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Name: SYMES, Cecil Bernard (Dr.)
Birth Date: 20 Feb 1894 Thornbury, Glos.
Death Date: 3 Mar 1976 Sidmouth, Devon
First Date: 1925
Profession: Entomologist, Lab. Division, Medical Dept., Kenya in 1939, appointed 1925
Area: Nairobi
Married: 1. Elspeth b. 1890, d. 1950; 2. In Westminster, London 1952 Dorothy Maud Skeen b. 1896, d. 1969 Honiton
Book Reference: Staff 39, Red 25, Red 31, Dominion
War Service: RAMC
General Information:
Dominion - Medical Department - Entomologist - 1930
Gazette - 12/2/1925 - Arrived on 1st Appointment - Entomologist, Medical - Dr. G.H. Symes
Red 25 has Dr. G.B. Symes
Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Voters List, Nbi
Blue Book 1926 appt. 15.1.1925
https://www.thornburyroots.co.uk/families/symes-charles-children/ Cecil Bernard Symes was born on 20th February 1894 and was known by his family as “Nard”. He spent 7 years at the Council School and then moved on to the Grammar School on 16th October 1907 having received a total exemption from his parents having to pay the school fees. This was awarded by the Governors for 4 years. He passed the Cambridge Junior exam in July 1909 and Cambridge Senior exam in 1910. When he left the school on 28th July 1911 he took up the teaching profession becoming a student teacher at the Thornbury Council School on 2nd October 1911. We understand he later became an assistant master in an elementary school. He is pictured here below in a thumbnail photograph with his sisters, Ellen and Annie. Please click on the photograph to see it in a larger view. Due to a heart condition, he was originally rejected by the army but on 28th August 1914 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. One of his nephews, Jack Pridham, has told us that staff Sergeant C B Symes was mentioned in a despatch from Field Marshall Sir John French on 30th November 1915 “for gallant and distinguished service”. A letter signed by Winston S Churchill says ”I have it in command from the King to record his Majesty’s high appreciation of the service rendered.” In the army he became an expert on malaria carrying mosquitoes. The records of The RAMC show Nard was discharged on 20th February 1919 suffering from ‘wounds’. His rank at that time was Quarter Master Sergeant. On his discharge from the army he joined the Colonial Office. In 1919 studied at the Royal College of Science (later Imperial College) for a one year diploma in entomology. Afterwards he worked for the Colonial Office in Southern Rhodesia and then Nairobi where he continued his work on malaria carrying mosquitoes and created the Entomological Section of The Medical Research Labs. The studies he did on the behaviour of malarial mosquitoes between 1925 and 1945 in Kenya are still acknowledged in papers on this subject. As well as Kenya, he also worked in Mauritius, Fiji, Portugal and Brazil. Passenger lists on the Internet also show him spending time in Trinidad, Argentina, Mozambique and New York. On one such journey he flew from Port of Spain to Miami in 1945.
A new species of mosquito is actually named ‘Anopheles symesi’ after him.
“Nard” spent his leaves from the Colonial Service in the family home (the Georgian House). It is interesting to note that Nard gave ‘Gloucester Road, Thornbury’ as his address on several of his sailings in the late 1920’s and 1930’s. He maintained his Colonial routines even in Thornbury by having cold baths early every morning and pink gins every evening! Accordong to the London Gazette in 1940 Nard was made a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps, but we don’t know anything about where he served or what he did.
Nard’s nephew, Jack Pridham told us that Nard’s first wife was called ‘Betty’ that she usually declined to join him in Thornbury, preferring the bright lights of London. We haven’t traced Nard’s first marriage, but note that she was called Elspeth according to various passenger lists (which show her accompanying Nard on his foreign ventures) and electoral registers in the late 1940’s when they were living in Nell Gwynn House, a large apartment complex in Chelsea. Elspeth died in 1950 aged 60. Nard married again – in 1952 he married Dorothy M Skeen in the Westminster area of London. They lived in 204 Nelson House, Dolphin Square, London in the early 1950’s although she also accompanied Nard on trips to Fiji and elsewhere.
Cecil Bernard Symes was awarded the OBE as published in the London Gazette on 11th June 1942, presumably awarded for his work in the Colonial Services in Kenya. We don’t know when Nard retired but we have an immigration document for Brazil showing he was there in 1964 as an entomologist. His home address at that time was Yola Cottage, Winsham, Chard in Somerset. Dorothy’s death was registered in Honiton in 1969 aged 78. It appears that Nard moved to Sidmouth as he was living at 37 Primley Road, Sidmouth when he died on 3rd March 1976.
A new species of mosquito is actually named ‘Anopheles symesi’ after him.
“Nard” spent his leaves from the Colonial Service in the family home (the Georgian House). It is interesting to note that Nard gave ‘Gloucester Road, Thornbury’ as his address on several of his sailings in the late 1920’s and 1930’s. He maintained his Colonial routines even in Thornbury by having cold baths early every morning and pink gins every evening! Accordong to the London Gazette in 1940 Nard was made a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps, but we don’t know anything about where he served or what he did.
Nard’s nephew, Jack Pridham told us that Nard’s first wife was called ‘Betty’ that she usually declined to join him in Thornbury, preferring the bright lights of London. We haven’t traced Nard’s first marriage, but note that she was called Elspeth according to various passenger lists (which show her accompanying Nard on his foreign ventures) and electoral registers in the late 1940’s when they were living in Nell Gwynn House, a large apartment complex in Chelsea. Elspeth died in 1950 aged 60. Nard married again – in 1952 he married Dorothy M Skeen in the Westminster area of London. They lived in 204 Nelson House, Dolphin Square, London in the early 1950’s although she also accompanied Nard on trips to Fiji and elsewhere.
Cecil Bernard Symes was awarded the OBE as published in the London Gazette on 11th June 1942, presumably awarded for his work in the Colonial Services in Kenya. We don’t know when Nard retired but we have an immigration document for Brazil showing he was there in 1964 as an entomologist. His home address at that time was Yola Cottage, Winsham, Chard in Somerset. Dorothy’s death was registered in Honiton in 1969 aged 78. It appears that Nard moved to Sidmouth as he was living at 37 Primley Road, Sidmouth when he died on 3rd March 1976.