India Hicks

John Ambulance.

And once the Japanese surrender happened, they knew they needed to get out to those concentration camps.

And many of them, they didn't even know where they were because they were deep in the jungles.

and men literally on their last legs needed to be repatriated and my grandfather thought who can i trust and get to go out to do this extraordinary work that needs to be done so quickly and he enlisted my grandmother and she went with just one assistant and they went deep into the jungles um and she would go to these concentration camps and they would say my goodness you're the first white woman we've seen for years probably

And she would then identify which of them needed to be flown back first.

And she worked incredibly hard.

I'm giving a tiny, tiny little look into a much broader book of work that she did.

There are many chapters to that work she did.

He does.

All I can say is my grandfather definitely had an eye for women.

And evidently.

So I think very unfounded, very unfounded.

He certainly enjoyed the brilliance and the cleverness of the gay world where you've got very brilliant people in it.

And Noel Coward was indeed a friend.

In fact...

When my parents married in 1961 in Rumsey, my father was at that stage an emerging designer.

And it was in January and there was an enormous snowstorm the night before the wedding.

So Rumsey and Hampshire was in a blanket of white.

And Noah Coward, who went as a guest the next day, said, now this is taking decorating too far.

Well, that would be, and I carry the name with great honour because of the history that comes with it.