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Brentford Councillors - Henry Thomas Gomm

Introduction

Henry Thomas (Harry) Gomm (1870 – 1939)

An article in the Middlesex Independent dated March 18th 1914 says that he had been born in on October 1st 1870 in The Butts and had been educated at Ealing College.
He had been apprenticed to a brewer in Ware, Hertfordshire and finished his training at a large brewery in Birmingham. He returned to Brentford in 1889 to work in the family’s Beehive Brewery.
There is some Family History on the Ancestry website but some information is about another HT Gomm born a few years later and not in Brentford.

Henry Thomas’s birth was registered in the December quarter in 1870 (Brentford 3a 78) and he was baptised in New Brentford (St Lawrence’s Church) on November 26th 1870. His father was William Gomm, brewer and his mother Elizabeth Ann.
A copy of the baptism register is on the ancestry website.

In 1881 he was 10 years old living with his family at 18, Catherine Wheel Road.
His father William was a brewer and maltster aged 38, his mother Elizabeth Ann (33). He had an older brother William and 3 younger sisters.

His father died in 1884.

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In the 1891 census Harry was a brewer aged 20 living at 17, Windmill Road with his widowed mother Elizabeth A (42), 6 younger sisters, 2 younger brothers, a nursery governess and 2 servants.

On June 11the 1892 he married Alicia Mira Smith at Christ Church Turnham Green.
The entry in the register is on the Ancestry website.
Henry Thomas Gomm 21 brewer, St Paul’s Brentford. Father William brewer deceased. Alicia Mira Smith 20 of Sutton Court, Chiswick. Father James Nelson Smith (deceased) Secretary. Brentford 3a 176.

The Beehive Brewery was sold to Fullers Brewery of Chiswick in 1908 together with their 34 licensed premises. William John Gomm, Harry’s brother also died in 1908 and Harry then followed family tradition in being elected to the Council in 1911.
His advertisement in the local newspaper says Vote for Harry Gomm who is opposed to the Recreation Ground Scheme which means Higher Rates and Dearer Rents.

In the 1913 street directory his address is given as The Princess Royal PH, 107, Ealing Road which he would seem to be running at the time. He later moved to The Bunch of Grapes (later called the Ferry Inn) where he was ‘mine host’ in March1914.
He was described as ‘an enthusiastic supporter of manly outdoor sports’ and was an active member and a Director of Brentford Football Club having been a player in its early amateur days. In 1914 he was the Chairman of the Brentford Philanthropic Society and had been Chairman of the Brentford Licensed Victuallers Association.
He had been a consistent advocate of the widening of the High Street.

By 1920/21 he seems to have left Brentford and at his death in 1939

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Page published January 2013