Obituaries
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Beryl Powys (Lomax, 1935-42?)
Our thanks to Beryl’s husband, Ian, for sending this delightful story of their life together.
(Right: Ian and Beryl in December 2012)
Just received the OGA Newsletter. My wife, Beryl, died in March this year. She was born 10 March 1924 and enjoyed reading the OGA Newsletters but used to wonder how many other readers would still remember her.
We had lunch in a riverside pub to celebrate her 96th birthday but she fell the next day and passed peacefully a
few days later. In her mind she was not old but, like me, our bodies tell us we are old.
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She started to teach during the war but for a short time only as her mother had a stroke and Beryl had to return home to look after both parents. We had met before the war ("Which war?" our grandchildren cry!) and
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worked on the farm attached to Cants Roses. In 1951 my regiment, The Welch, was posted to Colchester and was then drafted to Korea. I said to Beryl that so long as no Chinaman put a bullet in me, I'd come back and propose to her which I did, after I carried the Queen's Colour at the 1953 Coronation. The name of the Major General and Colonel-in-Chief of The Welch at the time was Lomax and I was 'suspected' of marrying his daughter, to assist my career and promotions!
We were married on 1 January, 1955 (left) so Beryl was an "army wife" although spent little time actually with the army but we led a full and long life together. Later I was posted as Adjutant at regimental HQ in Cardiff where we had a married quarter but we were again separated as the Regiment went to Germany, then Cyprus with no married quarter for a young lieutenant's wife and our first son, Richard. Beryl rented accommodation - virtually the whole top floor of Mistley Hall near Manningtree.
She then began another wandering existence as I decided that I would leave the army. I joined Michelin and Beryl and I spent the happiest years of our lives in the two Rhodesias (remember them?), Kenya, Tanganyika
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and Uganda. We climbed Kilimanjaro almost as soon as we settled into our house in Mombasa - a port - and ships ran up through the Suez canal - first stop Brindisi. We had our holiday home there. We swam, we barbecued, we led an easy life. Some may label us 'colonials' with a cook, a garden boy and an ayah but in those days this provided those families with a house and food as well as a wage. They never complained.
I was then offered Canada or Italy - Beryl and I immediately said Italy - but we were sent to Montreal. We learned to ski - never as nonchalantly as our two sons - and it was a wonderful couple of years in an unforgettable country. We came back to the UK and later spent our years of retirement in a friendly Cambridgeshire village. We occasionally watched some of our old 8mm movies - they don't rival the many African and underwater ones now on 'the box' but they are 'our' films and we truly believe that we saw Africa at its best.
Beryl was a much loved pillar of the community and we all regret that only two family members could attend her funeral in these difficult times but when life returns to normal she will have a real send off.
I hope some readers will remember Beryl. She left the world just a wee bit better than she found it.
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