Biography of Robert Godfrey Wolseley Bewicke-Copley 5th Baron Cromwell 1893-1966

On 16th July 1923 Robert Godfrey Wolseley Bewicke-Copley 5th Baron Cromwell (age 30) abeyance terminated 5th Baron Cromwell. He was a second cousin 13 times removed of the previous holder of the title Maud Stanhope 4th Baroness Cromwell Baroness Willoughby of Eresby. He was descended from Ralph Cromwell 2nd Baron Cromwell as follows:

Ralph Cromwell 1st Baron Cromwell

Maud Cromwell

John Fitzwilliam

John Fitzwilliam

William Fitzwilliam

William Fitzwilliam of Sprotborough

Dorothy FitzWilliam

Philip Copley

Averley Copley

William Copley

Godfrey Copley 1st Baronet

Godfrey Copley 2nd Baronet

Catherine Copley

Joseph Moyle aka Copley 1st Baronet

Juliana Moyle aka Copley

Charles Wager Watson 2nd Baronet

[his grandfather] Charles Watson-Copley 3rd Baronet

[his mother] Selina Frances Watson-Copley

Robert Godfrey Wolseley Bewicke-Copley 5th Baron Cromwell.

In 1939 Robert Godfrey Wolseley Bewicke-Copley 5th Baron Cromwell (age 45) was recalled to active service. He led the defence of Calais in May 1940. Robert was wounded in both of his arms and his head. Despite this he remained in command at his barricade and taken as a POW by the Germans. For this action he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). Airey Neave wrote "‘The situation of the 60th was desperate. A death-struggle at the bridges. Barricades of burned-out lorries and trucks off the Rue Edison and Place Richelieu were manned by the surviving officers and riflemen. Houses in the area had long been devastated by the flames and blown by shellfire into heaps of rubble behind which the defenders fired on the Germans. The mortar bombs came in an endless stream exploding dead on the road-blocks. The 60th, lying without cover in the streets, had little protection from the Stukas. No one who experienced the attack on the morning of the 26th is ever likely to forget it. A hundred aircraft attacked the Citadel and the old town in waves. They dived in threes, with a prolonged scream, dropping one high explosive and three or four incendiaries. They machine-gunned the streets and dropped a few heavy bombs between the 60th H.Q. in the Rue des Marechaux and the docks. The first effects on the defence were paralysing but, as others had experienced with Stukas, the damage was moral rather than physical. Within a few minutes, the riflemen eagerly fired Bren guns and engaged the Stukas, one of which was brought down on the seashore … ' Neave continues: ‘At the Place Richelieu, Lord Cromwell, firing a Bren gun, was three times wounded that morning. He had already shown all those qualities that add up to real leadership in war. He was hit by bullets in both arms and in the head, the sight of one eye being badly affected. And yet he remained in command when all the men at his barricade, save himself and two riflemen were dead. At 11.30 a.m. he was compelled to fall back to the line of the Rue des Marechaux."