Derrick, John

Master 1957 – 1962

From The Gazette 55.

John Derrick was in charge of Mathematics, Chess Club, Junior Rugby & Cricket Teams and  was a serious, thoughtful man with high academic and personal standards. Having said that, he often produced an enormous smile and a tremendous, even volcanic, guffaw. He was patient and thorough in his mathematics teaching but could certainly blast a recalcitrant miscreant – some readers may recall this?

I remember him in the Common Room and in other ways, e.g. in the Chess Club and, above all, in various sports – he was an organised, thorough coach in junior cricket and rugby. He also loved playing himself and I remember him in immaculate whites playing with determined fun and a splendid forward defensive stroke – not in the same class, perhaps, as Denys Hall and Stephen Hindley but a useful man. He, Margaret, children Cathy and little John were valuable members of the community and Ottershaw, colleagues and boys, were lucky to know them.

Robert L. White