▶Date of birth:   (baptised) 6 May 1838       Place of birth: Sittingbourne, Kent

▶Father:  Thomas Pearce     Mother: Ann Emily Hunt

▶Spouse(s):  Jane Pilcher Reakes   Date(s) of marriage:  27 July 1859     Place(s) of marriage: Littlebourne, Kent

▶Occupation: Schoolmaster; Clergyman

▶Lifestory: George Pearce was the fourth son of Thomas Pearce, sometime labourer, publican, and farmer in Sittingbourne, Kent, and his wife Ann. In late 1859 he married Jane Pilcher Reakes, at Littlebourne, Kent; they had two sons and five daughters. By 1871 he was employed as a National Schoolmaster in Tunbridge Wells, where he remained for at least ten years.

However, he determined to take holy orders, and studied at Trinity College, Dublin, BA 1884, MA 1890); he was ordained Deacon in 1885 and Priest (both Canterbury) in 1886. His shift of career resulted in his appointment as Curate of St Peter’s, Southborough, Kent 1885-90 (where he was also Headmaster of Southborough Collegiate School), and as Vicar of St Paul’s, Cheltenham from 1890. About 1891, aged fifty-two, he moved to 3 Blenheim Parade (now 7 Evesham Road). After an appeal for funds, the Church then refurbished Luddenham (now Tower House, Pittville Circus) as the new St Paul’s Vicarage, and he moved in with his family in 1894; the house remained as St Pauls’ Vicarage until the Revd. Thomas Cave-Moyle moved out of the house, ultimately into a new “vicarage” in Clarence Square, in 1911.

He was said to be “an earnest worker, of an unusually amiable and conciliatory disposition” (Gloucestershire Echo, 15 August 1906) and an Evangelical in line with Cheltenham’s evangelical tradition; amongst other positions in the town he was Chairman of the Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital. He retained his interest in educational charities throughout his stay in Cheltenham. Pearce eventually decided to transfer to a smaller parish, and was presented to the vicarage of Minsterworth, Gloucestershire in 1903 (valued at £240, with residence), where he remained until his death, after a long illness, in 1906; his estate at death was sworn at £1,265.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Southborough, Kent      Moved from Pittville to: Minsterworth, Gloucestershire

▶Date of death:  14 August 1906      Place of death: Minsterworth, Gloucestershire

▶Date of burial: 16 August 1906        Place of burial: Minsterworth, Gloucestershire

▶Notes:             ID: 3418

Contributor(s):  John Simpson