Many thanks for your response. I am, actually, researching the Gough family, but trying to get more on the Courpalais and Courpalay connection. My information does not tie in with yours! Could there have been two Charles de Courpalay?
This is what I have on them at present:
- Joan Mary Gough [P.m] (Chart 10), born 27 June 1904, at Hyderabad, Deccan, India, baptised 13 July 1906, by the RC Bishop of the Deccan. She married, 27 September 1929, at St Theresa’s Church, Madras, India Charles Rupert Henry (“Rupert”) de Courpalay, son of Claude Richard Hope de Cour Palais, a planter in Mysore, India, and Edith Helen W….. Knight
The earliest known forbear of the de Cour-Palais or Courpalay family was Francois Guibert de Courpalais who was born in the early 1700s in France and who emigrated to Isle de Bourbon (now Reunion Island) around 1750. At some point several of the family went to India, where they became plantation owners in the southern part of the sub-continent.
Captain Charles Rupert Henry (“Rupert”) de Courpalay was born, 4 May 1899, at Mysore, India. His father’s address was Sumpegay Estate, Terrikere Taluk Kodur, Mysore. He had a younger brother, Hubert Claud Hope Cour Palais (born in 1903, who was also at school with him). He was educated at Bedford School, entering the school in May 1907 and he left in November 1917. There he became a monitor and played in the 2nd XV and 2nd XI; no academic prowess was noted. According to the Bedford Old Boys’ Register, he went straight from school to the Royal Military College, Wellington, and was commissioned into the Indian Army. In the closing months of the 1st World War he served, with the 31st Cavalry in the Middle East and in India. At some stage he changed his surname to de Courpalay. We have no knowledge of his army service thereafter, but he is believed to have served with the 8th Hussars, in India, and reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After he left the army he separated from his wife, and he went back to India, where he owned a coffee plantation in the Nigiris Hills, near Ootacamund, Mysore. He died about 1957, in India.
After separating from her husband she moved to Portugal for some years. She died 8 May 1979, at Poole, Dorset. According to her death certificate she claimed to have been born in France. They had 3 sons:
1) - Herbert Claude Hope de Courpalay, who died in infancy, 24 October 1926, at Lausanne, Switzerland
2) - Charles Richard Jean Louis (“Dick”) de Courpalay (Chart 10), born 23 October 1928, at Worthing, West Sussex. He was educated at Avisford and Downside. In the early years of the 2nd World war he had a very lucky escape when a pilot under training crashed his aircraft in the grounds of Downside close to where he was standing, killing two of his friends, but he was unscathed. He served in Germany in the Royal Tank Corps during his National Service, 1947 to 1949. He emigrated to Southern Rhodesia, and joined the British South Africa Police, until he retired in 1968. He qualified as an accountant, and, then, after independence, he worked, as Bursar, at Marondera High School, before retiring, finally. He married, 18 June 1955, at Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, Jean Marion Whitehead, daughter of Newton Webster Whitehead and Lorna Plumber
Jean Marion Whitehead was born 12 December 1934 at Winterton, Natal, South Africa. She was one of eight daughters. Her family moved to Marula, near Plumtree, Rhodesia, farming cattle, mainly. She died, of cancer, 24 August 1966, at Bulawayo General Hospital, Southern Rhodesia.
He moved, in 2004, to Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, to be closer to his married daughter. They had a son and a daughter
2.1)- David Richard de Courpalay, born 7 February 1956, at Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia. He was educated at Marondera High School, Southern Rhodesia. He was killed on active service, 4 June 1978, while serving as a Rifleman with the Rhodesian Regiment, when, due to an error in a map reference, his patrol was wiped out by the Rhodesian Air Force.
2.2)- Fiona Joan de Courpalay, born 4 October 1957, at Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia. She married, 29 March 1980, at Harare, Zimbabwe, Barry O’Dwyer, son of Arthur James Leslie Dwyer (1913-1991) and Margaret Murning (1914-2002)
Barry O’Dwyer was born, 24 February 1956, at Cape Town, Cape Province South Africa.
They emigrated to Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia in January 2000. They have 2 sons:
2.1.1) - Trevor David O’Dwyer,
2.1.2 - John de Courpalay O’Dwyer,
3)- Rupert Claude Hugh David (“Hugh”) de Courpalay (Chart 10), born 28 September 1930, in France. He emigrated to Australia about 1974. He is believed to have married twice, but had no known family. He lost touch with the family, and died in 2003.
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Anything you can add or amend would be gratefully received
Sincerely
Christopher Normand