My wife came across the following article:

http://www.malverngazette.co.uk/news/ ... &fb_action_types=og.likes

So I just found out that my wife knew George Sayer, as he lived a couple of doors down from her when she lived in Malvern. Apparently George was a lovely bloke.

So it turns out my wife almost has an indirect Tolkien connection (that said she also has a Peter Jackson connection as she had the parents of Richard Taylor as neighbours. I'll forgive her that one).