George Herbert ("Bert") AUSTIN
George.H.Austin bought an estancia along with his brother in law Harold Bridger in the province of Cordoba called Las Cortaderas which is still in the family today.
DEATH: Also shown as Died 25 Aug 1937
William Cosgrove "Cosmo" HOUSTOUN R.N.V.R.
A letter about Cosmo from his brother Andrew Wylie Houston and his wife Connie
To be perfectly honest, you have asked me a question which I am totally unable to answer, at least, in detail. As far as I am concerned, my brother Cosmo - well, his real name was Cosgrove........(Goodness knows where my Mother and Fatheer got that unusual name from,)......and as far as I am able to understand, I experienced difficulty in ronouncing the word Cosgrove, which degenerated into the more simplified version of Cosmo. Anyway, I understand that in his later years, perhaps becaused he was adopting a more sophistic attitude towards society, he opted for a change from Cosmo to Bill, and unless I am mistaken, his full name was William Cosgrove Houstoun.
The name Cosgrove seems to ring a bell - a very small bell, however - in my ears, because I think that the name Cosgrove originated somewhere in the family records of my mother, whose family name, before her marriage, was Wylie , a name which I have inherited, as my full name is Andrew Wylie Houstoun.
Although only two years in age separated Cosmo and myself, it seems to me that there was always a considerable distance between us, and it could not be said that we were "close to each others" as we were brothers, because I never enjooyed that feeling. I know that I respected and admired my "big brother" but again, we were not "close to each other".
I have never had what could be defined as a good memory, however, although I seemed to think that Cosmo did not attend The English School in Barcelona, as I did, I was wrong, because I have since remembered that Cosmo did attend classes in that school, even although I have no idea where he slept, because it was certainly not in the bedrooms where I slept, in which there were four or five other student boarders. Because of the age difference, it followed that Cosmo would attend a senior class to mine, which means that we did not share the same classroom and/or teachers.
What I do recall, reasonably clearly, is that after graduation from Form Seven, which was the highest level of education taught at that school, Cosmo started to attend evening classes in the University of Barcelona, where he was studying Chemistry, the Castilian language. The fact that Cosmo attended evening classes suggests or confirms that Cosmo was working in the daytime, and although I have no confirmation of this, the likelihood is that he was working in the same factory in which our father was working. That was the J. & P, Coats Ltd.. company which was, in those far-away days, was the world's largest manufacturer of sewing threads. That company was headquartered in Paisley, Scotland, where our father and mother grew up.
My grandfather, who was my father's father, was the General Manager of the Ferguslie Mills which employed 28,000 employees. There were two J & P Coats Ltd, mills in Paisley. I can remember twos stories which my grandfather told me, after he had retired. The first story was that he had mistakenly believed that if he, as General Manager, failed to report for work one day, the whole operation would close down, whereas, in fact, it was when an office boy failed to show up at work, that there were problems. The other story referred to the fact that after retiring from his work, grandpa was a member of so many committees, and councils, and whatever, that he wondered how he ever had time to go to work.
The Barcelona mill was located in San Andres, which was a suburb of Barcelona, and Cosmo used to use a bicycle to travel from our home to the University of Barcelona where he studied Chemistry in the evening classes.
Sometime after the start of the Spanish Civil War in the year 1936, Cosmo used to drive the family automobile as a courier between foreign Consulates in Barcelona, carrying and delivering diplomatic messages from one Consulate General to other Consulate Generals. I used to sit in the passenger seat of the family automobile, and hold a large Union Jack British flag out of the vehicle;'s window, while, at the same time the words "Consulado Britanico" were painted in large white letters on the sides of the vehicle.
When a consular official discovered three bullet holes on the side of the family car, he immediately orders a cessation of such volunteer services, and it was highly recommended that I be evacuated from Spain as soon possible, as I was not "needed" there. I went aboard the Royal Navy cruiser HMS "London" and on the following morning was transferred to one of the three Royal Navy destroyers which were berthed beside the "London" and I was taken via destroyer to Marseilles where I boarded a train for Paris. In Paris I borrowed some money from the British Embassy, and continued on my journey to Scotland where I rejoined the part of the family which had been evacuated earlier in the war.
Where and when Cosmo volunteered for service in the Royal navy is unknown to me, and whether he served as a seaman before being commissioned as an officer is unknown to me.
Where Cosmo "served" in the Royal Navy before he became Aide to Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was, at that time, stationed in Trincomalee, in Ceylon. I have no other supportive information.
I have a vague recollection of Avery and Cosmo visiting us when Connie and I lived in Otterburn Heights, 23 miles outside of Montreal. Although Avery and Cosmo spent most of their time with our mother, they did stay with Connie and I for two or three days. Connie and I recall that when most of us retired for the night, Cosmo was not disposed to retire at that early hour, and he stayed downstairs, chatting with Connie until about three o'clock in the morning.
That was the last time Connie and I saw Cosmo. I wish that I could provide you with a more descriptive outline of Cosmo's life and activities, but as far as that is concerned,I have to admit, he was a sort of mystery person, of whom we knew very little about his life.
If nothing else, Jacqueline, Connie and I have nothing except pleasant memories of my older brother Cosmo, or Bill. I wish that I could have shared a more detailed report but, lamentably, this is not the case.