Eric Leslie Mellersh

Eric was brought up at 34 Nicoll Road, Harlesdon, London, NW, and in St Albans, Hertfordshire - initially at "Shirley," Clarence Road, then "Bridlemere," also in Clarence Road. Abt 1896, attended Dirleton House Preparatory School, St Albans, Hertfordshire (till 1904). For secondary schooling, from 1904 to 1909, he went to Berkhamsted [public] School [boarded: same as brother and son]. He went to Cambridge University (Selwyn College), from 1909 to 1912, starting off studying maths but apparently later changing to geography. As teenagers the Mellersh, Hughesdon & Chubb youngsters used to play tennis together in St Albans, Hertfordshire, probably in Clarence Park, up until probably at least 1914. Eric became a teacher in 1912, teaching at: Rossall School, Yorkshire; St Saviour's, Ardingly, Sussex; and Monmouth Grammar School. He was an army officer from 11 December 1916 (from Officers Cadet Unit to 2nd Lieutenant (on probation) - ref: London Gazette, 20 Dec 1916, Supplement, page 12428) to about 1919 in the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) (58th Army Brigade). On 24 January 1917 he entered the theatre of war. "Several of Eric's colleagues were killed and wounded while having breakfast on 30th November 1917, during the Battle of Cambrai. He was saved because he was sleeping in a nearby hut after a spell of night duty" - Enfield Weekly Herald 09 Feb 1968. At the time of his wedding, Eric was Adjutant to the 58th (Army) Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery, on the Western Front. In 1918 Eric was mentioned in dispatches, as Lt (A./Capt) (ref: London Gazette, 20 Dec 1918, Supplement 23 Dec 1918, page 15036). Later he was awarded the Victory and British medals. For a background portrait of the town during WW1, see book: “St Albans: Life on the Home Front 1914 – 1918,” edited by Mein, Wares & Mann, published by University of Hertfordshire Press, 2016. Includes an extract on page 109 from brother Harold’s autobiographical book, “Schoolboy into War,” about the Mellersh family taking in the mother & daughter Belgian refugees, Maria & Vivienne Louwage. Upon Marriage (1918) Eric lived at 17 Edenbridge Road, Bush Hill Park, Enfield, Middlesex, and from 1923 for about 50 years at 55 Abbey Road, Enfield. Eric was a schoolmaster at Enfield Grammar School, Middlesex, from 1921 until his retirement in 1957. Between Nov 1925 and 1927 he was in Switzerland, in Montana, at Palace Hotel Sanatorium, recuperating from TB. Eric was one of the first teachers nationally to take school parties abroad; from 1930 taking schoolboys to Germany and later to France (and including his own son Gareth). On Friday 29 June 1951, Eric & his wife Una, living in Enfield, Middlesex, took Muriel Winefred Sorensen (born Louwage) out to lunch in London. Connection was that Muriel’s mother Maria had been a refugee during WW1 with Eric’s parents in St Albans, Hertfordshire. Indeed, Muriel herself was named after Eric’s two sisters. Eric's interests included: chess (gained half-blue at Cambridge); crossword puzzles (won Ximines prizes from Observer newspaper); classical music (mostly on the wireless); travel (Britain & Europe); and architecture (esp ecclesiastical). For nearly a decade in later life Eric and Una together took package holidays abroad once a year, from 1966 (Andalusia) to 1973 (Rome & Milan). After his wife Una died in 1974, Eric in 1975 moved to a residential care home in Minehead, Somerset, in the same town where his daughter Barbara & son-in-law Alex lived.