Robin Peter de Radclyffe OPENSHAW (1910-1993)

Robin Peter de Radclyffe Openshaw (1910-1993) was the son of James and Mary Openshaw who were friends of the Sladden family.

Robin Openshaw was born at Badsey on 31st May 1910, the youngest of nine children of James Algernon de Radclyffe Openshaw, a farmer and market gardener, and his wife, Mary Alice (née Serman).  The Openshaws were from an old Bury family in Lancashire.  The name “de Radclyffe”, which his father gave to all the boys in the family, is probably in recognition of an Openshaw in the 15th century who was given a licence by John Radclyff, lord of Radclyff, to take an encroachment on Cockey Moor.

The family had moved to Bowers Hill, Badsey, a year or two before he was born; they moved to Bengeworth before the war.

Robin is mentioned as having measles in a letter of 15th November 1914 so his older brother, David, who was about to go off with the Evesham Territor ials, was unable to go home.

In 1937 Robin married Beryl Freda Keen in Surrey.  They had a son, Christopher Robin, born in 1938.  Their address in 1939 was 28 Aberdare Gardens, Hampstead.  Robin and Freda are believed to have divorced in the 1940s.

In the 1940s Robin was living at West Point, Wonham Way, Gomshall, Surrey; by 1950 his address was Trinity House, Burrows Lane, Gomshall; in 1953 he was at Mardens, Shophouse Lane, Dorking, Surrey.  Robin married Patricia Fleming in Surrey in 1954.

Robin died on 29th January 1993 at 4 Westminster Close, Shaftesbury, Dorset, aged 82, his only son having died the year before.  His wife, Patricia, died on the same day.