He played in the Civil Service Championship (Barstow Cup) in 1935 not expecting to get far. He met the experienced veteran BHN Stronach in the semi-final and played for five hours and 85 moves in a single session after work. He won the final as well and retained his title the following year, and won the Kent championship in 1939 but the start of World War II prevented the South of England tournament scheduled for November 1939. He moved to Sussex in 1979 and played on Board 2 for Hastings below Stuart Conquest. He gave up over the board chess in 1980, but continued playing correspondence chess until he reached his 100th birthday. He then thought he deserved a rest! He was an adjudicator for the Civil Service league until quite recently before that. He played on the higher boards of the CS team for many years, usually only being displaced from the top by England internationals, or those of similar strength.
I never met him, but received friendly and helpful correspondence from him over the years.
GPS "Philip" Coy 1917-2019
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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: GPS "Philip" Coy 1917-2019
Pretty sure I recall contributions from him in wartime CHESS magazines, presumed he had passed away aeons ago.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)
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Kevin Thurlow
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Re: GPS "Philip" Coy 1917-2019
Yes - in particular he wrote a very good and very funny piece in 1941 about welcoming opponents to league matches (e.g. getting several of your heavy smokers to fill the room with smoke before the opposition arrived, using a double-headed penny to toss for colour, saying j'adoube and adjusting every single piece...). He last won the Civil Service championship in 1970, 34 years after the first time, which is pretty impressive.