Derick Lee

A few weeks ago I received a telephone call asking if the Independent would be interested in the story of the life of Mr Derick Lee of Moor Cottage on Hillfoot Road. I arranged to meet Derick and in his home listened to his experiences of flying, trying to take notes as he reminisced his life to me. 

Sadly Derick passed away this month and we never completed his stories to share with you. As a small tribute here is a little of Derick's experiences. After joining the R.A F. much of his life was spent flying on Tiger Moths, Ransons, Wellingtons, Lancasters, Lincolns, B29's, Handley Page Hermes, Vikings, Avro Yorks, Dakotas, Vampires, Elizabethans, Viscounts and Vanguards all names unknown to yours truly but I'm sure not to you. 

He told me about many near misses such as the time the wheels didn't come down when landing and the Pilot having to do a belly flop and the time when the brakes failed on landing and the plane only just, by some strange means or other, just stopping in time to avoid crashing. His narrowest escape was the Munich Air Disaster a flight that Derick was to have been the steward on but swapped with a colleague who always wanted to fly with football teams. 

During the times of being a flight steward the list of celebrities he has met would be an autograph hunters dream, especially if you are over fofty so you can remember them. Charlie Chaplin, Billy Whitelaw, Joan Collins, John Le Mesurier, Hughie Green, Harry Secombe, Norman Wisdom, Ben Lyon, Sir Donald Wolfit, Ingrid Bergman, Herbert Lom, Norman Hartnell, Edmondo Ross, Peggy Mount, Broderick Crawford, Jack Hawkins, Ali Kahn, Virginia McKenna, Cyril Stapleton and many more.

All were passengers who as Derick informed me, would if things were lax stroll down the plane on long flights to stretch their legs and have a chat. Things were different then, air travel not being the mega industry it is today, with sometimes there being only seven or eight passengers.

Les Firth

November 1992