The Haileybury Society is saddened to learn of the death of Brian Derby Low (Tr 54) who has died in January 2020, age 79.

Haileybury marksman

Born into a farming family in the hamlet of Little Hormead in Hertfordshire, Brian was particularly interested in geology and earth sciences at Haileybury and was a keen marksman – an interest he pursued in later years as a member of the OH Vets Rifle team and as competition organiser for the Suffolk Fullbore Rifle Association

Publishing career

After Haileybury, Brian worked at the family pig farm for a number of years; it was this which led him into a career in writing and journalism, first at the East Midland Allied Press and then as a feature writer and a Deputy Editor for Farming Press. Enjoying a spell as a freelance writer and journalist, Brian was a Publisher and Editor at White Horse Publications before returning to his rural roots later on at the Old Suffolk Stud.

In his retirement, he retained an interest in freelance journalism work as well as helping his son, Ian, establish his coaching business.

Evocative memories of rural Hertfordshire

Brian remembered a number of details about rural life in the 1940s; in particular interest is his time on the family farm, a remote location even now. As he wrote:

I remember Polish troops marching through Great Hormead; American airmen from the local Nuthampsted airbase visiting my parents during WW2 and that a fellow pupil’s father died on the infamous Burma Railway as a Japanese POW during WW2. I also tried to eat my first banana with skin on – It was brought into England after a trip abroad by neighbour Kenneth Diplock (later to become Lord Justice Diplock). His wife introduced me to Just So Stories written by Rudyard Kipling, whose old school United Service College was later amalgamated with Imperial Service College and then Haileybury. Back then, cows walked into their own individual stalls to be milked – in a pail (not like the modern milking parlour); I also recall pairs of steam ploughs and their equipment working on nearby farms, or travelling past the my village school with the smell of the smoke emitting from their chimneys.

Hard to imagine such a scene today, of lives played out in the ancient fields of this most beautiful part of England!

Funeral details

The funeral which is to be a celebration of his life is on Friday 28th February at 3pm at West Chapel, Cambridge Crematorium. The family has requested no black clothes.