Lieutenant (Ted) Cyril COPPIN

(trained as Theodore CROWE)

(Ted) Cyril Coppin was born 20 May1915 at Brightlingsea, Essex, the son of Mr Ted Coppin and Mrs Coppin (née Pooley). His father made a living with boats and Coppin was at home on the water from childhood. The family moved to the south of France during Coppin’s youth to take advantage of the demand of the rich and famous for his father’s skills as a captain of luxury yachts. Ted Coppin junior was keen to work with his father and so left his school, the Collège Stanislas in Cannes, at the age of only 14 to join his father’s shipbroking and ship chandler business on the Quai Saint-Pierre in Cannes. He became an expert motor mechanic and listed his hobbies as swimming, sailing and speed boats. He was unmarried and had left France with his parents and older sister (Castle Mowena Coppin) with a particular hatred of the Italians for their occupation of south-eastern France. His parents resettled in England at Coggeshall, Essex while Coppin volunteered for the British Army, joining the 2nd TTC (Transport Training Centre) of the Royal Army Service Corps, in the rank of Private and with the service number 7639766. In November 1941 he volunteered for F Section and was subsequently commissioned in the General List with the service number 231091, training under the alias of Theodore Crowe.

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