Dear Gerald,
Firstly, let me thank you for your efforts in bringing this disparate and somewhat peripatetic tribe together - we certainly seem to have spread ourselves about a bit.
My son, Dave, who has been living in Cairns, Queensland for many years now and is a tour guide and an incredibly talented artist, put me on to you. Now I see there is another David Clode just up the road at Trinity Beach, Port Douglas.
You ask for thoughts on the origins of our name. The nearest I have come to that is the Roman, P. Clodius, an enemy of Cicero [usually not a good thing to be],who had Cicero banned from Rome in March 58BC for his part in the Cataline affair and' putting Roman citizens to death without trial'.
Then there is the French Christian name of Claude, as in Monet, which they pronounce as 'Clode'.
Yes, I have met unrelated Clodes - one Derek Clode from California who stayed with me in Fern Tree Gully, Victoria, Oz, some years ago for a few months and another Michael Clode in Cardiff. Derek and I had been born in the same nursing home in Cardiff, some ten years apart.
In addition my son David Bond Clode, I have a daughter, Laya Margaret Clode who lives in Monbulk, Victoria and another son Bryan Erik Clode who is in Koroit - also Victoria. We came here from the UK some twenty years ago and have settled very happily. We had only lived in South Wales - Penarth and Llanbradach - for a few years as my family were all born in South Africa, to which my parents and I had emigrated in 1947. We moved around quite a bit, being married in Cape Town, David born in Durban, Laya in Benoni [Transvaal] and Bryan in Cape Town. I have been retired for about 10 years now and have completed three solo
around the world trips in that time [I love travel!].
I'm off to spend August in Cairns - as I do every year - to climb a few [small] mountains, do a bit of scuba diving and try to find a new deserted island to stay on. All this only with my son holding my hand.
I left Rumney, Cardiff, with my parents at 13 just after W.W.II, having spent some years as a chorister and boarder at Llandaff Cathedral School and some years in London during the blitz. In South Africa I went to The Grey at Port Elizabeth and this fostered my interest in the founder, Sir George Grey, on whose life I have completed a lot of research and about whom I am in the process of writing a book. My degree is in Roman-Dutch Law [ of no use to man or beast outside of RSA], from the University of Cape Town. My interests are in history, travel, world affairs, bushwalking, photography, etc., etc.
As to family history, I am a bit vague. I had grandparents and an uncle Tom in Ely, Cardiff and a cousin Russell, whose father's name was Will, in Llandaff. My father's name was Robert Bond Clode and my mother was Mary Zena Clode[nee Millward].
If any of this is of help, I shall be pleased.
Sincerely,
Mike Clode
[Robert Michael Clode]