Susan Pine-Coffin
Susan Pine-Coffin, the writer and editor of these books, married John Pine-Coffin of the Parachute Regiment in 1952 at Buckfast Abbey in South Devon, England.
Susan and John followed the “merry-go-round” of military life, being posted to London and Germany in the 1950's. In 1956, Susan remained in England while John was posted “unaccompanied” to the Parachute Regiment on duties in the Suez Canal Zone and then to Cyprus to chase EOKA in the mountains. John was then promoted as Commanding Officer of the 1st Parachute Battalion in England and Susan and he were together again.
Whilst rehearsing a proposed operational drop in Yemen, John was unfortunate enough to land, in the dark, on a tractor injuring himself badly – he broke both feet. Subsequently he was considered unfit for further parachute duty.
Lord Louis Mountbatten, then Chief of Defence Staff, chose John for a posting to Nassau, Bahamas to work closely with the Royal Navy which was based in Bermuda. Susan joined John in Nassau with the three children then aged nine, seven and two years old.
When John retired from military service the family set up home in North Devon where he had a fairly large estate which needed his attention. He built up a farming enterprise which included two dairy units, beef and sheep with the help of some wonderful people who lived locally. Susan did the calf-rearing and ran a lot of holiday cottages which were scattered over the countryside, so everyone was very busy.
Portledge, the Coffin manor house had been let as a hotel and, subsequently, this came back “into hand”, so Susan, John and the family moved into it to continue to run it as a hotel until 1991. This hotel was given the accolade of the best in the Best Western Group of Country House Hotels .
In the family group photo above, Susan Pine-Coffin is seen here with her eldest daughter, Julia and her family: husband Simon Callow and children Victoria, Rebecca and Natasha. They live near Brisbane in Queensland where Simon is the Government Quarantine Officer for Queensland.