Conversations with the Coghlans

Former Lonsdale’s House Directors, Nick and Jenny Coghlan, paid a welcome return visit to campus this week. The pair, who have travelled around the world in diplomatic service – as well as on their 27-foot sailboat – met with classes, groups of students, and staff past and present in Mitchell Hall.

 

Born in the UK, Mr. and Mrs. Coghlan moved to Argentina in 1978 where Mr. Coughlan took up a position at St. George's, a traditional British-style boarding school in Buenos Aires. In 1981, they came to Shawnigan, and it was while here that their love of the open sea took hold. In 1985, they set off on what turned out to be a four-year circumnavigation of the world on their small sailboat.

 

Returning to Canada, Mr. Coghlan joined the Canadian Foreign Service. Over the course of his diplomatic tenure, he and Mrs. Coghlan served on foreign assignments in Mexico, Columbia, Sudan, South Sudan, South Africa, and Pakistan.

 

Between postings, their sailing adventures have also taken the Coghlans from Cape Town, across the Atlantic to Brazil and Argentina, through the Roaring Forties – the strong winds found in the latitudes between 40 and 50 degrees south of the Equator – around Cape Horn, to Chile, Robinson Crusoe Island, Easter Island, Tahiti, French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Japan, and Alaska.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Coghlan shared intriguing tales with students and staff about life in the diplomatic service, life at sea, and life as an author (Mr. Coghlan has penned four books about their experiences: The Saddest Country, recounting their assignment in Columbia; Far in the Waste Sudan, on their African experience; Winter in Fireland: a Patagonian Sailing Adventure, and Collapse of a Country: A Diplomat's Memoir of South Sudan.)

 

One harrowing experience the pair discussed was living amidst civil war, where Mr. Coghlan was serving as the first Canadian Ambassador to the newest country in the world – South Sudan. At the end of 2013, after only two years of independence, the country erupted into what is still an ongoing, vicious civil war. The Coghlans were in the capital, Juba, when the personal rivalry between President Salva Kiir and his then-deputy Riek Machar ignited. Fighting and gunfire broke out in the streets as half of the army pitted itself against the other and ethnic tensions escalated into full-on violence. Canada closed its embassy, but the Coghlans stayed behind. With parts of the city being reduced to rubble, and tens of thousands of civilians looking to flee the chaos and violence, the Coghlans worked frantically for ten days, scrambling to evacuate over 300 South-Sudanese Canadians from Juba.

 

In 2017, His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, presented each of the Coghlans with a Meritorious Service Cross for their work, describing it as setting “an example for others to follow” and bringing “honour to Canada.”

 

For staff and students, the Coghlans’ day-long visit certainly offered a compelling example to follow and an insider’s look at life lived adventurously. In the course of the day, the Coghlans met with nine classes, spoke at a reception with former and current staff, and toured the new Lonsdale's house, finding everthing to be "just splendid!"  As Headmaster Lamont later reflected, “the chance to connect and converse about careers in the diplomatic service and the politics of Sudan/South Sudan was a fantastic opportunity for all of us.”