Monica Bardwell Coombs

Born in Cape Town, South Africa to a life of privilege (simply by being white in a predominantly black country) and education (a university graduate at 19 with a BA and honours in Ethics, surely an indication of her modus vivendi), Monica was brought up in a household full of love and respect. She was the youngest of three daughters of Arthur Ebden Horwood and Henrietta Christiana Ward of Shropshire, England. In 1943 she married Phil Royston Amos (Peter) Coombs, whom she had previously met at university, when he was on leave from fighting with the South African Brigade of the British Army in North Africa. For three years, until forced to leave work due to pregnancy, Monica worked as secretary to the leader of the United Party, in opposition to the Nationalists and their apartheid policy. In 1952 Monica and Peter immigrated to Canada with their two daughters, Gillian and Jacquie. Here Monica marvelled at the ability of Canadians to do everything themselves, from building boats and houses to repairing machinery and doing all their own housework and cooking. She set to with a strong will and found that hard work helped cure homesickness and sadness.
Monica had always had a spirit of adventure: as a university student she used to climb Table Mountain even though friends lost their lives doing so; she was prepared to marry a man of integrity, courage and wit whom she hardly knew; to sail in a fragile outrigger that Peter had built; to immigrate, virtually penniless, to Canada; then in her fifties to spend years sailing in the Mediterranean followed by crossing the Atlantic without the use of an engine and depending on her skills in celestial navigation. After initially settling in Vancouver in 1952 where Peter worked in sales and Monica taught nursery school, they moved to Victoria in 1954. Peter had seen enough of the southern Island to fall in love with it and the sailing opportunities it offered. Monica was much happier boating in these waters than in the post war shark infested waters of the Cape. As members of the RVYC they raced and cruised and gave their daughters a life of freedom that few others enjoyed. Monica was a long time member of the University Women's Club both in Victoria and in Kelowna, volunteered for years with the Consumers Association of Canada and then with the Canadian Housing Design Council. Always of strong opinions about politics and especially economics which she had studied at university and continued to follow (her favourites were Hayek, Milton Friedman and her good friend William Hutt), she wrote articles for the Daily Colonist but found that her skin wasn't thick enough for the criticism she sometimes received. Monica worked in Victoria in secretarial positions in City Hall and in legal offices. She also worked with Peter as he covered Vancouver Island as a representative of International Correspondence Schools. In the early 70s Monica and Peter went to Cambridge, England and lived with Peter's much loved scientist and researcher brother and wife, Robin and Ann Coombs and with their daughter, Jacquie, in Gosport while they had a sailboat built which they then took to the Med. After 5 years they returned to Victoria where both resumed work until retirement. When Jacquie moved to Kelowna in 1988 they moved there, too. Peter died suddenly in 1995. Four years later Monica married Harold John King from UK and in 2003 they both came to live in Victoria. By then Gillian had returned to Victoria after decades of living in Ottawa and overseas. After Harold's death in 2007 Monica, despite losing her vision, continued to live independently, enjoying new and old friends and visits from grandchildren and their children.
Monica leaves behind a beloved and loving family: daughter Jacquie Coombs (Von McNeille), daughter Gillian (David Cohen), grandchildren Jennifer Hunt (Randon Mark) and Adrian Hunt, Jacqueline Cohen (Chris Lee, their children Kieran and Declan), Alexander Cohen (Asmin), Richard Cohen (Kristen, their children Wyatt and Carragh).
With courage and resolution Monica has started her next great adventure. Your loving family wish you good navigating, fair winds and a safe anchorage, Mum.