Pembroke College Record
Release at the end of the War brought Richard back to Witney and to rebuilding the life he had left five years before. The firm, the Boys Brigade and cricket were his passions but he was still a bachelor. In 1949, however, he married Girda Madsen in Fredersborg following a correspondence which had lasted despite imprisonment and the occupation of Denmark by the Germans. Richard has two children; Alice Inger and Charles Albert who between them have yielded seven grandchildren. In 1969 with Richard as Chairman of Charles Early and Marriott (Witney) Ltd., the firm celebrated 200 years of blanket making in Witney by nine successive generations of Earlys; father to son. Richard marked the achievement by publishing a book co-written with Alfred Plummer entitled The Blanket Makers. Under his guidance the company flourished to become a thriving modern business employing the most up-to-date technology available at the time. His management style was paternal and conciliatory. As a result labour relations were enviable. Richard retired from the Boys Brigade in 1972 and from business in 1973. He remained active in both, however, and continued as an active member of numerous Witney societies, The St. John's Ambulance Brigade, The Worshipful Company of Weavers and Woolmen in London. He went on to write three more books; The Apprentice, The Master Weaver and Weavers and War. The first two being historical novels and the last being an account of his experiences during the war. Girda died in 1993 and Richard passed away on the 17th January 1997. Tributes were received from numerous quarters and from many whose lives he had touched. Almost without exception the letters referred to his gentleness and humility, 'a true gentleman'. His kindness will long be remembered. Charles Early
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ERIC GETHYN-JONES 9 October 1909 - 9 November 1995 The following obituary notice by Dr. KM Tomlinson appeared in the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 1996 Vol 114. `The simple pursuits and pleasures of rural England were to them of the essence of life, and the fragrance of a Spring morning more seductive than all the perfumes of Arabia. They loved these things and, because they loved, they wrote them.' Thus did Eric describe the Dymock Poets in his first book Dymock Down the Ages, in 1951. Had those poets been asked to describe Eric they may well have used similar phrases, for he too was a devotee of the joys of the countryside. Born in Wales in October 9th, 1909, Eric Gethyn-Jones spent almost the whole of his life in Gloucestershire. On leaving the Crypt School he was faced with the choice of entering either the Army or the priesthood, following in the footsteps of his father, Daniel. He chose the latter, but by joining the Territorial Army in 1937 he achieved the former. After studying at Pembroke College, Oxford and the Queen's College, Birmingham, he was ordained deacon in 1934; priest in 1935. Following a short curacy at St. Catherine's, Gloucester, he became curate to his father in the parishes of Dymock and Kempley. He was mobilised in 1939 and served throughout the war as Chaplain to the 5th Gloucestershire Regiment. He survived the Dunkirk evacuation and returned through the Normandy beachead in June 1944. It was during this landing that he assisted in the rescue of three wounded soldiers from a sinking landing-craft, that earned him the award of Member of the British Empire (Miliary Division). On demobilisation he returned to the parishes of Kempley and Dymock, and it was then that he became involved in local history. His major contribution locally was to persuade the Dulverton Trust and Historic churches Trust to employ Professor and Mrs. Baker to expose and renovate the now famous 12th century frescoes in the Church of St. Mary, Kempley. These frescoes, whitewashed at the time of the Reformation, had been