Obituaries
Peter Dimmock Enterprises, finally retiring from both in 2000 at the age of nearly 80. Peter married Pamela Brealey in 1951 but they divorced seven years later. His second wife was television reporter Polly Elwes, whom he married in 1960, and they had three daughters, Amanda, Christina and Freya. Polly died of bone cancer in 1987 and, in 1990, he married a widow, Christabel Scott. In his later years Peter was much in demand for his reminiscences of a golden age of broadcasting. He is survived by Christabel and his three daughters. Obituaries were published by many UK newspapers, and this obituary is based on these.
and tennis than academic subjects, and decided not to pursue further education. He joined Adkins, a firm of stock jobbers at the London Stock Exchange, dealing in electricity shares. He and Derrick both joined the infantry division of the Honourable Artillery Company in 1936. The military training came in useful because at the start of the Second World War Vernon immediately joined the 9th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (the City of London regiment) as a Second Lieutenant. Time on the south coast building beach defences was followed by infantry training. In January 1941 he was promoted to Lieutenant and was sent with his battalion to North Africa. The Mediterranean was under Nazi control and so the Queen Mary cruise ship was commandeered to take them to Ethiopia via Cape Town. Vernon saw action in Egypt and Libya, and was promoted to Captain in December 1941. Derrick, in a different battalion, was awarded the Military Cross and later killed on 6 April 1943 in northern Tunisia. Next for Vernon was the calamitous landing at Salerno, south of Naples, in September 1943. The generals had said this would be unopposed but they found a division of Panzer tanks and ferocious fighting occurred for several days. Vernon was wounded and taken prisoner, spending the final two years of the war in various PoW camps. The final camp was in Poland and with the threat of the Russian Red Army advancing, the German guards abandoned their posts, leaving the PoWs to fend for themselves. Eventually they were picked up by the Americans and transferred to a US base near Reims, France. Vernon’s clothes were lice ridden so he was issued with a US Army uniform. On arriving at Croydon Airport in late 1945 without any papers or ID, he had a difficult job convincing the UK authorities he was not an American. Vernon realised that working in the City was not for him and decided his future would be in farming, moving to a farm near Sandwich, Kent. It was a steep learning curve but he enjoyed the work and moved firstly to High Farm near Retford in Nottinghamshire, from 1949 to 1952, then briefly to Lime Farm near Corby, Northamptonshire, in 1952-53, before finally settling at the Lockinge Estate near Wantage in 1953. Here he was initially at Field Barn for four years before spending a number of years at Nevilles Farm in Grove Park, and then on to Betterton Farm as livestock manager. This, he felt, was his perfect job, managing several herds of cows on the Berkshire Downs. Agriculture was very much a growth industry in the immediate post war years but by the 1970s farming economics had changed; labour and fuel costs increased and produce prices fell, which led to far fewer farm workers. Vernon managed to move indoors, working in an office as the farm secretary until he retired. He met Sheila, a nurse at King’s College Hospital, in 1946 and they were married on 11 January 1947
Carl Ernst Wilhelm Emmerich (1945-52) 26.07.1933 – 09.11.2015
‘Bill’ Emmerich came to Dulwich from Barnhill School in Bromley, the elder of two brothers to attend the College. He was in Spenser, was a school prefect, a King’s Scout, and played 1st XV rugby and was also in the boxing, athletics
and swimming teams in his final year.
After leaving Dulwich he won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, to read Engineering, graduating in 1955. He was awarded The Melon Fellowship to study at Yale in 1956-57. He joined Lever Brothers in 1957 but resigned in 1958 to take on running the family business, Emmerich Berlon Ltd in Bermondsey, London, with his younger brother, Ernst (46-53), and their mother upon the death of his father. The successful company manufactured wooden school equipment and tools, eventually moving to Ashford in Kent. Bill finally retired from the business in 2013, handing the management over to his daughter, Sarah. Bill met Shirley at Cambridge and they married in 1960, and had two daughters. As a young man he played rugby for the OAs and enjoyed skiing until he was 80. After the business moved to Kent he became a member of the Rotary Club in Ashford and of the local Young Enterprise Scheme. He is survived by Shirley and his daughters. His brother Ernst contributed significantly to this obituary.
Vernon Frederick Gaylard (1929-33) 11.06.1916 – 01.03.2014
Vernon Gaylard was born in Balham as the second son of William and Caroline. Like his older brother, Derrick (26-30), Vernon came to the College from the Prep and was in Sidney. While at the College, Vernon was more interested in cricket
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