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A Sad and Traumatic Christmas

Barwicker No.112
December 112


Geoffrey Cope land, Captain in the 11 th Hussars, was stationed in Germany in 1947. Mrs. Geoffrey, able to join him at times, was living in England with her parents in Sutton Bonington, Leicestershire (where Richard had been born in May 1946) and (in the Charnwood nursing home nearby) Peter in Nov. 1947. In late '47 or early '48 Geoffrey gained the post of Adjutant to the Royal Gloucester Hussars in Gloucester, and the family moved to Army-found accommodation at Frampton-on-Severn, at first a cottage, Farley Corner, and subsequently a house, The Lodge, where Michael was born in 1948. Two Swiss nannies helped with the babies.

For promotion to higher rank it was necessary for Geoffrey to attend a course in Command at the Staff College, Camberley. He joined the course at Minley Manor, Hampshire, in 1950. The Army accommodation at The Lodge, Frampton, thus ceased to be available. Probably at the prompting of his mother, Ida(l), the decision was made for the family to make the east part of Trelissick in Cornwall their home, and they moved there in June 1950. Mrs. Geoffrey had the three small children, and managed with the Swiss nannies and an unreliable Bendix washing machine. Geoffrey was able, in the Hudson, to make the 230-mile journey, driving against the setting sun going and against the rising sun returning. He came home when he had leave. As a result of having to be at Minley for the course Geoffrey was only able to be an occasional presence with his family at Trelissick, The course ended by early 1952, and Geoffrey was promoted to Major,

The regiment had by this time been posted to the Canal Zone. In February 1952 Geoffrey sailed for Egypt from Southampton. The family continued at Trelissick, Mrs. Geoffrey waiting for Married Quarters to become available. The political situation in Egypt with the rise of Fedayeen terrorist attacks by the Muslim Brotherhood, was making it too dangerous for wives and families to join the posting, and the senior command kept withholding permission. One ship, bringing wives and families, arrived at Alexandria and was returned home, the terror alert having risen while they were en route.

Mrs. Geoffrey was very isolated in Cornwall and naturally wanted to be nearer her husband. The plan was made that she and the boys, by then aged 3, 4, and 6, would go out to Cyprus to be within reach. Accordingly, in September 1952, they travelled to an aerodrome with Nissen Huts near London called Heathrow and flew to Cyprus. After at first living in a small hotel where, when a guest wished to have a bath the management provided the firewood, they moved to a bungalow in Famagusta. Mrs Geoffrey was on her own in Cyprus, with no nannies. She obtained some local Cypriot help with housework and washing (no machines there in those days). The boys attended a convent school where they began speaking Greek.

Geoffrey was able to join them for a week's leave in early October, coinciding, doubtless by design, with the youngest's, Michael's, fourth birthday. The family had not seen him for seven months, so that was a precious week. It was not holiday time: the boys were at their school. More leave was arranged to coincide with Christmas, after the middle boy's birthday in November, when the boys would be 4, 5, and 6. Michael, being then just over four years old, remembers a little of that Christmas.

"We three went to a children's party arranged, probably, by officers' wives. Great excitement was, of course, engendered for Father Christmas. I was slightly puzzled, for he arrived in a jeep. Next to him, in similar white-trimmed robes but in green, was his driver. I was given a squeaky banana. Such are the fragmentary memories of a four- year-old I do not remember our mother being with us at that party, but do remember a Major and Mrs. Brett who were very kind to us three at that time, and who may have stood in.

Perhaps the telegram from Egypt had arrived There had been a car accident: our father was in hospital with a fractured skull, unconscious. He had been the front passenger, returning from a regimental reception. The unlit Egyptian roads were pitch dark and there was little traffic. With only a motor bicycle approaching, the driver pulled out to pass a parked vehicle. The motor cycle turned out to be a lorry with only one headlamp working, and there was a head- on collision. The driver was restrained by the steering wheel, but, with no seat-belts then, my father was thrown though the windscreen into the front of the lorry. Communications were slow: there were no mobile telephones.

He was taken to hospital where he remained unconscious. My mother was unable to travel to him, and had no telephone in the bungalow. The following day a further telegram was brought: "I am so sorry ", said the deliverer. My father died, without regaining consciousness, four days before Christmas, and just before he had been due to join us.

I remember my mother saying to me in my bed, "Dad-Dad is dead". At that age you accept it. I barely remember him. After all, I effectively only had a week from which to do so. That is life. To this day, when I see young children that age I wonder how much of their busy lives they will later remember, and whether some unforeseen event awaits their family. "


Mrs. Geoffrey, alone, was suddenly made a widow in a foreign country away from her parents and family support. The children, 4, 5, and 6, all went down with measles. The kind neighbours, Major and Mrs. Brett, stepped in to help, particularly when Mrs. Geoffrey went to Egypt for the funeral. Geoffrey, who was 32, was buried in the Military Cemetery, Fayid.

The Editor would like to thank Michael Cope land for allowing us to print the above.
MICHAEL G COPELAND


(1) Ida, Geoffrey's mother, was niece of Mrs. Gascoigne of Lotherton Hall.

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