Freeman of Berwick on Tweed.

From Cobbold Family History Trust Site

http://www.cobboldfht.com/family-tree.php/people/view/1943


PETER

I first started to know my Uncle Peter and Aunt Geraldeen when Tim and I scrambled off the train from Templecombe at Wellow station as capped and blazered schoolboys. To us, then and always, Peter and Geraldeen were a pair, a partnership. One rarely said Peter without Geraldeen, like Gilbert and Sullivan or William and Mary or indeed (Prince) Philip and (Queen) Elizabeth who were married a month after Peter and Geraldeen and also formed a lasting bond for over 60 years.

In addition to their own 4 children, Peter and Geraldeen were burdened with 2 more for the Easter holidays, and how we were spoilt with warmth and generosity with trips to so many places and sorties to the countryside around Wellow. At the Manor House, Peter had a lovely panelled study and this was his refuge, his sanctuary from the hordes of children, which often included others from the village. We tiptoed at the door but never dared enter.

20 Years later,my wife, Monique and I introduced our first two children, Olivia and Ben, to Peter and Geraldeen, first at Grass Park and then at Watercombe Farm. Once again we were overcome by the kindness and hospitality shown to us city folk, with introductions to sheep, goats, dogs, cats, horses, rams, Land Rovers, markets and at the end of the day huge meals often with home made beer or cider, of perhaps questionable taste?, beside a wood fire. It was here that I listened to and talked of many things with Peter. The family history or “Herd Book” as Peter christened it was probably the most regular topic…but also everything from politics to gardening, wars to pacifism, the countryside, the weather…Peter was a wonderful talker. He spoke clearly with interest and conviction. He was invigorating, amusing and entertaining even if you did not always agree with what he said. He could be provocative or exaggerate but he was always stimulating. How I enjoyed those encounters whether we agreed or disagreed.

One of Peter’s charming grand daughters added…..He was a man of enquiry. he sought knowledge and shared it very willingly. One of his many remedies for feeling sad was to read King Lear. Clearly this was not an attempt to escape but to reconnect, perhaps to the whole, to the vastness of both suffering and joy.

Later when I moved to France we wrote letters on a regular basis, though I am ashamed to say that Peter wrote far more letters than I ever did, and of course Peter wrote letters to a great many other people…..The Times, his MP, Tam Dalyell MP and ‘The Friend’. Peter could write beautifully descriptive prose to set the scene of say a damp and windy spring day in his cherished vegetable garden and make one quite homesick in the Provence sunshine. He could also write like an angry nineteenth century pamphleteer castigating politicians and useless institutions (Bush is a disaster, quite incapable of consecutive thought…) he could write like a journalist probing for truth and exasperated by falsehood. But whatever he wrote it was always interesting, about himself, his views, but also about others. He and Geraldeen were always interested in what others, especially the young, were up to. They were always prepared to encourage and praise and report such activities, especially of their grandchildren, with pride and satisfaction.
I thought I would end with three short quotes:

“I am 87 now and feeling my age, damn it!”

Strange how humans take such trouble over funerals, although they know the person is no longer present but happily in heaven”

And finally

I look forward to your visit……
“Then you and I will talk of things
For a pleasant hour or more
We’ll sing a song in silence
And share stories we have known”

Thank you, Peter.



Giles Tatton-Brown.
13 November 2009

Giles is Peter’s nephew by Robert his brother.