Sir Derrick Thomas Louis Bailey, 3rd Baronet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_Bailey

Sir Derrick Thomas Louis Bailey, 3rd Baronet, DFC was the son of the South African entrepreneur Sir Abe Bailey and of the pioneer aviator Dame Mary Bailey, and won fame for himself as a decorated Second World War pilot, a cricketer and a businessman. Inheriting his father's baronetcy in 1946 from his elder half-brother, he was known for the last 63 years of his life as Sir Derrick Bailey.

Born at Marylebone in London, Derrick Bailey was Sir Abe Bailey's second son, and the first son of Abe Bailey's second marriage. He had a twin sister, Ann. Derrick Bailey was educated at Winchester College, where he was in the cricket eleven as a right-handed batsman in 1936. He also attended Christ Church, Oxford and played Minor Counties cricket for Oxfordshire in 1937, achieving some success as a medium-pace right-arm bowler, with 12 wickets, but less as a batsman, with a highest score of just 33 in nine innings. He played in the Oxford University Freshmen's trial match in 1937, scoring 53 in the second innings before retiring; though this was the joint highest score in the match, he was never picked for a full Oxford University team.

Bailey served with the South African Irish Regiment and then with the South African Air Force during the Second World War. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 25 August 1944 for "gallantry and devotion to duty in the execution of air operations" flying with No. 223 Squadron RAF (later renumbered No. 30 Squadron, South African Air Force).

From 1948, Bailey, now resident as a farmer near Hereford, began playing cricket fairly regularly as a middle order batsman and medium-pace bowler for Gloucestershire's second eleven in the Minor Counties championship. In 1949, he made his first-class cricket debut in a heavy defeat for Gloucestershire away to Somerset at Taunton, batting at No 7, scoring 0 and 5, and not bowling. He then retained his place for the next five first team matches, though his record of 70 runs at a batting average of 8.75 runs per innings and a tally of just two wickets indicates little success. He was, however, awarded his county cap. He played – more as a batsman than as a bowler – for the second eleven later the same season, and continued in that fashion for the second team across 1950, until the match with Surrey's second eleven at the end of July 1950 when, with Gloucestershire facing a heavy defeat by that season's Minor Counties champions, Bailey opened the innings and scored an unbeaten 129 to save the match. At the end of the 1952 season, Bailey stood down from the captaincy and he did not appear again in first-class cricket. With no amateur available, Gloucestershire broke with tradition and appointed the senior professional player, Jack Crapp, as captain for the next two seasons.

In later life, Bailey lived on Alderney in the Channel Islands. His interests there included the local airline, Aurigny Air Services, which he set up in 1968 when British United Airways pulled out of the Alderney to Guernsey route, the island's regular link with its neighbour. According to the obituary on the BBC Channel Islands website, the Aurigny airline's colours, with a yellow tail section on its planes, were chosen by Bailey in memory of his father's horse racing colours. He is succeeded to the baronetcy by his oldest son Sir John Bailey, born Edinburgh.

Bailey died at his home on Alderney on 19 June 2009.

Was once the owner of a car: 1950 Lagonda 2.6 Litre Drophead Coupe.