Obituary

HERE historian Vin Harrop, and founder of the Eastgate Art Gallery, talks about his late friend Derrick Finch who lived in Basildon, who passed away in September, aged 90.

THE recent passing of a dear artist and early founder of the Eastgate Art Gallery has shaken the exhibition space to the core.

Derrick was no ordinary, everyday artist for he so loved to tell stories with his pictures, a skilled model-maker too, and a poet.

He first came into our gallery about ten years ago with pictures of boats set against his beloved Pentewan on the Cornish coast near St. Austell.

As the Second World War broke out, young Derrick was evacuated there to live with his new foster parents, Uncle Charlie and Auntie Etta.

He was so attached to Pentewan that after the war he continued revisit this beloved coastline, long after Charlie and Etta has passed away. It was now an indelible part of his life.

So, these early influences created a real sense of enjoyment of the sea and the new countryside, and therefore 50 years later Derrick was inspired to write this poem which begins with the opening stanza: “Over half a century past When first the country lane I saw.

Talltrees and hedges vast And heavy mists on Bodmin Moor.

The pyramids of China Clay Reflects the rays of evening light And blossoming rhododendron trees Were there to cause delight”.

He took up art when inspired by all the wonderfulthings around him, but as a lad of eight, war meant nothing to him though.

Sadly, the loss of his real parents to comfort him in times of need did put a strain on such youthful soul.

He showed literary skills, and his early sketches show signs of painterly landscaping.

Echo: Derrick’s work - a sketch of his beloved PentewanDerrick’s work - a sketch of his beloved Pentewan (Image: Vin Harrop)

The photograph of Derrick was taken at the National Memorial Arboretum in Stafford, which commemorates the millions of British Children separated from their families during 1939 to 1945, of which Derrick was a member.

His sketching of Pentewan shows the village in the 1930s. I talked to Derrick about his life in Cornwall and he always remembered the words spoken by Neville Chamberlain in 1939 in a radio broadcast: “ We are at war with Germany”. That changed many lives, including Derrick’s.