Obituaries
Reconnaissance at RAF St Mawgan as a Navigation Instructor. The Station Commander at St Mawgan was also another OA, Group Captain G G Barrett OA. In 1956, he moved again, on promotion to Squadron Leader, to the No. 3 School of Recruit Training at RAF Padgate in Lancashire. As is normal with military careers, in 1961, Derrick moved again to become the Senior Weapons Officer at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, which also included running navigation and radar training. 1965 saw another move to become Operations Room Controller at the Headquarters of Bomber Command, in 1969 to RAF Cosford and the No. 2 School of Technical Training, and in 1971 to become Senior Personnel Staff Officer at RAF Bawtry in Yorkshire, advising the Air Officer Commanding on personnel matters. Finally he moved to RAF Hendon in London as Administrative Project Officer before retiring from the RAF in November 1975 at the age of 50, after 32 years’ service. Derrick met an RAF telephonist, Josephine, and they married in Chester in 1949. Their first son, David, was born in Cornwall in 1951. David married twice and had three children with his first wife, but he died from complications with diabetes in 2009. A second son, Michael, was born in Macclesfield in 1958. He is married to Theresa, with no children. As an adult, Derrick was an excellent squash player, representing the RAF and several counties where he was posted, and winning many tournaments. He was Cornwall champion in 1956, RAF veterans champion in 1966 and runner-up in 1968, and could still beat his son, Michael, at squash into his sixties. He retired to Paignton, Devon, where his initial training had taken place more than thirty years earlier, and had a job with Inland Revenue Valuation Office in Paignton, where he spent much time inspecting properties in the South Hams area of Devon, before finally retiring completely in 1987. Derrick and Josephine remained in Paignton in their retirement, with Derrick spending much time tending their garden in good weather, and the rest of his time cataloguing his vast collection of aviation-related material, consisting of books, magazines, stamps and airmails. He started showing signs of Parkinson’s Disease in his late seventies, which eventually became severe, limiting his activities. In 2010 he joined Josephine, who had developed Alzheimer’s, in a local residential home in Paignton, and it was there that he died in July 2014. Josephine is still in the same home but, due to the nature of her illness, is unaware of her husband’s passing. Derrick is survived by his wife, Josephine, his younger brother, Ronald, and younger sister, Joan, son Michael, three grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Derrick himself wrote some notes for his own obituary, with additional information supplied by his surviving son, Michael.
Andrew Herbert Stroud (1951-58) 10.03.1940 – 30.03.2014
Andrew Stroud was a good example of the success of the ‘Gilkes Experiment’. His parents were both German; his father a Jewish lawyer, and his mother was a Protestant. They played in the same orchestra in Germany, fell in love and married, much to
the disapproval of both of their families. As his father was unable to practice law under the Nazi regime, they emigrated to England but, at the outbreak of war, his father was interned on the Isle of Man. He subsequently joined the British Army in Intelligence, and was involved in the interrogation of German prisoners. From what could be said to have been a difficult start, having been born to and brought up by German parents in the war years in New Malden in Surrey, Andrew gained a scholarship to Dulwich and arrived at the College from Tolworth Boys School. He was in Spenser, joined the Army section of the CCF and was captain of the 3rd XV in his final year. He won an English Speaking Union British American Schoolboy Scholarship to the Loomis School, in Windsor, Connecticut, USA and took ships across the Atlantic, RMS Queen Elizabeth to America and RMS Queen Mary on the way home. Back in the UK, he joined the cement industry and latterly became the Marketing Director of the Cement and Concrete Association. He also became Awards Secretary of the British Construction Industry Awards, which required him to organise an annual major awards ceremony in London, where his driving force and attention to detail were both much admired. He was also a member of the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) Infantry Battalion in the City of London, which led on to becoming a Metropolitan Police Special Constable and the Worshipful Company of Pikemen & Musketeers, and ultimately becoming a Freeman of the City of London. He also became a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers and was set to become their Master before terminal cancer intervened. Andrew married Valerie Nash, an ophthalmic surgeon in 1968, settled in Claygate, Surrey and adopted two daughters. Tragically, Valerie died in 1990. He married again, to Sarah, who was not only connected with their local church in Claygate, but she was also a volunteer guide at Lambeth Palace. They had much in common and travelled abroad together extensively. At his memorial service, the vicar gave an address based on the theme of ‘building’. It was apparent that Andrew had done immeasurable work for the church, especially guiding it through a project to build a church extension, but the vicar’s theme was not so much about building as a construction term, but more about Andrew’s innate ability to ‘build’ people up, by way of friendship, advice, support and much more.
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