Newspaper Article Richmond Herald

Date: 7 Mar 1936 [unknown]
Location: Richmond, Surrey, England, United Kingdom

EAST SHEEN RESIDENT

RETIRES AFTER FORTY THREE YEARS MUNICIPAL SERVICE

After completing 43 years municipal service, Mr George James Eldridge of Care Lawn anenue, East Sheen, has just retired. Appointed a junior clerk by the Islington Vestry in 1893, he worked his way up to the position of legal clerk and registrar’s assistant. In 1913 he sought to better himself and secured an appointment to the Fulham Borough Council as registry officer. Subsequently he was appointed Mayor’s secretary a position he has held during the terms of office of successive Mayors until his retirement last week. From the Chief Citizens he has served he has earned for himself the title of “The Perfect Private Secretary” as a result of his assiduity to his duties and thorough efficiency of his work. In an interview Mr Eldridge declared that being Mayor is becoming a whole-time job in a London borough. “There are” he stated, “so many social functions to be attended, apart from the round of official functions, that the strain becomes greater year by year.”

A PRESENTATION

On the occasion of his retirement Mr Eldridge, who is 63, was presented with a silver salver, on which is inscribed the names of six Mayors of Fulham. As Deputy Superintendent Registrar, he has married many young couples at Fulham and some time ago, when Miss Bushy, the Superintendent Registrar of Fulham, and the only woman in the kingdom to hold that position, was ill for six weeks, Mr. Eldridge conducted some 60 weddings.

Photo by G. W. Cockram, Barnes.

Richmond Herald 07 March 1936 Page 6 accessed on Find My Past 4 February 2023