† Rev. Dr. Deric Derbyshire

Sadly, I learnt today of the death of a former colleague, Rev. Dr. Deric Derbyshire. He seemed larger than life, and was hugely controversial in his time. One of his great achievements was this building, St. Peter's Congregational Church. Now here is my contribution to his memory. He built much of this with his own hands. But as he was building the big wall on the right, a wind came up, and it wobbled. He ordered his workmen to run for their lives. The wall fell, and a blast of air hit his vestry. It threw him across the floor, and the door at the other side of the vestry exploded. I viewed the damage afterwards. A building inspector said he was lucky that the door exploded, or the vestry could have come down on top of him. After that, he added the buttresses one sees in the photo.