Tom Gilbert

Tom Gilbert was born in 1886 in Stamford. His maternal grandfather and father had both been shopkeepers at 13 High Street.
When his father, a grocer, died in 1890 leaving a young widow with 4 sons aged 7 and under, she set up a Greengrocers business at 43 St. Leonard's Street.

As a boy, Tom worked for his mother but in his 20s it seems he went into engineering. He also served in the Lincolnshire Territorials from 1905 to 1914.
He was a Regimental Sergeant Major during WW I and was wounded in France. He married Margery Weatherington in 1918 and their only child, Sidney was born in 1919.

His uncle, W Herbert C Healy, traded as a game dealer and greengrocer at 44 High Street and it was this business that Tom took over after the war when his uncle died.

In the 1930s this building was demolished by the Co-op and Tom moved along the street to number 50 (now re-numbered as 48) where he continued trading until about 1957.
His only son, Sidney, assisted in the shop until he joined the Lincolnshire Regiment in WW II. He died serving in Italy in 1944.

Ken Ford, who did a great deal of research about shops in Stamford, started his working life as an errand boy for Tom Gilbert in the 1950s and recalled him as a good employer with a great sense of humour and as a keen cricketer. Tom and Margery lived behind and above the shop and Ken also mentioned that Margery was very kind to the young errand boy providing him with cocoa after his rounds in the winter. Tom died in 1967 and Margery in 1972.