In the last two editions, we heard about Sir Ian Wilmut who had recently died. He was a co-creator of Dolly the Sheep.
However, wander into the Hampton Lucy graveyard by Church Street and you will find three very large headstones: Cyril Radcliffe, his wife Antonia and her sister Theodora.
Cyril Radcliffe was born in Denbighshire, Wales. He spent many years as a lawyer and in 1949, he was created Baron Radcliffe. In 1962, he was made a hereditary peer, Viscount Radcliffe of Hampton Lucy and in 1965, he was the first Chancellor of the new University of Warwick.
So, why was this, what had he done to deserve these honours?
Well, in 1947 he was given the task of partitioning India so that as many Sikhs and Hindus as possible could live in India, and Muslims in Pakistan. He was given only five weeks to complete the task and apparently, up until then he had never been east of Paris! As a result, millions were left on the wrong side of the border and millions died or were injured on both sides such that Cyril refused his salary of £3000. Mind you, he was made ‘Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire’. He said that given the time scale he would do the same again but if he’d had two or three years, he might have improved.
It is worth reading WH Auden’s ‘Partition’ https://www.poeticous.com/w-h-auden/partition. It is very funny and perceptive, the last few lines being:
“The weather was frightfully hot,
And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot,
But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided,
A continent for better or worse divided.
The next day he sailed for England, where he could quickly forget,
The case, as a good lawyer must. Return he would not,
Afraid, as he told his Club, that he might get shot”.
On his gravestone are the words “A great Man Dearly Loved” but these words are probably not shared in India or Pakistan!
John Dunkerton
hamptonlucy.wordpress.com 