The night Marilyn took lucky Derek for a lager
MANY of us have a story about the day we happened to rub shoulders with someone famous. My wonderful father-in-law, Derek Bishop, could top them all.
Derek was born in London and spent part of the war as an evacuee. Later he did his National Service with the RAF in Hong Kong, where, one freezing night in 1952, he was on guard duty at the old Kai Tak Airport.
When his shift came to an end at 9pm, Derek and another solider were asked if they would stay on because a delayed flight was expected and there was a ‘celebrity’ on board.
They agreed and when the plane landed at 11pm, the famous passenger who stepped out was none other than the woman who would become the ultimate screen goddess.
Marilyn Monroe was then 26 years old and on the verge of fullblown stardom, having garnered good reviews for minor roles in acclaimed films including All About Eve and The Asphalt Jungle.
Derek said she was dressed in ‘everyday’ clothes and wore very little make-up. She insisted on thanking him and his pal personally for working late and took them for a drink in the Nissen Hut that served as the mess.
He had half a lager and his only comment was that ‘she had no side to her’.
Derek was still serving in the RAF when he had another brush with celebrity. He worked in communications and if there wasn’t enough to keep him occupied, he’d be busy furthering his ambitions to be a crime writer, pounding away at the typewriter on his stories.
One day, he suddenly became aware of a figure at his shoulder, reading what he was writing. It was an Air Commandant in the Women’s Royal Air Force.
He thought he was in for a reprimand, but Air Commandant Dame Jean Conan Doyle — daughter of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, and so someone with an eye for a decent thriller — asked if she could read it when he’d finished. She gave it her vote of approval.
Derek met his wife, Janet, at a dance hall in North London. They married in 1957 and spent nearly 50 happy years together.
They had two daughters, my wife Caroline and her sister Alison.
Derek and Janet took our children Joseph and Emily — as well as Hayley and Stephanie, my children from a previous marriage — all under their wing.
He was the epitome of a loving grandad, making them toys, doing drawings with them and generally making sure our children learned values of respect and decency.
After his retirement from Luton Borough Council, Derek and Janet moved to Hordle, in the New Forest. There, he spent his time researching his ancestry to try to establish a blood connection with the composer Sir Edward Elgar.
He remembered, as a child, stories of his maternal grandmother taking tea on Sundays with the composer and believed there was a family link, but could never prove it.
Derek passed away, after a short battle with cancer, in July. He was such a kind, gentle, talented man. Derek Bishop, born April 18, 1933; died July 4, 2018, aged 85.