George Jennings

George was born 5th May 1870 in Buckinghamshire. He was the youngest child of Thomas and Sarah Jennings. His father was a coach builder and his mother a grocer and provisions dealer. When George was an infant, his family settled in Derby. George was educated at Gerard Street School (later becoming Becket School).

In 1889 George joined the Derby Corporation staff as a gardener at the magnificent Derby Arboretum Park. He took pride in his job, especially when it came to the public breaking the by-laws of the park. Many a time George was a witness for the prosecution in court. One such example was Sunday 9th March 1890; a young lad was found to be using bad language in the park and was duly fined 5 shillings. In 1892 Mr. Smith was summoned for allowing his dog to run loose in the park, after George’s evidence Mr Smith was fined 10s 6d (£50 today) a costly misdemeanour!

After 11 years of being a gardener, George was promoted to Caretaker (Park Keeper), and with that came new responsibilities. In July 1901, he caught one Wilfred Taylor (13) trampling on the shrubs in the park, 8 creepers around the bandstand and 6 of them were broken. George and P.C. King caught the lad. It was ascertained that he was generally a good lad and the chairman let him off with a severe warning and 5 shillings fine should he repeat the offence. (I’m pretty sure young Wilfred got a clip round the ear from his dad!). When George caught a lad called Albert throwing stones onto the bandstand, another 5 shillings fine was incurred.

In 1907 George, under Section 62 of the Derby Corporation Act, 1882, was awarded a resolution which gave him the powers of a police constable so that he may “have better execution of the by-laws”. This was a great achievement for George and his family.

George was a mild-mannered family man; he was never known to ‘exceed’ his duty and was very tolerant of children. His predecessor was a grumpy chap who was a “holy terror” to any youngster who stepped ‘off the path’, earning himself the name of “snappy Jack”. George inherited this title, but he kept it up with a smile and a wink. George was loved by all at the park, he not only had the powers of a PC, but he also held a First-Class ambulance certificate and was often giving first aid treatment to the public users of the Arboretum.

One of George’s many other jobs was that of bird keeper, where he looked after Jericho, a Quaker parakeet, Donovan, a turtle dove and his ‘wife’ Rebecca. According to an article in the Derby Daily Telegraph in 1929, George had to separate the 3 birds after they embroiled themselves in a love triangle, with Donovan receiving ‘serious injury’ from his love rival Jericho after Rebecca invited him into her nest for lunch!

At home, George married Gertrude May Taylor in 1890 at the Derby Registry Office, he was a big family man, he went on to have 4 sons and 2 daughters, as well as adopting Gertrude’s son George. All four of George’s sons were in the armed services during WWI.

 After 42 years of being a gardener and keeper at the Arboretum, George of 42 Co-operative Street, unusually stayed home from work after falling ill. He sadly died 3 days later on Friday the 10th of June 1932 at the age of 62, he was 3 years away from retirement.

George was buried at Nottingham Road Cemetery, the service was conducted by Rev F Harris Gibson, vicar of St. Peter’s. The bearers were his uniformed fellow parkkeepers. Sadly, he is in an unmarked grave. He is buried with his wife Gertrude 1869-1939, his son Alfred 1895-1920 and his adopted son George 1887- 1952.