753. Bruce Gardiner Merivale-Austin
Bruce was born in Barbados and educated there at Harrison College. He went to London University to study medicine but did not complete his studies because, on the out break of war in 1939, he volunteered for military service and was commissioned as a regular officer in the 2nd Battalion the Royal Highland Regiment (The Black Watch), a career that was to last until 1952.
He went to Perth, Scotland, in April 1940 for training and in May 1940, he and his Battalion were sent to the Shetland Islands to serve as defence against an expected German invasion. In 1941, as part of a draft of officers and men, Bruce was posted to the Middle East where he joined his regiment and saw action outside Damascus, Syria, against Vichy French Government forces there. In August 1941 Bruce and his Company went by destroyer to Tobruk, where they relieved the Australians. In Tobruk, he was involved in the biggest set-piece battle his regiment fought in the war. Few of the initial force of about 800 survived and Bruce was one of two Second Lieutenants to survive. His regiment was in action in the Western Desert until December 1941, before returning to Syria again via the Egyptian Delta. In January 1942, his Battalion embarked from Suez for Rangoon. The Battalion fought against the Japanese during 1942/43, and then, in 1944 in central Burma, as part of Major-General Orde Wingate’s Long-Range Penetration Force, better known as the ‘Chindits’. The principal task of the Chindits was to cut the Japanese lines of communications near Indore in order to dislocate their supply system, notably that of the Japanese 18th Division.
In 1945, Bruce returned to the U.K. where he served first at the Highland District, Inverness until January 1946 and thereafter on the Staff of MI 3 at the War Office until December 1947. That year, he was appointed Assistant Military Attaché at the British Embassy, Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1949, Bruce, together with all personnel of the United States Embassy, was declared persona non grata by the Bulgarian government for alleged espionage and he rejoined the 1st Battalion, the Royal Highland Regiment in Germany.
After retiring from the army in 1952 with the rank of Major, Bruce went to Canada as general manager of a subsidiary of The Daily Telegraph newspaper group, later serving on the main board of the group in London. In Canada, he prospected for iron ore in the Hudson’s Bay area with his friend I. D.L. Cochrane (formerly of the Black Watch, later to inherit the title Earl of Dundonald). Subsequently they formed several trading companies dealing internationally in semi-precious metals.
In 1945, Bruce married the Hon. Alison Mary Hope, daughter of Sir Arthur Hope, Governor of Madras, and they had two daughters. His second marriage, in 1959, was to Evalyn Colvin McLean, daughter of Admiral and Mrs. Gordon A. McLean, United States Navy. They had three children. Bruce and Evalyn lived in London and Wales.
755. Robin Willoughby Merivale Austin
Robin was born in Barbados and educated there at Harrison College. In 1942 he volunteered for active service in the TRNVR in which his brother Grey was already serving. As a midshipman and later Lieutenant in the executive branch, based in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, he was involved in anti-submarine, salvage and rescue operations in the Caribbean theatre throughout the war, specialising in astronomical navigation. After the end of the war in Europe, and until he was demobilized in 1946, Robin was involved in the dangerous task, based in Trieste, of mine clearing in the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas. He was given command of a Boston Yard Minesweeper, considered to be the most technically advanced minesweeper at the time, and was named as Senior Officer/Minesweeping for both the 156th and 171st flotillas of Boston Yard Minesweepers, which were ultimately responsible for clearing nearly a thousand mines. [For further information concerning Robin Austin’s war service, reference may be made to an article written by him and published in Journal of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, Vol. XLVI, p. 148-173 entitled Wartime Memoirs of Robin Austin]. It was in Trieste that he met his first wife Maria Cristina Vettore (1927- ). They were married from 1946 to 1955. Maria Cristina later married the car magnate Henry Ford II.
Robin emigrated to Canada in 1947. He subsequently owned and managed several businesses. One of these was the Imperial Molasses Company operating in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He introduced the then revolutionary novel concept of transporting molasses by tanker. Until then molasses had been transported in large wooden barrels called puncheons. He was instrumental in the design and building of the Cartier Sugar Refinery in Montreal, Quebec utilizing innovative technology. Cartier was later taken over by other large sugar interests.
In 1956 Robin married Jeanne Jacqueline Pivard (1935- ), the mother of his three children. They divorced in 1979. He returned to Barbados in 1980 where he lived for most of the remainder of his life though he died in the Veteran’s Hospital in Montreal after a long illness. His ashes were interned at the Military Cemetery in Barbados next to his Uncle Colonel James Bruce Gordon Austin. His epitaph reads:
“GALLANT SAILOR”
THE WINDS OF HEAVEN ARE BLOWING
MAY GOD BE WITH YOU
Nigel was born at Mamban Estate, Serembam, Federated Malaya States. He was educated at Queen’s College, Georgetown, The Lodge School, Barbados and at Codrington College, where he studied theology. In 1948, he married Audrey Kinch (1922- ) daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Kinch, in Barbados. After Nigel’s first curacy at St. David Church, Christ Church Parish, he and Audrey went to England where he later became Vicar of Leeming Church, Yorkshire. They had three children
Nigel retired in 1986 and he and Audrey settled in Salisbury. He is buried in Leeming, the parish and community that he so loved.
764. James Henry Davies M.B.E.
Jimmy was born in Georgetown, British Guiana. He was educated at Queen’s College, Georgetown and The Lodge School, Barbados. Jimmy joined the Merchant Navy and on the outbreak of World War II enlisted in the R.N.V.R. After the war, he joined Trinity House and obtained his Master’s Certificate. On returning to Trinidad, Jimmy became Tugmaster, Port Services Trinidad and Tobago and ultimately, Marine Pilot. In 1948, Jimmy married Margaret Cutting (1926- ), daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. Cutting of Martlesham, Suffolk. In 1957, Jimmy was awarded M.B.E. for bravery. He and thirty-nine others were decorated for preventing a major disaster when a schooner, laden with high-octane aviation fuel, caught fire in Port-of-Spain harbour and was in great danger of exploding. Jimmy’s citation reads: ‘Captain Davies, without hesitation, took his tug alongside the burning schooner and began fire-fighting operations. He knew of the imminent danger of an explosion and that had such an explosion taken place, his tug and crew would almost certainly have been obliterated. Notwithstanding this knowledge, he not only persevered in towing the schooner away from harbour, but remained with it until his tug grounded’. He and Margaret had three children.
Dione first married Bruce Skinner from Barbados and they had a son Stephen O’Neal Skinner (1945- ). Dione and Bruce divorced and she then went to Australia where she married Russell Warner. Dione and Russell had two children,
767. Coralie Anne Keevill-Turner
Coralie Anne Keevill-Turner was born at the Irving home in Bedford. Throughout her life, Anne radiated happiness and was a joy to all who knew her. Anne was educated at Bishops’ High School, Georgetown and Codrington High School, Barbados. In 1947, she married Leslie Howard Outram (1917- ), son of Mr. and Mrs. William Alleyne Allder Outram, at Christ Church, Georgetown. Leslie served with distinction as a senior police officer in the Colonial Police in British Guiana, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, British Honduras and lastly in Kenya throughout the Mau-Mau emergency. He was awarded the Colonial Police Medal in 1953 and retired in 1963 after Kenya was granted its independence, with the rank of Assistant Commissioner. Whilst in Kenya, Anne became the first District Commissioner of Girl Guides for Nyeri, where Lord Baden-Powell died. Anne took it upon herself to look after his grave after Lady Olave Baden-Powell returned to England and was very proud of the friendly relationship that they shared. Anne and Leslie had three children