The Haileybury Society is saddened to learn of the death of Andrew – Derek – Hylton de Rivaz (B 34), who has died on 15th January 2020, aged 99.

Derek was a man of exceptional generosity of spirit who saw service in the Second World War and later went on to be JP. In this heartwarming tribute, his son Nigel de Rivaz (B 63) fondly remembers his late father.

Derek was an exceptional person. He was generous, caring and throughout his life concerned for the wellbeing of his family and his friends. He had a great sense of humour and of the absurd. When in adversity he made the best of things. He also kept a diary every day and would later write his family history.

Early years

Derek was born in 1921, the youngest of 4 boys and two girls and was educated at Haileybury between 1934 and 1938. At the time, war clouds were gathering, and a picture from those years shows him in action as a sergeant in the school’s gas contamination squad issued with gas masks and protective clothing. In his farewell speech to Batten house he took the theme that ‘all should try to use their talents to the full and should try to excel in some activity’. This was a theme his family would become familiar with.

War intervenes

The College of Estate Management in Lincolns Inn followed Haileybury, where he trained to be surveyor and auctioneer. After the outbreak of war Derek continued with his studies but following Dunkirk the Local Defence Volunteers was formed and he immediately signed up.

Derek was made Assistant Section Leader with about 20 men in his section whose job was mainly to act as signallers. In September 1940 he was promoted to Sergeant and put in charge of all the signallers. The story goes that his troops were often dismissed very close to a certain house where, according to his diary, ‘he would end up drinking cocoa with a very attractive, fair haired girl whom I was very keen on. Her name was Rosalind Enock’. ‘It is a fact that it was love at first sight’.

Officer training and a curious contrast at Gibraltar

Having passed his Surveying Exams, he was then called up and ordered to report to the Royal Artillery School of Survey at Lark Hill. At the end of his induction he was made a Lance Bombardier and stayed on as an Instructor. After a period, he was moved to Devizes to start officer training and, in May 1943, he became a 2nd Lieutenant at just 22 years of age. He was then invited to volunteer to join a new Division, the 1st Air Landing Light Regiment Royal Artillery. To his amazement, his Troop Commander was Captain Johnny Walker (Ha 35), whom he knew from Haileybury.

Shortly afterwards Derek found himself on the Stirling Castle, a luxury liner which had been turned into a troopship. Derek writes,

‘I thoroughly enjoyed the voyage and proved to be a better sailor than most for, as we got further out into the Atlantic and encountered rough seas, the number attending meals, in the first class dining room, diminished considerably. One night, very slowly, the Stirling Castle passed through the Straits of Gibraltar. It was an amazing sight to see Gibraltar itself in complete darkness, and to the south, the bright lights of Ceuta and Tangier and the Moroccan coast. After nearly four years of blackout, we were all forcibly struck by the thought that we were passing a country at peace.’

On that voyage he landed in Oran. Derek was to serve 6 years in the Royal Artillery in Africa, Italy and NW Europe ending as a Captain. He was a gunnery officer and always stressed the need for us children to reconnoitre. One of his memorable sayings was ‘Time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted’.

Surviving Arnhem

During the war he had some memorable experiences. The one he recounted most often was when, as part of Operation Market Garden, he was sent back at night along a road which the Germans were trying to retake in order to find the rest of his troops and get them off the road so that another division could get through to Arnhem.

He and his driver drove in their jeep through the night, but no troops were to be found. They kept going and eventually, as dawn broke, John Hanhart, the Regiment’s adjutant, appeared leading the column. Derek, having given the orders, then had to drive back along the road he had just come to the point where he had started many hours before. Throughout his life he could never understand how he had survived those 24 hours.

A love of sailing

The war also brought him an interest in sailing. Whether it was the troopship voyage to Africa on the Stirling Castle, the later voyage to Taranto or having the use of a German motor cruiser for four months in the liberation of Norway, he always seemed to enjoy the experience. Later he with his wife and children spent holidays sailing on the Broads and cruising on the Thames.

Life in peacetime and a commitment to service

After he was demobbed in 1946, Derek joined the family business of A1 & Dollis Dairies and in due course became joint managing director along with his brother Gerald. The Company was taken over in 1967 by the Express Dairy and he became an Area Director of that company, ending in charge of the company’s Long Service Association.

A keen Rotarian he became President of Finchley Rotary Club and for the next 30 years entertained their Sunday morning outings for Old Age Pensioners. In 1972 Derek became President of the National Dairymen’s Benevolent Institution as well as becoming a Magistrate on the Hatfield Bench where he served for 19 years. He also served for many years as a Tax Commissioner.

Tennis, walking and golf – and a passion for steam trains

He was a good tennis player and enjoyed golf when he could find the time to play. He loved gardening. He was a knowledgeable historian, with Winston Churchill often the subject of a bedside book. His war diaries were incorporated in other books about the Airborne Regiment, one of which was ‘Winged Gunners’.

Derek loved walking and he and Rosalind featured in an AA publication after they had walked all 202 walks in the AA book ‘No Through Road’ using their rather underpowered motor caravan ‘Arthur’. Derek especially liked walking in Switzerland, the land of his ancestors. Walking was also a feature of the 32 winters spent in their villa in Lanzarote.

A particular passion of Derek’s was his love of railways. From standing in the steam at Oakleigh Park Station as a boy, to travelling all over Switzerland, the magic of rail led to him building (with his sons and any able-bodied visitor) an extensive seven and a quarter inch gauge railway in his garden!

A keen family man

Derek and Rosalind had a long and happy marriage of over 70 years. They were blessed with 3 sons, all Haileyburians, 10 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. He continued to the end to take a great interest in all the family, phoning up everyone on their birthday, and remained in the family home which continued to have plenty of visitors. He always took a great interest in Haileybury and attended (probably as the oldest old boy there) the celebrations of 100 years since the 1918 armistice.

He died on January 16th just a few days after celebrating his 99th birthday; hist funeral was very well attended with over 100 present.

(Photograph: the photograph depicts Derek as he was about to set off for the 100 year celebration of the Armistice in November 2018)

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Derek de Rivaz, JP (B 34) – Arnhem survivor who became a major figure in the dairy industry