The Association has learned of the death of Lt(A) Roy Reginald French RNVR on 21 December 2018.
From Records
Roy’s service between October 1942 and July 1946 was as follows:
44th Pilots Course
816 Squadron
Y Flight 836 Squadron
Ferry Pool Worthy Down
Ferry Pool Henstridge
Ferry Pool Yeovilton
Roy’s daughter Janet writes:
Roy was born in Kilburn, North London to Laura and Percival French on 10th March 1924.
They moved to Seven Kings, where he went to primary school, and won a county award to Ilford County High School for Boys. He swam for his school – and later for the Navy while in Canada – and cycled around England, also taking part in some track cycle racing.
His father was killed in a motorcycle accident when he was 11, so Roy helped the family income by doing a paper round (in the end most of them) before school. One day he was cycling up the Eastern Avenue at Redbridge when the tunnel for the new Central Line collapsed near him. He left school when war broke out, but returned to take his School Certificate.
In 1942, while waiting to be old enough to be called up, he joined Unilever, where a young lady called Iris Bartlett showed him the ropes.
Then he joined the Fleet Air Arm, and qualified as a pilot of Swordfish, with 816 and then 836 squadrons. As D-Day got underway, he and his squadron were patrolling the Western Approaches and were based in Perranporth. The rest of his active service was flying off MAC Ships (merchant aircraft carriers, with a very short flight deck over an existing grain carrier), protecting Atlantic Convoys. He and Iris got married in April 1944 when it was anticipated the squadron would move onto Arctic Convoys to Russia – the end of the European war curtailed this planned move. Throughout his active service, his Observer was one John Hewer, who for decades after played Captain Birdseye in the TV adverts.
After demob Roy worked for a small machine and lubricants company, Motrate, selling power washers and similar to farms around Essex. He and Iris lived in Ilford, near to his mother. Janet and then Martin arrived during this time.
Later he joined a one man car hire firm where he drove and maintained the vehicles.
In 1969 he finally took a job indoors, joining Prudential Insurance as a late entrant. He studied and passed several insurance exams, rising further than late entrants normally did. In 1972 they moved from Ilford to Hutton.
He retired at 63, then worked part-time for a while at a brokers in Billericay.
After the children left home, he and Iris had several holidays, mostly by car, in France, Holland, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Iris died in July 2005. Roy taught himself basic cooking skills and became fully capable of looking after himself, becoming very independent.
He enjoyed his grandchildren, Glyn, Keith, Aston and Innes, and welcomed first Lydia (as Glyn’s wife) and lately Ann (Innes’ partner) to the fold.
He was always very good with his hands, stripping down and rebuilding several cars, building a canoe, a rowing-, and then a sailing- dinghy, before building a Dragonfly cruiser that entirely filled the garage. He also loved building model railways and model engineering, and completed several projects around the house. He loved sailing, and was a long-time member of the Blackwater Sailing Club. He and Iris often went to motor racing meetings grand prix at Silverstone in the early days, later to historic race meetings, and several historic air displays. He also liked steam engines – anything mechanical always appealed.