Leonard Francis Lloyd Baynham
Leonard Francis Lloyd Baynham of Easton died Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010, six weeks before his 98th birthday.
He was the son of Alban Francis Baynham of Dover, England, and Amy Mary Lloyd-Harries of Llangadog, Carmarthenshire, Wales.
Leonard was born March 13, 1912, in Bellavista district Callao, Peru. His father worked for the British government as a civil engineer for Peru's early railroads. On the eve of World War I, his father was called up to join the British military. The family returned to Dover onboard the SS Otranto, passing through the new Panama Canal. His father was posted as captain in Dartford, England. From an early age, he remembered infantry marching, field guns aimed at enemy zeppelins, and air raid signals.
As the attacks intensified, Leonard, his younger brother Geoffrey, and their mother returned to the safety of his maternal grandfather's historic home, Llwyndewi, Llangadog, Wales. There they enjoyed fresh eggs, butter and rabbit, allowing his mother, in good conscience, to give back her ration tickets. Llwyndewi life was filled with his mother's refugee work, Belgian nursemaids, servants, a driver, and gardeners tending the estate and ponies. Those impressionable years, beholding its ancient legends and mysteries, instilled his passion for the bucolic Welsh countryside, as well as strengthening his Welsh heritage.
Leonard's father took a job as the supervisor of transportation in the Punjab, Lahore, India, when Leonard was 7. This family separation began Leonard's 11-year English preparatory boarding school education, steeped in classical studies and chapel services. He attended Saugeen in Bournemouth and later Tonbridge School in Kent, England. Sadly, his father died when Leonard was only 13.
Continuing his education, he was an exchange student at the University of Geneva, University of Giessen, and a school in Remscheid, Germany. There he learned German, French and Spanish languages. He also worked in Germany with an international organization called World Explorers. Returning to England, he briefly attended Queen's Theological College in Birmingham.
Upon the death of his mother and the sale of Llwyndewi, Leonard visited friends in America. He decided to stay, became a U.S. citizen, and enlisted in the Air Force during World War II. He rose rapidly through the ranks and was sent to Germany to interrogate high-ranking German prisoners. After the Allies bombed Hitler's Berghof home and headquarters in the Bavarian Alps, he was assigned to declassify German documents. Continuing his post war military service at the Pentagon, he retired in 1966 from the Air Force Reserves as a lieutenant colonel. Simultaneously, he was employed at the Veterans Administration in Washington, D.C., from 1950 to his retirement in 1972.
Leonard loved the family dogs, cooking family meals, staying informed on world affairs and U.S. politics, riding 27 motorcycles he owned over his lifetime, sailing on the Chesapeake Bay and gardening. During the first years of retirement, he and his wife Dorsey shared the joys of remodeling and furnishing two Welsh country homes and flower gardens: "BrynTawel" in Cilcennin and "Talsarn" near Lampeter. He learned to speak Welsh, they traveled in Europe, and enjoyed his beloved homeland and Welsh friends. Returning to the U.S., he and Dorsey continued their passion for remodeling and building homes in Annapolis and Royal Oak, and Tappahannock and Kilmarnock, Va.
Quakerism "righted the boat and set the course for the Baynham family." Leonard was a devoted founding member of Langley Hill Friends Meeting in Langley, Va. As he and Dorsey moved from place to place, they remained active members of the Religious Society of Friends.
Leonard was preceded in death by his wife of 45 years, Dorsey Devere Causer (2004 of Easton); his brother, Geoffrey Theodore Baynham, DFC (1990 of Cape Town, South Africa); and his daughter, Daphne Douglas-Willan Baynham White (1999 of Dallas).
Leonard is survived by one daughter from Nell Adelaide Thorne, Cynthia Thorn Baynham of Martinsburg, W.Va.; four children from Eleanor Phyllis Evans, Morgan Francis Baynham of Philo, Calif., Owen Richard Evan Baynham of Gilbert, Ariz., Meredith Elidan Amy Baynham Watters of Oxford, and Gwyneth Hamel Iredale of Eugene, Ore.; a stepdaughter from Dorsey Baynham, Kathleen McCarthy Romine of the Austin, Texas area; and Geoffrey's son, David Anthony Lloyd Baynham of Arlington, Va. In addition, he is survived by nine grandchildren, two stepgrandchildren, four great-grandchildren, two stepgreat-grandchildren, and two nephews, Trevor and Peter Baynham of South Africa.
Leonard was raised in the horse and buggy days and died in the era of space exploration, the Internet and cell phones. Last year, he proudly voted for America's first black president. He strove to "live nobly to thy name, and to the good cheer of thy fellow man."