Crockham Hill June 2025 Newsletter - Flipbook - Page 29
On the death of Agnes Rogers, Stubblefield was bought by Captain Michael
Prest, a Limpsfield boy who in 1975 succeeded Sandy Woodford as Captain
of the ill-fated HMS Sheffield, sunk by an Exocet in the Falklands War of
1982 (in which the by-then Admiral Sandy Woodford was Commander of
the Royal Navy Task force). Prest was very convivial and regularly
entertained his neighbours with sundowners and seafaring tales. In the
1960s, an orchard at the east end of the lane was purchased by Rochester
Diocese to provide a purpose-built vicarage for a church minister, enabling
the previous 1842 stone-built vicarage north of Holy Trinity Church to be
sold.
Memorable Moments
Brief Encounters with Nobel Prize Winners
Paul Cosh
I was lucky enough to meet both Nelson Mandela and (separately) FW de
Klerk. In 1999, when my little company, Century Insurance, was bought by
the very large Budget Insurance (which went on to start Compare the
Market, with those pesky meerkats). I continued to work with the enlarged
group.
Budget was a subsidiary of the South African company Auto & General,
owned by Douw Steyn. Douw had become enormously wealthy and equally
famous for his support of Nelson Mandela, still incarcerated on Robben
Island. He supplied his private planes to fly ANC negotiators to meetings
with the South African government and, on Mandela9s release in 1990,
invited him to live in his home and finish his memoirs, 8Long Walk to
Freedom9.
The opportunity to meet him came when Douw threw a
party to celebrate Mandela9s 85th birthday and to hand
over a house on the Shambala estate that he was gifting
to him. The party was to be attended by 85 dignitaries
from around the world, but it soon became clear that,
after the 9/11 attacks, people were still wary of flying.
Hurriedly, plans had to change. Luckily, the Miss World
Nelson Mandela Pixabay
competition was going to be held in Sun City at the same
time of the party. So all the contestants were invited,
plus a couple of us from Budget, to replace the 85 famous people!
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