TILLEY
with roots in Somerset, England
family
the
Edward James Tilley
Edward James (Jim) Tilley, born on 28 February 1910 and elder son of Loxton dairy-farmer Ted Tilley and his wife Ada Margaret [Look] fell an early prey to the bright lights of nearby Bristol and declined to follow his father into the business of milking cows and turning cheeses. He took a job as a trainee clerk with the Westminster Bank in Weston-super-Mare and remained with the bank until his retirement, finishing his career as branch manager in Martock, South Somerset, after serving at branches at Bristol, Portishead, Clevedon, Yatton and Bridgwater.
His Welsh wife Marion complained that her “Jimmy” would take her dancing still wearing his farm boots. Her previous boyfriend, she claimed, had his own aeroplane and took her for spins above her homeland across the Bristol Channel.
Jim Tilley could offer no such excitement in his courtship of the high-living Marion, but they entered into a long and reasonably happy marriage (12 February 1938). Jim found his own excitement when war broke out and he enlisted with the North Somerset Yeomanry, reporting for duty with his horse. The Yeomanry were an elite cavalry section of the Royal Corps of Signals, whose strict enlistment requirements included an ability to ride and a height of at least 6ft. Jim Tilley met both.
The Royal Corps of Signals — or the Royal Corps for short — were generally the first troops into battle, laying the communications for the infantry, artillery and armoured forces that followed. They served in virtually every World War II theatre, and Jim saw action in Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Italy and Germany. He was one of Montgomery’s celebrated “desert rats” who threw Rommel’s German army, the “desert foxes,” out of North Africa.
Jim was a taciturn and modest man and never talked, unless pressed, about his army career. He would admit with a smile, however, that he had lost his corporal stripe in a fracas in a Cairo nightspot — reminiscent, perhaps, of his evenings in Bristol.
His campaign medals (see below) were discovered by his son in an old supermarket bag in a corner of his desk.
Jim and Marion had two children, Robert James and Nicholas Edward. Nick was born on 1 November 1946 and was tragically killed aged 16 in 1963 after colliding on his motorbike with an oncoming car on the Shepton Mallet-Taunton road. Jim Tilley died on 16 October 1992 in Brent Knoll, Somerset.
Edward James Tilley was born in Loxton, Somerset, on 28 February 1910.
The census of 1911 shows Jim was one at the time, while his brother Robert George, although not named yet, is also on the census.
Edward James Tilley and Marion Andrews were married on 12 February 1938.
In the 1939 Register, Jim was a bank clerk and he and Marion have their first child, Robert James, who was born the year before.
Jim Tilley and his wife Marion in an Austin Atlantic.
Jim Tilley as a baby and posing with his younger sister Barbara.
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A 14-year-old Jim writes to his parents about sport at Brynmelyn School in Weston-super-Mare as well as about a visit to Wembley. He is describing the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 which was a colonial exhibition and was the largest ever staged anywhere in the world. To read the letter in full, click here
In a letter dated 4 November 1942 to her brother, Rachel Tilley, who is stationed in a W.A.A.F. hostel in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, tells him of her visit to his wife Marion and young son Robert who “is a dear little boy now”. Jim is a lance-corporal serving with the 10th Indian Motor Brigade, Group Signals, in the Middle East.
Edward James Tilley joined the Territorial Army as a 19-year-old on 18 October 1929 in the Dragoons of the Line to be posted to North Somerset Yeomanry (No. 403438). Termination of engagement was on 17 October 1935 after six years. He then re-enlisted under Military Service (Armed Forces Act) into the Royal Corps of Signals on 4 September 1941 (No. 2375730). His home address at the time was Charlton Stoke Road, Portishead. His service record during and after the Second World War was:
UK 4/9/41 – 7/1/42 126 days
Middle East 8/1/42 – 8/2/45 3 yrs + 32 days
Central Med Forces 9/2/45 – 26/2/45 18 days
France 27/2/45 – 28/5/46 1 yr + 91 days
UK 29/5/46 – 15/9/46 110 days
Jim Tilley (third from left) in Cape Town en route to the Middle East in 1942.
Jim Tilley was in the Royal Corps of Signals during the Second World War.
Jim Tilley in army uniform.
Jim and Marion Tilley with their grandson Simon on a beach in South Africa.
Jim and Marion Tilley at the horse races in Durban in South Africa.
Jim and Marion Tilley with their grandson Luke in a rickshaw on Durban seafront.
Jim Tilley was with the Westminster Bank for 40 years before retiring as the manager of the Martock branch.
Jim and Marion Tilley enjoyed holidaying abroad later on in life, including Menorca and Germany.
With their son Robert James and his wife Hilde in Munich, Germany.
Jim Tilley is buried with his wife, Marion, at
St Andrew’s Church, Loxton, in Somerset.
Jim’s brother Richard (Dick) Ernest and his wife Zena are buried next to him.
Edward James Tilley was buried at St Andrew’s Church in Loxton, Somerset, on 21 October 1992.
His death as announced in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday 20 October 1992.
The eulogy by Jim's son, Robert James Tilley:
It’s fitting that Jim Tilley has returned now to the village where he was born and to the church where he worshipped as a boy. In a long and rich life he never lost his faith. Among his most cherished possessions was a tiny bible which he carried throughout the war – in North Africa and the Middle East, in Italy and Germany. He loved adventure and called those war years some of the happiest of his life. Nevertheless, he was a responsible family man – a devoted husband, a caring and patient father and grandfather, for whom no request was too troublesome, no task too burdensome. News of his death brought calls of concern and sympathy from grandchildren living in South Africa and Portugal, and his two granddaughters – Imogen and Nicola – have interrupted university studies in Guildford and school routine in Germany to pay their last respects today. Calls also came from friends Jim made during the six months he spent in Germany towards the end of his life. He made friends easily – his open, casual way and his warmth had great appeal. They were qualities he never lost, even in the final months of his debilitating illness. It was a cruel illness which robbed him of his vitality but left untouched a deep well of emotion which was a privilege to tap. As he lost even the power of speech, four words remained with his virtually to the end – thank you and their German equivalent: danke schoen. Gratitude never left him. And it’s gratitude that’s felt by his family and friends today. Thank you, Jim – you’ve enriched all our lives.
Memories
“He was reputed to be a bit of playboy in those heady days of the 20s and early 30s (according to my mother) and when the time came for his father to share out the land and (I think) two farmhouses he owned in Loxton, my father turned down the chance to be a farmer and took up an offer engineered by his father’s contacts to join the staff of Westminster Bank in Weston-super-Mare. A bank clerk enjoyed a much greater prestige in those days than a farmer. And, important for my father, it was a nine to five job which gave him a lot of time for having a good time — although my mother used to reflect that my father took her dancing in his farm boots! I think they met at one of these evenings in Bristol, probably at the Mauritania Hotel on Park Street. My mother talked about the moneyed boyfriend she had before meeting my father and claimed he had his own light airplane, in which he would take her over to Wales on day trips.” — Robert James Tilley (1938 - 2015)