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Name: ECKSTEIN, Geoffrey Anthony DSO, MC (Lieut.-Col.) (later Gordon-Creed)

Nee: stepson of Hermann Frederik Eckstein, born G. A. Harrison, took name of stepfather

Birth Date: 29 Jan 1920 Cape Town

Death Date: 26 Nov 2002 Camden, South Carolina

First Date: 1928

Profession: 1928, Lake Solai

Married: 1. 1941 Ursula M. Warrington b. 1913 Downham, Norfolk; 2. 1956 Belinda Vaughan; 3. In Chelsea 1962 Christy Firestone (div. 1988); 4. 2000 Ellen Dvorchak

Children: Nicholas

Book Reference: Pembroke

School: Downside

General Information:

Pembroke - Steward at Pembroke House Sports 1932
Rogue Male - After WW2 he bought a wine business in Kenya. It was the cause of much fun but, and sadly, having fun is no driver of a successful business. He ended up 'losing a bundle' but managed to sell out before it ruined him. He then moved to Tanganyika and tried farming. Ursula caught TB and had to leave Africa.
Supposedly had a week-long affair with Ava Gardner when she was filming 'Mogambo' in 1952.
He then tried shooting crocodiles to make money to pay for his wife's medical treatment but unfortunately she died.
In 1954-5 he returned to Kenya and was involved in anti Mau Mau action round Mount Kenya
Changed name by deed poll to Gordon-Creed
Rogue Male - Geoffrey Anthony Harrison was born in Cape Town, South Africa on 29 January 1920. His mother Molly, a highly talented concert pianist had scandalised her parents by eloping with and marrying one William Harrison. But within a year or so of Geoff's birth, William had 'gone off' with a young man from Portsmouth - 'ran off with a bloody docker' is how the famliy put it today. .….….……
Then Molly's life changed completely and for the good. In a Cape Town auditorium one evening she played a concert. In the audience was a captain from the glamorous 17th Lancers; the 'Death or Glory' boys with their famous skull and crossbones cap badge which commemorates their heroic part in the Charge of the Light Brigade. This captain fell in love with Molly and shortly after they were married. And he must have been besotted to accept the social death that came with marrying a divorcee.
Soon after the marriage young Geoffrey was given his second surname, that of his stepfather. But his new name was itself to become an issue in time. Because, when her dashing captain had fought bravely in the trenches on the Western Front in the First War, Molly's husband had a very unfortunate name for an Englishman: Herman Eckstein. .….….…..
Geoff made his name change by deed poll to Gordon-Creed in late 1938 .….…..
Geoff left school in 1938 aged 18 with a divorced mother, a disgraced biological father he never mentioned and shortly thereafter a third change of name. When he made the third and final change he took his mother's maiden name, Creed, and aggrandised it with another associated family name to make up the smart-sounding Gordon-Creed. .……
In 1928 Herman Eckstein had taken Molly, stepchildren Betty (the eldest) and Geoff, and their 3 other children to their new home: a run-down 1000 acre farm called Maryland, 6500 feet up in the Kenya Highlands, surrounded by wild forest. This was no luxury farming. The house was a small bungalow, 3 miles from the nearest neighbours. .…..
Herman had in his time in the army been in charge of remount riders - breaking in and training cavalry horses - a tough discipline where you either do things 'right' or they go very wrong. Herman taught Geoff how to do things 'right' and thus how to be reasonably safe, even when surrounded by danger. He taught him to shoot straight and how to be trusted with a weapon .….……
Geoff was sent to board at Pembroke House, a prep school in Kenya. He did well there ending up as head boy and noted for being particularly good at games. But, come age 13, it was time to leave and Herman took a deep breath and decided to do the right thing by his stepson by sending him to Downside, a Catholic school run by monks deep in rural Somerset.
{He did very well after some hiccups, became a prefect and was accepted by Jesus College Cambridge for a place in October 1939 but the war intervened. Geoff became a famous soldier in North Africa and with SOE in Greece}
 

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