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Thursday, August 17, 2006

Powderham Lady circa 1951

fname=James
lname=Gilman
address1=19 Brancepeth Close
address2=
city=Durham City
state=Co. Durham
country=UK
zip=DH1 5XL
james@agilman.freeserve.co.uki
ancestor=one who was a General in the British Army circa 1940s/1950s
comments=When I was a young soldier in the British Army during the Korean War in the early 1950s I was hospitalised for 3 months (late 1951) at the Royal Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot, England. During that time I became friendly with a young lady whose name -- alas -- I have since forgotten, but who was around my own age (I was born in 1932), who worked as a volunteer in the Hospital library, whose father was a General in the British Army, and who lived at Powderham Castle in Devon. I have no knowledge that she was a member of the Courtenay family, but if her father was indeed a GenerAL, it does seem likely.

In 1953 I was in the area and so called at Powederham Castle. I remember asking for her by name at the Lodge at the Castle gates, and being directed to the Castle itself, which means she must have been known to the people there. However, on my way up the drive a horse was sick all over me! The people at the lodge cleaned me up, but I was in no state to go calling at the Castle, so left, and have never since been in that locality.

I am curious, after all these years, as to what became of her in her later life, and wondered if through your website you could help? I have been in correspondence with the family at Powderham who cannot work out who she was, so you are my last resport.

If she was around 20 or so in 1951, her father would presumably have been around 40-50 or so, which means it is likely he was in the British Army during World War Two. Can anyone identify him?

Many thanks!

James A Gilman

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