Sir Derrick Bailey, Bt - Telegraph Sir Derrick Bailey, 3rd Bt, who died on June 19 aged 90, flew bombers during the Italian campaign and was awarded the DFC; played first class cricket for Gloucestershire, leading the side in 1951-52; and later came to the assistance of the Channel island of Alderney by providing an inter-island air service. At the outbreak of war, Bailey, then living in South Africa, joined the South African Irish Regiment but, following a bout of malaria, transferred in late 1940 to the South African Air Force (SAAF). In August 1943 he joined No 223 Squadron of the RAF, which had just moved to an advanced landing ground in Sicily and was operating the American-built Baltimore medium bomber. From Sicily, Bailey flew many sorties during an intensive period of operations against troop concentrations and gun positions. During September he flew bombing operations in support of the Allied landings at Salerno. When the squadron left for the Italian mainland Bailey had his first sight of the German-held fortress at Monte Cassino the following month. As the number of Bailey's operations mounted, he was appointed to be a formation leader and regularly led 12 aircraft against German lines of communications, railway marshalling yards and ammunition and supply depots. On a few occasions, he led his men in attacks on targets in Yugoslavia but the main priority remained the support of the Allied armies as they advanced up Italy. Bailey flew more than 50 operational bombing sorties throughout the Italian campaign and was awarded the DFC. The citation commented on his "marked enthusiasm and outstanding ability as a formation leader on a large number of operations against much adverse weather conditions and enemy opposition". Derrick Thomas Louis Bailey was born in London on August 15 1918, a scion of the "Randlords", that group of adventurers and financiers who pioneered the diamond and gold-mining industry in South Africa. His father, Sir Abraham "Abe" Bailey, 1st Bt, had become a millionaire, chairman of 14 companies, a companion of Cecil Rhodes (whose seat in the Cape legislature he inherited), as well as a keen art collector and cricketer. After the Boer War, Abe Bailey worked with Louis Botha as one of the creators of the Union of South Africa (Botha was one of Derrick's godfathers, along with Field Marshal Haig). Abe Bailey was also a great friend of Winston Churchill (his eldest son, Derrick's half-brother John, would later marry Churchill's daughter, Diana) and was a famous host at his houses near Cape Town and in Bryanston Square, London. It was at the latter that the meeting took place in December 1916 which led to Asquith's replacement as prime minister by Lloyd George. Derrick, who had a twin sister, Ann, was the first son of Sir Abe's second marriage, to Mary, daughter of the 5th Lord Rossmore. Mary would become famous in her own right as Dame Mary Bailey, a famous British aviatrix of her time who in 1928-1929 was the first woman to fly, in her de Havilland Moth, from London to Cape Town and back. Derrick was sent to Winchester and went on to Christ Church, Oxford. He played minor counties cricket for Oxfordshire in 1937, achieving some success as a medium-pace, right-arm bowler. After leaving Oxford, he moved to South Africa to help his father, by then in his seventies. Though he would return to Britain, he retained a farming interest in South Africa for the rest of his life. After flying in Italy, Bailey left No 223 Squadron in June 1944 and served in the Middle East and South Africa for the rest of the war, finally being released as a captain in 1946. The same year he inherited his father's baronetcy on the death of his elder half-brother, John. After the war Bailey studied at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, and became a farmer in the Hereford area. From 1948 he began playing cricket as a middle order batsman and medium-pace bowler for Gloucestershire's second XI in the minor counties championship, having come to the attention of the bowler Tom Goddard during a friendly match. From 1949 to 1952 he played 60 first-class matches for the county, scoring 2,029 runs with two centuries at an average of 24.44. At the end of the 1950 season, Gloucestershire's captain Basil Allen retired, and Bailey was appointed as his successor for the 1951 season. The side dropped from seventh in the county championship to twelfth, but according to Wisden "statistics told only half the story". Injuries to bowlers and the retirement of Goddard, mainstay of the bowling attack for the previous 20 years, had disrupted the team. At the end of the 1952 season Bailey stood down from the captaincy and from then on devoted his sporting energies to the Herefordshire Gents cricket side and the hunting field, becoming joint master of the Radnor and West Herefordshire and later of the North Hereford Hunt. A keen racegoer, he was joint owner of Holmbush, which was ridden to victory by a young Lester Piggott in the Jockey Club Stakes in 1950. Bailey retained a strong interest in aviation. In the 1960s he established Glos-Air, a small aircraft maintenance business based at Staverton (now Gloucestershire) airport and became involved with the Isle of Wight firm Britten Norman in the development of their Islander eight-seater passenger plane. In 1968 he was headhunted by the States of Alderney (the government of the Channel island) to set up an "airline for the islands" after British United Airways pulled out of the Alderney-to-Guernsey route, threatening the island's livelihood. He established Aurigny Air Services, now owned by the States of Guernsey, to maintain Alderney's regular link with Guernsey, Jersey, the British mainland and France, and moved to Alderney permanently in the mid-1970s. The airline's colours, gold and black, were chosen to echo Sir Abe Bailey's racing silks. Sir Derrick Bailey remained physically active in his retirement, playing regular rounds of golf into his 90th year and serving twice as captain of Alderney Golf Club. He married, first in 1946, Nancy Stormonth Darling, with whom he had four sons and a daughter, and secondly, in 1980, Jean Roscoe. Both marriages were dissolved. He is succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, John, born in 1947.
