Arthur George Dimes

  General Notes:

1901 Census living in Lambeth as a house painter.
Arthur George Dimes was educated at Larkhall Lane Board School, Lambeth, where he won 2 book prizes for good attendance. When in Standard 1 he received Nellie's Dark Days and in Standard 4 he received Stories of The Tower. He became a painter and decorator and met his wife when working at the house where she was employed. They were married at St Marys, Reading, the town where Frances had been brought up. They lived first at 75A Ravensbury Rd. Southfields and in about 1908 they moved to a 3 bedroom house at 76 Chestnut Rd. Raynes Park, S.W. 20. Their children were sent to Whatley Avenue School and to the Wesleyan Sunday School at Cottenham Park.
In 1941, 76 Chestnut Rd. was badly damaged by a bomb which fell two doors away and they stayed with their daughter and her family in Yorkshire until the house was repaired. On 24th July 1944 a V1 flying bomb landed in the same place. This demolished the house completely. Fanny and Arthur were in their indoor Morrison shelter in the back room. Fanny died of shock and Arthur suffered slight head wounds. Almost nothing was salvaged, the bread board, some photographs, Hymns Ancient and Modern and the school prizes, all of which were given to Wendy Cope, their grand-daughter when Arthur died. He lived with his eldest son Robert George and family for the last 13 years of his life, and died at home of a heart attack.

Arthur married Frances Jane Nunn on 3 Oct 1902. (Frances Jane Nunn was born on 7 Jul 1873 in Reading, Berkshire, England, died on 24 Jul 1944 in Raynes Park, Wimbledon, Surrey, England and was buried on 26 Jul 1944.)