School for Boys (Brighton Grammar School). He was very friendly with cousin Will Goodridge, who was blind. Will's father Henry gave John 6d per week - possibly for looking after Will - and when he'd saved £25, lent him another £175 to invest in his first rental house. John was 12 at the time.

On leaving school, he worked in his father's butchers' shop in Brighton, but didn't like it. He'd have preferred to join the fast growing motor bus industry, but his father insisted he stay as a butcher. WW1 offered him a way out, and on 13 October 1916 he joined army as a 'Lord Derby volunteer'.He was assigned to the MTASC - Motor Transport Army Service Corps - and drove a truck in France.

However, on his demob in 1919, he was back in the shop, where he remained until both parents had died. At that point, he came into a sizable inheritance (about £6,500) and decided to try small-scale farming. He sold the butchery business and in 1928 moved his family to Hill House farm in the Blackdown Hills, Devon. This of course was the area Hester's family lived, although he was reportedly the driving force.

It obviously didn't work out because they moved again in 1934 to 6 North Avenue Exeter. This may have been because his son turned out to be a serious asthmatic allergic to fur and feathers. It may also have been because his wife hated it. Or it may have been because it was hard work for little if any financial return.

John didn't work again until shortly before WW2 when he joined the ARP. After the War he became a civil servant, working for the new Ministry of Pensions in Exeter. Neither job was lucrative, but his care with money ensured that his inheritance lasted despite the lack of earned income.

After Hester died in 1971, he lived alone for three years. Then in 1974 he married Beatrice Hellier and moved to her house in Torquay, where he died in 1980.

In later life John seemed a private, somewhat distant Victorian figure ('children should be seen and not heard', 'every time a sheep baas it loses a mouthful' etc). He seemed happy, despite having few if any friends and no obvious interests apart from his financial affairs, reading the newspaper and bus timetables (he used to study books of them). He was perhaps fairly typical of an only-child brought up in the Late Victorian era by parents who were both around 40 when he was born.

This biography was written by Andy Denham, one of his grandchildren.

Details of his family history can be found on Wikitree.

John Povey Goodridge post cards