{{Short description|British fencer (born 1940)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} {{Use British English|date=December 2025}} {{Infobox sportsperson | name = Poppy, Lady Cooksey | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE|DL}} | image = | caption = | nationality = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1940|2|15|df=yes}} | birth_place = Gomshall, Surrey, England | death_date = | death_place = | height = | weight = | sport = Fencing | event = foil | club = Polytechnic Fencing Club | medaltemplates = {{MedalSport | Fencing}} {{MedalCountry | {{ENG}} }} {{MedalCompetition|British Empire & Commonwealth Games}} {{MedalGold| 1966 Kingston | team foil}} {{MedalGold| 1966 Kingston | individual foil}} {{MedalGold| 1970 Edinburgh | team foil}} {{MedalGold| 1970 Edinburgh | individual foil}} | show-medals = yes }} '''Janet Clouston Bewley, Lady Cooksey''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE|DL}}, (known as '''Poppy Cooksey''', previously '''Janet Wardell-Yerburgh''', née '''Janet Cathie''') (born 15 February 1940) is a British fencer whose later career was in picture restoration.
She married firstly the Olympic oarsman Hugh Wardell-Yerburgh and secondly the business man Sir David Cooksey. In 1998 she was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire.
==Early life== Cooksey was born in 1940, the elder daughter of Ian Aysgarth Bewley Cathie MD, of Barton House, Barton-on-the-Heath, Warwickshire, and his wife Dr Marian Josephine Cunning.<ref>''Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage'' (1969), p. 623</ref><ref name=DPT/> Her father was lord of the manor of Barton-on-the-Heath.<ref>"CATHIE of Barton-on-the-Heath" in Bernard Burke, Peter Townsend, ''Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry'' (1965), p. 123</ref> Although christened as Janet, she is known by the name Poppy.<ref name="DPT"/>
Educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and London University, where she graduated B. Sc.,<ref name=DPT/> she then trained as an accountant.<ref name=CU/> From the age of sixteen, she was a competitive fencer.<ref name=CU>[https://cotswolds-uplands.co.uk/about/ About Us], cotswolds-uplands.co.uk, accessed 13 September 2022</ref>
==Fencing career== Cooksey pursued her sport at the Polytechnic Fencing Club, London, which also produced Mary Glen-Haig, Sue Green, and Richard Cohen.<ref>[https://www.olympedia.org/affiliations/5843 Polytechnic Fencing Club], olympedia.org, accessed 13 September 2022</ref> She competed in the women's individual and team foil events at the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics.<ref name="sports-reference">{{cite web|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/be/janet-bewley-cathie-wardell-yerburgh-1.html |title=Janet Bewley-Cathie-Wardell-Yerburgh Olympic Results |accessdate=17 December 2010 |work=sports-reference.com |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101002170517/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/be/janet-bewley-cathie-wardell-yerburgh-1.html |archivedate= 2 October 2010 }}</ref>
As Janet Wardell-Yerburgh, she represented England and won double gold in the foil events at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://teamengland.org/commonwealth-games-history/kingston-1966/athletes|title=1966 Athletes|publisher=Team England}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://teamengland.org/commonwealth-games-history/kingston-1966|title=Kingston, Jamaica, 1966 Team|publisher=Team England}}</ref> She repeated the success by winning another double gold at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thecgf.com/results/athletes/46592|title=Athletes and results|publisher=Commonwealth Games Federation}}</ref>
As Poppy Cooksey, she has continued to compete and holds veteran titles.<ref name=CU/>
==Later career== Poppy Cooksey graduated as a doctor of philosophy in Fine Arts from the University of St Andrews, and her thesis on the life and work of the Scottish painter Alexander Nasmyth was published in 1990. She then trained to become a picture restorer and established her own restoration business in London.<ref name=CU/>
