Geoffrey Griffiths

Geoffrey Griffiths (born in 1906) was originally a travel agent for a Manchester agency. He became the bursar of the Northern School of Music, as well as a singer in the Birch Church Choir.

It was while at the choir that he probably met Ida Carroll. She was the daughter of Walter Carroll, the choirmaster of Birch Church who also bought his train tickets from Geoffrey at the travel agency. 

Ida was a student, then secretary and finally principal of the Northern School of Music. They met in the 1930s and fell in love. Geoffrey write hundreds of letters to Ida over their relationship, and especially through the Second World War while Griff (as he was known) volunteered with the Auxiliary Fire Service in Ashton and Ida was an Air Raid Warden in Didsbury.

They had planned to get married in 1939/40 but Griff's mum died and he couldn't move out of his family home and leave his dad alone through the war so it was called off. On Ida's side, it seems like her father didn't approve and made things a bit unwelcome for Griff.

Just after the war ended, it seemed they were sick of being apart so much and they found a way around the distance between them. Griff was offered the position of bursar of the Northern School of Music and he supported the school until it closed in 1972.

It was only when Walter died in 1956 that the two could love together as a couple. They never married but stayed committed to each other for the rest of their lives. 

Griff developed Parkinsons and died in 1993. Ida looked after him during his illness and died just a couple of years after him in 1995.