grandchildren. The family soon moved to Upper Bucklebury, Berkshire to raise their girls and to be closer to Derek’s work, and Derek and Dorothy never left the area. His colour blindness did not completely destroy his love of water and sailing and he was a member of Burghfield Sailing Club for over forty years. There he sailed dinghies, such as Larks, Mirrors, GP14s and Fireballs, and he was also on the club committee, holding various roles including Commodore. In later years he switched from sailing big boats to competitive racing of radio-controlled boats. He was a keen rugby player as younger man and played for an Army team for many years, mainly after finishing National Service. His love of the game was passed on to one of his grandsons, whom he watched play from an early age at a local level in Newbury. He was also an avid cyclist and, during his National Service, thought nothing of cycling between Hampshire and SE London to visit Dorothy for the weekend. Derek loved to travel, visiting many countries in Europe and North America. He and Dorothy went on cruises for many years, mainly because Derek had suffered a heart attack aged 50 and could not fly after that because of the effects of cabin pressure. He even managed a lifelong ambition to visit Russia. He passed away at the Royal Berkshire Hospital after suffering from lung cancer.
Dulwich from Broomfield School, in Bognor Regis, Sussex during WW2, and was in Raleigh. He also boarded in Blew House. He was not interested in academic work but scraped through his school certificate, mainly because his father had promised him an MG PA car if he passed. He was interested in almost all sports, particularly golf, squash and cricket, and found great sporting opportunities at the College. He played cricket for Sussex Colts after leaving Dulwich, finding inspiration from near contemporaries like Trevor Bailey. When he left Dulwich, he joined the RAF and wanted to fly Spitfires, but just after the war there were too many pilots for him to get a chance so he left and joined the family car dealership firm. In the early 1950s he was rowing, and playing rugby and squash in Oxford; in the late 1950s he was playing rugby and cricket for St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London, and he played squash for the OAs between 1952 and 1958. In parallel with this he was a racing car driver and part of the glamorous and courageous cohort of drivers after WW2, especially at Goodwood and Silverstone, with his racing peaking in 1955 and 1956. His father had always wanted to race cars, but his wife and John’s mother refused to allow it. John was invited to take part in the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1958 but the car’s owner turned the car over and crashed out of the race during the first shift so John never got to take part in the race. John retired from active competition at the end of the 1950s to take over the family business from his father, but he never lost his passion for classic cars, owning at various times, a Maserati, a rare Mercedes, nine Rolls-Royces, a couple of Ferraris and a Bentley. John married Peta in London in 1961 and they lived near the business in Caterham for ten years, until John left Rose and Young and returned to
We have also been notified of the passing of the following OAs and former staff members for whom we are awaiting further information to complete their obituary, see page 101. If you would like to contribute to any of the above obituaries, please send your contributions to: Mr Jim Bush, Hon. Obituarist, c/o The Alleyn Club, Dulwich College, Dulwich Common, London SE21 7LD or via alleynclub @ dulwich.org.uk Gazette, and this obituary is based on these with additional information supplied by Lynda. Sussex with Peta, living at Findon Place until her death in the early 1990s. At Findon Place he hosted many charity fund-raising events, particularly for the church that stands in the grounds of the house. He also opened Findon Garage, with a handful of former Rose and Young employees and his stepson Mark. His love of cars and speed endured and he took part in numerous rallies in the UK and Europe. He also loved boats and took up sailing in the 1960s after retiring frommotor racing. He owned over thirty boats over the years and was an enthusiastic member of the OA Sailing Club, taking part in the Fastnet race on one occasion. Sail gave way to power boats in his later years. A generous man, John Young was a gentleman racer, a collector and an enthusiast with a deep love of life, cars and the Sussex countryside. As he often said, he never wanted to go on holiday because he always knew that everything he loved was here. John is survived by his partner of over 20 years, Lynda Downham. An obituary was published by the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC), and by Revd Rupert Toovey in the West Sussex
His daughter Alice contributed significantly to this obituary.
John Alan Young [1942-44] 13.01.1927 – 11.04.2017
John Young’s father, George, was a
director of the family business, Rose and Young, a Mercedes- Benz dealership in Caterham, Surrey. John came to
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