As a volunteer, she organized fund-raising events for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and others for the building of a hospice for terminally sick children.<ref name=CU/> In 1998, she was appointed by Mary Fagan, the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, as one of her Deputy Lieutenants,<ref>''The London Gazette'', 13 March 1998, [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-55069-496 Deputy Lieutenant Commissions HAMPSHIRE LIEUTENANCY]</ref> and in 2000 was made a Freeman of the City of London.<ref name=CU/> In the 2004 New Year Honours, she was appointed an OBE for services to fencing.<ref>''The London Gazette'', Issue 57155 (Supplement), 31 December 2003, [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/57155/supplement/10 p. 10]</ref> In 2004, as a retirement project, she set up a bed and breakfast at Uplands House, Banbury, in the Cotswolds.<ref name=CU/>
In 2015, Cooksey was Master of the Guild of Freemen of the City of London, to be succeeded by Sir David Wootton.<ref>[http://www.guild-freemen-london.co.uk/masters.php List of Past Masters], guild-freemen-london.co.uk</ref><ref name=CU/>
==Personal life== In 1966, as Janet Bewley Cathie, she married the Olympic oarsman Hugh Wardell-Yerburgh,<ref name=DPT/> and they had one daughter, Atlanta Jane, born in 1969.<ref name=DH/> In the early years of the marriage, her husband was a schoolmaster at Eton College, and they lived at Datchet. He joined Plessey as a systems analyst but was killed in a road accident in January 1970.<ref>Peter Yerburgh, ''The Yerburgh Family History'', [https://www.yarbroughfamily.org/YMbrs/archives/Blandford/Vol134.pdf vol. 134], (2015) p. 35</ref><ref name=DH>[http://www.douglashistory.co.uk/famgen/getperson.php?personID=I64429&tree=tree1 Hugh Arthur Wardell-Yerburgh] at douglashistory.co.uk, accessed 3 April 2019</ref> They were then living on Ham Island, Old Windsor.<ref>"WARDELL-YERBURGH Hugh Arthur of Mallards Reach Ham Island Old Windsor Berks died 28 January 1970… £22570" in ''Wills and Administrations 1971 (England and Wales)'' (1972), p. 576</ref>
In May 1973, as Janet Wardell-Yerburgh, she married David Cooksey, who was knighted in 1993.<ref name=DPT>"COOKSEY, Janet Clouston Bewley (Poppy)" in ''Debrett's People of Today'' (Debrett's, 2002), p. 419</ref><ref>[https://www.douglashistory.co.uk/famgen/getperson.php?personID=I148951&tree=tree1 Janet (Poppy) Clouston Bewley Cathie], douglashistory.co.uk, accessed 13 September 2022</ref> They had two children, Leanda (born 1974) and Alexander (born 1976), and lived at Aston House, Lower Mall, Hammersmith, and Brooklands, Swanwick, Hampshire.<ref>Yerburgh (2015) p. 33</ref> Brooklands is a country house which had been divided into three, and in the 1980s the Cookseys bought one of these, then later acquired the other two, restoring them into a single house and bringing in Roy Strong to design a pond and water features.<ref name=HGT>[http://research.hgt.org.uk/item/brooklands/ Brooklands], Hampshire Gardens Trust, accessed 14 September 2022</ref> They were divorced in 2003.<ref>"Cooksey, Sir David James Scott" in ''Debrett's People of Today'' (Debrett's, 2006), p. 349: "m. 1973 (m. dis. 2003), Janet Clouston Bewley, da. of Dr lan Aysgarth Bewley Cathie"</ref> Brooklands was sold in 2006.<ref name=HGT/>
Cooksey is now the partner of fellow Olympic fencer Dr Graham Paul.<ref name=CU/>
==Publication== *J. C. B. Cooksey, ''Alexander Nasmyth H.R.S.A. 1758–1840: a Man of the Scottish Renaissance'' (Southampton, 1991)
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooksey, Poppy (Janet Clouston Bewley)}} Category:1940 births Category:Alumni of the University of St Andrews Category:British female fencers Category:Commonwealth Games gold medallists in fencing Category:Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Category:Deputy lieutenants of Hampshire Category:Fencers at the 1964 Summer Olympics Category:Fencers at the 1968 Summer Olympics Category:Fencers at the 1972 Summer Olympics Category:Fencers at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Category:Fencers at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games Category:Living people Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Olympic fencers for Great Britain Category:People educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College Category:People from Gomshall Category:Medallists at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Category:Medallists at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games