Notes

Sir Derek James Bibby was my mother's father. He was born at Hooton, Cheshire, on June 29 1922, the son of Major Sir Harold Bibby. After Rugby and Trinity College, Oxford, where he read Economics, he joined the Royal Artillery in the New Year of 1942. He was commissioned a few days before his 20th birthday, and his unit was posted to 331 battery of 133 Field Regiment of the 53rd Welsh Division. For almost two years they were employed on exercises at artillery ranges around Britain. On one occasion, he managed to land himself in trouble by organising a rugby match between officers and other ranks in which three of the latter ended up in hospital. In June 1944 his unit embarked for France. At Caen, he often acted as Observation Post Officer, and later recorded in his autobiography, Glimpses: "I used a church steeple for one lookout post. The Germans could spot me and would open fire with mortars. During their shoot, I would go down to the church and play the organ.". He fought through Belgium and Holland, once getting lost in a minefield in thick fog, and on to Germany where "I was sent to the Observation Post at the final push and found myself overlooking the Rhine at Wesel. The Germans brought all their AA guns from the Ruhr to cover their last troops retreating across the Rhine. They then put down what was . . . their heaviest fire of the war.". Bibby was wounded by shrapnel, four fragments lodging in his eyes, requiring a four-hour operation under local anaesthetic. "I had to lie without moving for days", he recalled, "double-bandaged, not knowing whether I had lost my sight." Bibby was awarded an MC after this action. He later spent a year as OC Troops on an Indian troopship, gaining valuable experience of life at sea.