Dornford Yates - The Second World War and The Rhodesian Years

The Second World War and The Rhodesian Years

C.W. Mercer was re-commissioned in the Royal Rhodesian Regiment, and attained the rank of major. As the war concluded, the couple realised their plan of returning to Cockade – but were disappointed in the decrepitude of the house and the socially-conscious, post-war attitude of their one-time servants. After some months, the Mercers obtained exit visas and returned to Umtali, Southern Rhodesia, (now Mutare, Zimbabwe), where they lived for the rest of his life. Mercer supervised the building of a replacement house for Cockade, another hillside venture, and, in 1948, they moved into "Sacradown", on Oak Avenue. The furniture in France was shipped to Rhodesia, as were the Waterloo Bridge balusters (see The House that Berry Built), which had never reached Cockade, but had been stored in England during the Second World War.

Cecil William Mercer died in March 1960.

Read more about this topic:  Dornford Yates

Famous quotes containing the words world, war and/or years:

    This world is not for aye, nor ‘tis not strange
    That even our loves should with our fortunes change.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    ‘Yes; quaint and curious war is!
    You shoot a fellow down
    You’d treat if met where any bar is,
    Or help to half-a-crown.’
    Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)

    Perhaps you have forgotten me. Dont [sic] you remember a long black fellow who rode on horseback with you from Tremont to Springfield nearly ten years ago, swimming your horses over the Mackinaw on the trip? Well, I am that same one fellow yet.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)