OBITUARY: C.J.H. EDENBOROUGH (45-48)

Courtney Edenborough (45-48) died in hospital near his home in Buckinghamshire on the morning of 26th April 2023 having contracted pneumonia. He was 92 and at the time of his death was one of the oldest, and most loyal, Old Pangbournians. His funeral took place on 26th May at St John's the Evangelist church at Ashley Green, Chesham. He left two sons, Michael and Robert, both of whom contributed to this obituary.

Courtney was born in 1930 and his early years were spent in Hertfordshire. Entering the Nautical College from Berkhamsted prep school in 1945, he became Chief of Macquarie Division, reached Form VI Modern, was Captain of the River and a member of the Sailing Team in 1948, he also played in the 1947 1st XV and was according to The Log, “a hard-working forward, but he is slow in his primary job of hooking the ball.”

Bent on a career at sea, towards the end of 1948 Courtney became a cadet purser with the Orient Line, later to merge with the Peninsula Line to become P&O, mostly sailing to and from Australia. In 1950 he was called up to do his National Service. Joining the Buffs (Royal East Kent regiment), he was later seconded to the Somaliland Scouts and served in northern Kenya and Somaliland.

Returning to the UK after two years, he decided to leave the sea and join the family business. At the time this consisted of a flourishing petrol station and car showroom at Stonebridge off the North Circular Road and a popular café for bikers called The Ace Café on the same busy road.  Managing these businesses for the next 28 years, he sold them in 1981 and began a seven-year career as a management consultant before retiring from business life at the end of the 1980s.

In 1971 Courtney was asked to re-join the RNR as an acting Sub Lieutenant, a commitment he sustained to 1993 when he stepped down so that the Ministry of Defence did not have to award him a pension. By that time, he was a Lt Commander. The great majority of this period was spent as an Exercise Administration Officer deployed in Northwood, Gibraltar and other locations including Hong Kong on a dozen NATO exercises.

In parallel, Courtney became an active fund-raiser for a number of charities especially the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) and SSAFA (Soldiers’ Sailors’ & Airmen’s Families Association) as well as being a strong supporter of SAMA (the South Atlantic Medal Association).  With his wife Margaret, he hosted a number of SSAFA charity suppers and in the 1990s was instrumental in raising the funds to build a D-class RNLI lifeboat D607 called Spirit of Berkhamsted which came into service in 2003 at Happisburgh in northeast Norfolk.

Throughout his post-NCP life Courtney was an active and steadfast member of the Old Pangbournian Society, regularly attending dinners, lunches and other events. Latterly he travelled to OP events with Philip Plato, the current chairman of the OP Society who lived near his home in Ashley Green. Most recently, he became the first OP to take part in the filming of video memories of his schooldays at the College. Mark Dumas, the President of the OP Society, described him as “a great OP who will be missed. We are lucky to have known him.” Many older OPs recalled an ever-courteous, approachable and friendly man always ready with a smile and a story. The Headmaster, Thomas Garnier, was another to pay him a handsome tribute.

Robert Edenborough adds: “My father was a complete technophobe. He always wanted the latest gadgets, even though he had no idea what they did, or how they worked. It then often fell to me to sort out the many and varied problems he had. To say it was frustrating is an understatement! In later life he loved a good complaint letter and I’m sure that producers at the BBC, editors at The Times, and the local MP, to name but a few, will have noticed a significant reduction in their postbags with his passing.

I will sorely miss him and his many amusing stories, such as how he got his driving license by driving across the parade ground to the Sergeant’s Mess, or how he got the car tyres stuck in tram lines in London and landed up at a tram terminus! I will fondly recall the many large parties my parents held through the years with friends or to support some charity or other. He always seemed to enjoy himself and the 64 years he knew my mother were the happiest times of his life. He definitely lost some of the sparkle in his eyes when Margaret went into a home in 2012 and died in 2017.”