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Derek Jackson
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Custodian made dream return to historic house
DEREK JACKSON, who has died aged 82, had two spells living in Hampstead’s National Trust property Fenton House.
His mother had been custodian of the house and then, 30 years after she left, Derek and his wife Elizabeth took on the role, caring for the historic property which houses a museum of early keyboard instruments.
Derek was born in Dublin in 1924, the son of a general in the British army. It was a time of turmoil, with the Easter Rising and Irish civil war still recent events. His father was no stranger to tough foreign assignments. He had previously been sent with a diplomatic delegation to the newly-formed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to meet the leaders of revolutionary Russia.
After his tour of duty in Ireland, the family settled in London. His mother, a keen musician, answered an advert posted by a Major Benton Fletcher, who planned to establish a museum of early keyboard instruments. The pair collected and displayed instruments at a house in Cheyne Street, Chelsea, which would also become the family home.
Derek went to school in Bloomsbury and then as a boarder in Essex. He left when he was 14 to join a City accountancy firm as a clerk.
A 15-year-old when war broke out, and with a father and brother in the Services, Derek was keen to be seen to do his bit. He expressed a fear that the war would be over before he was old enough to join up.
In the meantime, war affected his family in other ways. His company offices and Cheyne Street were hit by bombs, with both being relocated to the countryside.
He eventually joined the navy and, aged 19, took part in the D-Day landings. Working as a radio operator for a unit that had landed on a Normandy beach, he infuriated his commanding officer by failing to find another unit over the airwaves – according to his family, he could only get a crackly Vera Lynn singing The White Cliffs of Dover. Later, he was sent with a comrade to board boats heading home. There was a choice of two, and they flicked a coin to see who would go on which ship. Derek’s friend boarded first. To his horror, he later discovered that the ship with his friend aboard was sunk by a direct hit from a German plane, going down with all hands.
He was later posted to Gibraltar and was then demobbed. But life behind a desk in a City accountancy firm was dull. He quickly signed up again, this time with the British Army in Palestine. However, his father fell ill and he returned home on compassionate leave. Major Jackson never recovered and his son decided to stay in England.
His mother had moved the keyboard collection to Fenton House, a 17th-century merchant’s home in Windmill Hill, after the war. On Derek’s return from the Middle East he moved in there, only leaving when his mother died in the late 1950s.
He told the National Trust then that he would be interested in continuing his mother’s work at Fenton House if the chance ever arose.
Derek went into business, with two others, as a travel agent. His speciality was putting together tailor-made holidays for wealthy Americans wishing to tour Europe.
He would tell stories of the demands made by clients, including one family who travelled in six cars, bringing from the States all the water they believed they would use on their trip – a bizarre logistical problem Derek enjoyed solving.
After the 1970s oil crisis hit the travel business, Derek moved to Australia with his Antipodean wife Elizabeth. The couple settled happily in Brisbane until an offer that he could not refuse came his way, the chance to become custodian of Fenton House.
It was his abiding passion. He loved the house and, helped his wife, tended the walled garden, where they grew vegetables. When he retired in 1991 the couple moved to Gospel Oak, but he would still visit regularly and drink in his Hampstead local, the Holly Bush.
Derek is survived by Elizabeth, his daughter Charlotte and son Robert. His son Jonathan predeceased him.
DAN CARRIER |
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