Royal Navy and United Services cricket in the Portsmouth area has been saddened by the recent passing of Captain Derek Oakley RN MBE, aged 92 years.
Derek [left] was an incredible man of many parts, mainly in his 42-years where he served with distinction with the Royal Marines. A batsman/wicketkeeper, he represented the Royal Navy and Combined Services and, alongside cricket at Burnaby Road, played for his home town club Hayling Island. He joined XL Club in 1969 and was chairman of the South District for some time and probably set a record of scoring a 50 every three matches. Remarkable consistency.
He produced an 180,000 word memoir about his career which included him being in command of the first landing craft which started the Suez invasion on November 6, 1956 which was aborted when the US failed to support the operation, being an aide de camp to Lord Mountbatten, a guard of honour at the funeral of Winston Churchill, an officer during the Malaysian Emergency in 1950-1, the Brunei revolt (1962) and Sarawak (1963-6). He wore six medals and one was the MBE. He wrote six books including two about the Royal Marines.
Rear Admiral Roger Moylan-Jones said “He was known never to go anywhere without his whites and cricket bat in the back of his car and on business, it always seemed to coincide with cricket match somewhere. He played so much cricket, we used to joke that by early June, he’d scored 1,000 runs.” Brian Scovell.
Royal Navy and United Services cricket in the Portsmouth area has been saddened by the recent passing of Captain Derek Oakley RN MBE, aged 92 years.
Derek [left] was an incredible man of many parts, mainly in his 42-years where he served with distinction with the Royal Marines. A batsman/wicketkeeper, he represented the Royal Navy and Combined Services and, alongside cricket at Burnaby Road, played for his home town club Hayling Island. He joined XL Club in 1969 and was chairman of the South District for some time and probably set a record of scoring a 50 every three matches. Remarkable consistency.
He produced an 180,000 word memoir about his career which included him being in command of the first landing craft which started the Suez invasion on November 6, 1956 which was aborted when the US failed to support the operation, being an aide de camp to Lord Mountbatten, a guard of honour at the funeral of Winston Churchill, an officer during the Malaysian Emergency in 1950-1, the Brunei revolt (1962) and Sarawak (1963-6). He wore six medals and one was the MBE. He wrote six books including two about the Royal Marines.
Rear Admiral Roger Moylan-Jones said “He was known never to go anywhere without his whites and cricket bat in the back of his car and on business, it always seemed to coincide with cricket match somewhere. He played so much cricket, we used to joke that by early June, he’d scored 1,000 runs.” Brian Scovell.
