Life at 80: Peace Under Threat
I had been anticipating a more peaceful life with family and friends. Peace at home I have but the world beyond our home is increasingly turbulent and dangerous.
Ex-Isis fighters are returning to the UK and some of these will be plotting further outrages in Britain. President Trump’s international initiatives do not inspire confidence and the EU which should be a bastion of economic development and cooperation is under attack, from many quarters particularly and shamefully from the UK.
Courtesy of The Times/News Licensing
Our Brexiteers will cause immense and lasting damage and it seems to us that many are being swept forward in a wave of lunacy.
So we in Quainton are beginning to feel the flames of conflict, and conflict also within families as in the Civil War in the 17th century which raged in this area.
But let me turn to our still tranquil local world: most of my contemporaries are beginning to suffer from the indignities of old age but they are remarkably stoical and cheerful. Over the past year I fear I have joined this group. I have had a right knee replacement and a new aortic valve to my heart. Modern surgery is a marvel and I feel great. The cardiac team at St Thomas’ led by Prof Bernard Prendergast was deeply impressive.
My life in India, Bangladesh and Africa seems a long way off, rather like water in a deep well. But I can still feel the urgency of what we were doing. It was tremendously exhilarating even at the most difficult times. I often wondered whether we deluded ourselves about the value of our contribution. Sometimes perhaps, but we did provide support to many desperately poor and persecuted people and we left a legacy.
The problems now faced by OXFAM and several other agencies is distressing and unacceptable. But anyone who has worked with a team in the most fraught of situations will know how easily stress can lead people astray.
Life is still fun and there is much teasing and jokes in our family.
Thankfully, I have much to do. Believe me, being a churchwarden is demanding. Visions of 18th century churchwardens sitting outside their churches smoking long clay pipes belong to a lost world. What remains are the fragments of these pipes unearthed in our gardens. Our overriding concern now is survival of the church and its values in a hostile and materialistic world. Grants and funding applications fill our time.
I chair the local EU/DEFRA LEADER fund which provides grants up to £50,000 for economic development to farmers, foresters and communities. The final decisions on grants are taken by us, not London or Brussels. But sadly LEADER will be wound up when we leave the EU.
Caroline and I have been married for 52 years. We have weathered the vicissitudes of time and I am very fortunate in my marriage. She is wise and tolerant and, as she says, that of the two of us she has a better sense of humour!
We are blessed with four beautiful, clever, warm-hearted daughters: Charlotte (1968), Harriet (1969), Jocasta (1972) and Cassandra (1978). They are all happily married and between them have eight children.
Charlotte was a community nurse, is now the warden of our local nature reserve at Finemere (click here to read more). She is married to Jan, a GP, and they have one son. (I have very much enjoyed talking to Jan about his life, especially his experiences of Gordonstoun in the 1950s; he has kindly agreed to my including his writing on it - click here). Harriet is a GP and is married to a GP. They have two sons. Jocasta is a chartered surveyor. She is married to an IT systems consultant and they have two sons and a daughter. Cassandra is an editor by profession and is married to a political lobbyist. They have two daughters. They do much to keep me young at heart.
Before her marriage Charlotte and I frequently travelled together. Our first expedition was to Leh in Ladakh, northern India, when she was 10. We hired ponies and trekked off into the mountains. We slept in the Bhuddist chapel in a large farmhouse. We have been to South Africa and to Tanzania where we climbed Mount Neri through valleys of scarlet kniphofia. These were great moments and we plan a trip to Patagonia when her son is older or possibly to northern Ladakh where the Aga Khan Foundation has restored an 18th/19th Century fort and converted it into a splendid hotel.
Our garden is full of colour, scents and surprises and is also of interest to the local badgers. The garden together with books and music help to keep us sane.
Memoirs are true and useful stars, whilst studied histories are those stars joined in constellations, according to the fancy of the poet.
– Samuel Pepys, Naval Minutes.
David Campbell, December 2018
A family excursion in the spring to the nearby Finemere wood where Charlotte is the warden (click here for more on Finemere). My arm is in sling following an operation to my hand.
The Campbell girls: L to R: Cassandra, Charlotte, Harriet and Jocasta.