Editing Dornford Yates (section)

==The Second World War and the Rhodesian years==
C.W. Mercer was re-commissioned, this time in the Royal Rhodesian Regiment, and attained the rank of major. As the war concluded, the couple realised their plan of returning to Cockade – but were disappointed in the decrepitude of the house and the socially conscious, post-war attitude of their one-time [[servant]]s. After some months, the Mercers obtained exit visas and returned to [[Umtali]], [[Rhodesia|Southern Rhodesia]], (now Mutare, Zimbabwe), where they lived for the rest of his life. Mercer supervised the building of a replacement house for Cockade, another hillside venture, and, in 1948, they moved into "Sacradown", on Oak Avenue. The furniture in France was shipped to Rhodesia, as were the Waterloo Bridge balusters (see ''The House that Berry Built''), which had never reached Cockade, but had been stored in England during the [[Second World War]].

Cecil William Mercer died in March 1960.