James Dempsey writes: I can unhesitatingly state that Uncle Ralph [Ralph Hamilton Cobbold (1906-1987) #454] was without question the most wonderful man I have ever met in my life. The Belgian lady who ran the incomparable ‘Orford Oysterage’ [Suffolk] would whoop with joy when we all arrived for a blow-out seafood lunch. He really was the essence of old-world charm. He listened intently to everything you said. He made you feel important. He was also rather naughty, as all the best people are. His limericks and jokes were wonderfully told in a way that even the starchiest matron would at least smile if not titter.
There is a story from the war that sums up this beloved man and to tell it we must rejoin Geoff [the Saboteur] who, having been spirited out of Greece had finally reached England’s shores by way of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Cairo, and no doubt a girl or two in each city. He soon landed a job at SHAEF rounding up non-existent die- hard Nazi fanatics throughout freshly liberated France. He decided to call on his old friend Jean, Prince de Chimay who still ran the venerable Grand Champagne House, Veuve Clicquot. In 1940, the Nazis decreed that the entire production should henceforth be reserved for the Wehrmacht and graciously exempted Chimay and all those involved from deportation or worse.
On arrival, the Prince informed Geoff that he was only the second Englishman to call. “The first left only about an hour ago – he was a friend of mine, Ralph Cobbold. I wonder if perhaps you know him?” Ralph had pipped Geoff to the post and had just driven off with a 3-ton lorry load of Champers for the Coldstream Guards. Each bottle hidden for the duration behind a false wall in the labyrinthine cellars and each labelled ‘Reserved for the Allied Armies of Liberation’.
When I first met Ralph, he was MD of Justerini & Brooks, the grand old wine merchants that ended being gobbled up by Grand Metropolitan. We were taken to lunch at Hatchetts and in these surroundings he really was in his element. He later told me how he and a fellow director created J&B Rare on the back of a menu over a lengthy and no doubt boozy lunch. Grand Met pounced when his creation became the biggest selling Scotch in the USA.
It was time to retire. Grand Met generously allowed him to buy as much stock as he wanted at cost. The figure was so colossal I could scarcely believe it to be true. Two years later I was invited to stay for the weekend. You could hardly move for the cases of hooch. Latour jostled with Smirnoff. It is the only time in my life that I have slept inches away from case after case of first growth clarets. Dear, happy man, he died a long time after every drop had been drunk.
Ralph loved Kenya and as I knew it was easy for me to bond with him. I am sorry now that we did not talk more about Herman Eckstein, my maternal grandfather. The two of them were stepbrothers. One sultry August evening, Ralph and I decided to go and fish the Long Pool at Inverie at Knoydart. The dreaded midges hung like hot air balloons above our net-shrouded heads as we cast across the little river. He turned to me and said, “I am only going to give you one bit of advice and this is it. Treat everyone you meet in exactly the same way whether they be the Monarch or the dustman. Everyone has their own story to tell and it is your job to encourage the telling. Be like the wise old owl who sat in an oak, the more he heard the less he spoke; The less he spoke, the more he heard; Why aren’t we all like that wise old bird?”
I have done my best to live up to this sage advice. When he died, a memorial service was held for him in the Guards Chapel on the Mall. Many of the high and mighty attended. At least three former Prime Ministers were among the vast crowd and one gave an address. When I looked around, it was as if the yeoman heart of England had come to pay their last respects. Butchers, bakers and candlestick makers jostled with the nobility of the nation. I don’t think there was a dry eye to be seen.
NB Numbers shown thus #1111 indicate the bearer’s position on the web family tree.MY FAB FIVE: 5 The Wine Merchant
