Child star pledged to save lives
CHILD actor turned climate activist, Raphaël Coleman was just 11 when he played opposite Emma Thompson and Colin Firth in the 2005 family comedy Nanny McPhee. Firth starred as Cedric Brown, a widowed undertaker with seven unruly children, while Thompson played the nanny role.
Coleman played the fourth of the seven Brown children, Eric, who was depicted as a sneaky but highly intelligent bookworm.
The film made around £100 million at the box office and Coleman won widespread critical acclaim. In 2009 he had a role in the American horror film It’s Alive, starring Bijou Phillips as a mother with a murderous baby. In the same year he also starred in the alienabduction thriller The Fourth Kind.
Instead of pursuing a career in acting, Coleman chose to travel the world on his own, aged 18.
Initially he volunteered in a game reserve in South Africa, checking on cheetahs, elephants and wild dogs. He also spent time at a Buddhist monastery inThailand and then lived for a year in a jungle in Costa Rica.
He once said: “I’ve never doubted my decision to work with wildlife since but the goals have become bigger, more complex and far-reaching every year. It wasn’t long before I started concocting plans to save the natural world.”
His passion saw him become a well-known figure in the Extinction Rebellion climate group.
His mother, the novelist Liz Jensen, said: “Rest in peace my beloved son Raphaël Coleman, aka Iggy Fox. He died doing what he loved, working for the noblest cause of all. His family could not be prouder.”
His stepfather, Carsten Jensen, also posted a moving tribute on Facebook, writing: “As a child, he was old-wise, extremely literate and loved to lecture adults with his always astonishing knowledge.
Jensen said that Coleman played himself with great talent in Nanny Mcphee “a little redhead boy who was always mixing explosive chemical ingredients.
“But he wanted to be a scientist, not to blow up something, as his figure in Nanny Mcphee, but to save the planet.
“We believe that it is us, the older generations who have something to give the young people.
“But I think it’s the other way around. The young people remind us why we’re alive.”
Raphaël Coleman collapsed while out jogging and had no previous health problems.
RAF Squadron leader Bill Brodie was decorated three times for a succession of bombing missions in which he showed sharp intelligence and valour.
After excelling as an instructor on the Wellington bomber, he joined 38 Squadron and on December 21, 1941 flew a sortie attacking El Agheila in North Africa.
He became an expert in mine-laying operations, completing his 35th and final mission on the Wellington.
In April 1942 he was tasked with a perilous mission to lay mines outside Benghazi Harbour. Part of the mission involved drawing fire from enemy positions so that they could be bombed by other aircraft. The distraction tactic proved successful.
Later that year he joined 692 Squadron of the Pathfinder force. Flying Mosquitos, his targets included Stuttgart, Berlin and Gelsenkirchen.
During August 1944 he flew 11 operations. Some of his missions involved dropping 4,000lb bombs on industrial zones.
He won the DSO for a low-level raid on a German canal, which successfully disrupted the movement of war materials for weeks.
After his 50th and final operation in a Mosquito in February 1945 he was awarded the DFC.
Born in Govan, Glasgow, he trained as a motor engineer before joining the Auxiliary Air Force. He left the RAF in 1945 and worked as a pilot for Esso.
Brodie was a former secretary at Moor Hall Golf Club at Sutton Coldfield and played the game well into his eighties. A keen skier and sailor, he also had properties in France.
He is survived by his third wife Catherine, a stepdaughter and two children from his first marriage.