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Name: COPLESTONE, John Ashurst

image of individualimage of individual

Nee: son of Dr. William Drake Coplestone

Birth Date: 13 Sep 1907 Cambridge

Death Date: 1999 Lewes

First Date: 1928

Last Date: 1931?

Profession: Teacher

Area: Gilgil

Married: In Seaford, Sussex 17 Dec 1938 Elizabeth Monica Barwell b. 14 July 1916 Kingston, Surrey, d. 2003 Lewes

Children: two dau.; one son

Book Reference: Red 31, Hut, Pembroke

General Information:

Pembroke - Mr Coplestone was something of an adventurer and left Pembroke House in mid-1931 to motor back to the UK by way of what was then French West Africa and the Sahara. He was successful and among the first people to attempt the trans-Saharan crossing in a motor vehicle.
Hut has Pembroke House.
Pembroke - joined the staff at the school in January 1928.
Son of a doctor who travelled much, often accompanied by his son - Ancestry Passenger Lists
Spelling is variously Coplestone or Copplestone
1939 England and Wales Register living with wife in Seaford [double p spelling]
Patrick Houston (grandson): Theirs was one of the first private vehicles to cross the Sahara desert, and certainly the first to make the journey from Nairobi. The first Saharan motorised vehicle crossing being an expedition sponsored by Citroen in December 1922. In fact from 1927, using specially-built six-wheeled Renaults with built-in sleeping accommodation, a regular bus service was set up on the route Colomb Béchar in Algeria to Gao in Mali. My Grandfather travelled with  J J Vernon-Wilson(his uncle) and Jock Bennett in an 30cw International six-speed special and departed on January 31st 1931 arriving via Newhaven/Dieppe on March 24th . 7627 miles in 36 motoring days. For 16 days of the journey they did not break camp for illness and other reasons. In the articles that Vernon Wilson wrote for the Times of East Africa (August 1931) he neglects to mention that another car accompanied them, a 24hp Chevrolet driven by the Hamilton-Rosses accompanied them to Reggane and went their own route after that to Algiers.
My grandfather went on to fight in Burma and founded a prepschool called Sutton Place in Seaford, East Sussex which later became Sutton Place Junior School run by his daughter, my mother.

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