I knew WO1 Derek at 17 Rear Vehicle Depot RAOC, Mőnchengladbach, Germany in the period September 1960 to June 1961. I was then a LCpl on convoy duties collecting Saracen, Saladin and Humber Pigs from Ro-Ro ships at Rotterdam Docks and driving them to the Vehicle Depot. The convoy party travelled by army coach each Friday from the Depot to overnight at the Hook of Holland Transit Camp. Derek frequently travelled with us as WOIC Convoy. To my mind, he was a reasonable man who had a tough time controlling us since we were bent on making a good time out of a rotten duty. The coach always stopped halfway somewhere in Holland at a pull-in cafe run by three sisters, where we played pool, had a few beers, ate plates of ‘friets’ and sang squaddie songs. Derek never joined in, but he never spoilt our fun either. He got a grip of us though when it was time to leave and we didn’t want to. On arrival at the Hook and after a night out in the dives of The Hague, Derek would roust us out of bed, make sure we had breakfast and a packed meal, and then heard us on to the coach for the docks. After unloading at the docks under Derek’s expert guidance we would set off behind the coach – now Derek’s convoy command vehicle - for Mőnchengladbach with scant regard to speed and distances between vehicles - it was nothing short of ‘wacky races’ really. Derek gave us all a rifting on arrival at the Depot for this, but he never charged anyone as I recall. Again, on the return journey, we would stop at the transport pull-in and, again, Derek let us have our fun. We all agreed that Derek was a very fair disciplinarian and a super bloke to be in charge of us. Regrettably, I never met Derek again during my subsequent 35 years with the Corps. My belated condolences to his family.
Colin Buckle, March 2012
Any details, memories or photographs that you may have would be most welcome.