Phyllis Marion Gotch

In about 1909 she became editor of the Penzance Church of England High School and Old Girls’ Club magazine called Merry Maidens, published by Eleanor Hare.

By 1910 she had formulated a stage act performing the folk songs whilst dressed in a "quaint puffed and flowered gown of the Georgian period".

[5] Whilst in South Africa, Gotch met an old friend from Cornwall called Richard Ernest Biggs Doherty ("Patrick").

She also discovered at this time that she was pregnant and her child, Deirdre Patricia Maureen Doherty (Patsy), was born on 16 March 1915 in Cornwall.

During the First World War, Gotch helped form the local Women Volunteer Motor Drivers (WVMD) at Moretonhampstead, Devon, becoming its first Lady Commandant.

[10] In 1922, she married André Marie, Marquis de Verdières in St George's, Hanover Square, London.

The Arts & Crafts style building was named after the adjacent disused mine workings called Wheal Elizabeth.

[22] In the Hartford Courier article (25 July 1944) Mildred says that her husband had remained behind in France in hiding, waiting for the day when he and others can arise and strike a blow for victory and freedom.

In the book Je suis le chat qui va tout seul... about the life of young French resistance fighter François Raveau, there is mention of a man he knew during the war called André de Verdières, real name Schlossmacher who became a mentor to him.

Jocelyn's paternal grandfather was Cornish artist, Frank Bodilly, who trained to become a lawyer, and in 1904 was appointed a Judge in the High Court of Calcutta, India.

In 1922 two of his sisters, Ursula and Godefer (aged 10 and 12), were junior bridesmaids at her wedding to Andre, Marquis de Verdières, and Jocelyn at this date would have been nine.

[29] Gotch visited her future father-in-law, Ralph Bodilly, in Tel Aviv in 1933/34 and wrote an illustrated article on her impressions of the area, the people and the politics, published in the Daily Telegraph on 14 February 1934.

[31][Note 2] After the First World War, plans were set in place in Britain to improve the housing stock throughout the country.

The residents of these homes fought to stop them being destroyed and Gotch, who by now was a local councillor, supported them and handled the publicity.

[32] To raise the profile of their campaign one of the local fishing vessels named Rosebud was sent from Newlyn, round the south coast of England, and up the Thames to the Houses of Parliament to deliver a petition to the Minister of Health.

[34] Her husband, Jocelyn, remarried to physiotherapist Marjorie Fogg (1922-1996) in St John's Cathedral, in Hong Kong on 1 August 1964.

[36][37] The obituary for Sir Jocelyn Bodilly, printed in The Guardian 5 June 1997, was written by journalist Daniel Francis Jeroen van der Vat who was both a friend and neighbour.

[38] Gotch's mother, Caroline, was one of three sisters born to Esther Burland (1824-1878) and property owner, Edward Yates (1825-1879).

She served as a Base Cypher Officer in Egypt during the war, living there with her three children and her grandmother, Caroline Gotch.