DEREK Allen Lord, Commander in the Royal Navy, died on the 8th January 2020 after a long fight with Parkinson’s disease. He was born in Tebay, then Westmoreland, on 9th September 1944.

The son of a Railwayman, Derek was raised in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire. He attended the Grammar School after passing the 13 plus exam.

After school he joined the Diplomatic Wireless Service where he was responsible for checking UK embassies abroad for listening devices. He referred to himself as a Debugger and he travelled widely, including East Berlin.

In 1967 he began his Naval career at Dartmouth and over the next 30 years he rose from the rank of humble Midshipman to illustrious Commander.

Resplendent in his best mess dress, sword at his side, Derek Lord looked every inch the successful Naval Officer. Less familiar to some, however, but not to his family, would be a vision of him decked out in overalls, soldering iron or adjustable spanner in hand.

With the HNC and HND he achieved at Night School whilst in the Diplomatic Wireless Service, and the knowledge he garnered from his time at the University of Aston, Derek became a highly accomplished engineer. He repaired everything from domestic irons, to copper boilers, washing machines, sports cars and the complex computer systems in the Operations Room of modern Naval warships.

Having joined the Navy as an instructor he successfuly stepped across into computer driven weapon systems (ADAWS) and then whilst at sea he completed his Bridge Watchkeeping certificate. He was perhaps the only Instructor Officer ever to do this.

It was his great pride to have skippered HMS Sheffield through the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic to distant Venezuela and the island of St. Lucia.

Derek moved from Gosport to what became the family home in Swanmore, Hampshire, in 1973. Here he lived for the next 47 years with his beloved wife, Denise, a schoolteacher.

Derek was firmly entrenched in village life, building the Scout Hut with a group of volunteers and re-designing and re-instating the Village Pond. He founded the Swanmore Bridge Society with friends and acted in many productions by the village amateur dramatic society. He will be remembered for his prowess as the compere at The Old Time Music Hall as well as roles with the HMS Collingwood drama society as Jacob in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and Olly, the god-figure, in Follow the Star.

His volunteering broadened around the turn of the century and he worked with the Uphill Ski Club supporting and encouraging people with disabilities to get into snowsports. He was not limited to the land, of course, and as an experienced sailor he joined the Sail Training Association and the Jubilee Sailing Trust as a volunteer. Here he supported both youngsters and people with disabilities to get involved in sailing Tall Ships.

Less well known was his generosity in the village, helping out those in troubled times, taking them out to dinner, even buying them shoes and saucepans.

We can only speculate on what he might have achieved had he not suffered under the evil that is Parkinsons Disease. As time wore on he could communicate less but his gestures, smiling eyes and embrace had to make up for his lack of words.

He leaves behind an astonishing collection of weights and measures. Weekends he often spent scouring the antiques shops of Portsmouth, Winchester and Southampton. He communicated widely with the greats of this collecting world. His collection of Georgian and Victorian weights are of great beauty.

Cdr. Derek Lord was a wonderful blend, part sailor, part teacher, part officer, part engineer, a courteous and kind man and, whilst international in his mindset, he embodied the quintessence of what it means to be an English gentleman.

He is survived by his wife, Denise, his children, Russell and Joanna and his four grandchildren Sam, Alex, Tom and Alice.