35 High Street
Taken from the article Jean Green - My Tewkesbury Connections
My uncle, John Birch married Betty Crouch in 1964. Betty’s father, Harold, was the second son of Charles Crouch, who owned the family bakers and confectioners at 35 High Street.
At the age of thirteen Harold left Trinity School to work in the shop. In 1916 he married Miss Marion Thomas and the same year he joined the Royal Irish Rifles. He was taken prisoner, and spent six months in a German hospital suffering effects of poison gas and a leg wound. Following his marriage, he joined the Congregational Church where he was a deacon and a Sunday School teacher. He served on the council for sixteen years and was mayor between 1945-46. He was a friend of my great-uncle, Walter Rice, whom I will mention later. During the floods of 1947 a ‘DUKW’ carried loaves to the army camp at Ashchurch – apparently the Americans insisted on white loaves. Harold died in 1947, aged only 54, following an operation.
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