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This letter refers to Hugh Thompson’s fascinating article about Old
Clayesmorian Geoffrey Drummond VC
in the Millennium edition of the OC Newsletter.
28th December 2004
Dear Mr Grant.
I am reading with much pleasure the history of Clayesmore, which my son,
Charles, has kindly given me for Christmas. I am only sorry that, when you were
good enough to call with the book, my wife had to rush out and was unable to
invite you in.
Thank you for the accompanying letter. You are right in assuming that Geoffrey
Drummond was my uncle, having married Aylmer, second daughter of Bernard
Bosanquet, the former owner of Clayesmore. The eldest son was BJ Bosanquet, the
cricketer who invented the googly, while he and my father were practising
turning a tennis ball on a stripped billiard table on a rainy day while on
holiday from Eton.
At the onset of the Second World War, Geoffrey Drummond desperately wanted to do
a worthwhile job in the Navy and Admiral Keynes kept promising him that he would
find something. Unhappily he did not and Geoffrey joined up again as an able
seaman. He died following an accident when he fell, carrying a sack of coal on
the docks.
Disgracefully, the Navy only allowed his widow a seaman's pension, disregarding
his earlier career. His son. Lt-Cdr Mortimer Drummond RN, is alive and well,
living in Fareham with a number of children of his own. He served throughout the
Second World War and survived his ship being torpedoed in the Mediterranean; his
surviving sister, Iris. married Lt Cdr. John Fenton RN. So the naval tradition
continued, although none of their children has followed on.
On a minor point about the original Clayesmore. I believe that it had grounds of
some 16 acres; not the 160 mentioned in the book; There was certainly a lake,
called the Basin, in which the Sergeant-Major of the Rifle Brigade, of which my
grandfather was Colonel, used to fish for carp during his week's leave;
We are very glad that Clayesmore continues to flourish and David
Spinney's book is a delightful added dimension for us.
You mentioned that you might be able to let us have a copy of the newsletter
containing an article on Geoffrey Drummond. If you could do so, we should be
really grateful and I would plan to visit my cousin Mortimer with it.
Yours sincerely,
Christopher Bosanquet