the wellington college year book 2010/2011
g . f. h a n c o c k , c m g
145
[bl 1939–1944]
S
on of ow Lt Col Sir Cyril
Hancock Hancock kcie,
Geoffrey served in the Royal
Air Force for two years,
being posted to a Coastal
Command Sunderland Flying Boat Squadron
in Trincomalee, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He
went up to Trinity College, Oxford in 1948
and continued to serve in the raf Reserve
for some years. In 1953 he joined mi6 and
served in Uruguay, Mexico and Spain, where
he met the young Amelia Aragon, (a Spanish
journalist, recently expelled from Morocco
on suspicion of espionage, whose activities
Geoffrey claimed it were part of his duties to
monitor) and married her. Geoffrey learnt
Arabic and then spent most of his service in
the Middle East, then becoming an increasing
area of tension during the Cold War.
In the 1960s he spent much time in
Baghdad and Beirut. In 1976, as Chargé
d’Affaires during the British Ambassador’s
absence, there was a sudden escalation of
violence, caused by the Palestinian factions
against the Christians, and during which the
us ambassador was assassinated. Geoffrey
helped organise evacuations of civilians and
attempted to maintain diplomatic functions
amid the chaos, including social ones. In his
book Bombs Stopped Play, he describes playing
tennis in the local club under the protection
of the armed Druze Militia. An attempt was
made to kidnap him, but he was speedily
released owing to his excellent contacts.
He recalled meeting, amongst numerous
interesting people, the young Saddam
Hussein. In retirement he set up Middle East
Consultants and continued to visit the region
for many years. His son Frank was in The
Blucher [1974–1979] and daughter Katya in
the Apsley [1979–1981], and his brother, five
nephews and one great nephew (Hancocks
and Lennox-Smiths) are ows. The family
are also cousins of the numerous (Broome)
Salmon family of ows.
colonel m.j.c. anstice, mc, td
[t 1943–1948]
ike Anstice was commissioned into the 5th
Inniskilling Dragoon Guards
from Sandhurst in 1949
and served in baor and the
Suez Canal Zone. In 1952 his regiment was
sent to Korea as part of the Commonwealth
Brigade. During ‘intense, confused and bitter fighting’ during November of that year,
Mike’s troop was in support of the 1st Bn
Black Watch, guarding the line on the feature known as the Hook. With fanatical
masses of Chinese sweeping over the battalion’s position (they were well dug in, with
overhead protection) the co, Lt Col David
Rose (brother of two ows), ordered Mike
forward. His tank was hit and the driver
severely wounded, but his efforts helped ensure the Chinese withdrawal after nine hours
fighting. He was awarded the immediate mc.
After retiring in 1957, Mike became a keen
ta soldier, commanding the Fife and Forfar
Yeomanry/Scottish Horse. He worked for a
time in the Dundee jute industry and then set
up his own furniture making company. He
was dl for the county of Angus and died as a
result of an accident while fishing.
c.d. forsyth
[l 1948–1953]
C
olin was Head of College,
Master of the Hunt (Crosscountry captain) and a
member of the rugby xv.
He was called for National
Service and was commissioned into the Rifle
Brigade for service in Kenya during the Mau
Mau emergency. He took up his history
scholarship at Keble College, Oxford in 1955.
In 1958 Colin boarded a ship for New York
and ‘for five exhilarating years plunged into
the u.s. financial world’. Back in England he
became fired with enthusiasm for investing in
Australia. He set up the first Australian unit
trust in u.k. and bought obscure Australian
stock; both companies were enormously
successful and this assured his subsequent
‘bold and original’ business career. He bought
and restored Dingley Hall, Northamptonshire
and was enormously generous with his time
and money, supporting many public spirited
ventures. He donated the overall prize for
the Hobart-Sydney yachting race, personally
presenting the prize to Prime Minister
Edward Heath. Deeply concerned with
others, especially friends ill or in trouble,
Colin was a most amusing person, he once
offered to finance a prize for ‘the best runnerup in any event’ at Wellington, to be named
the Napoleon Prize: it was not accepted?!