Tributes paid to ‘legendary’
HIGH-FLYING Chick Dempster lived a life of military adventure.
In a long and distinguished army career the ‘legendary’ paratrooper, who died earlier this month aged 89, made more than 2,000 jumps without even spraining an ankle.
Now friends and family have paid tribute to Chick, whose funeral will be held in Rochdale next week.
Chick, of Littleborough, near Rochdale, served with the Parachute Regiment’s 3rd Battalion in Palestine, Cyprus, Malaya, Jordan, Bahrain and Aden.
In 1956 – during the Suez Crisis – he took part in Operation Musketeer, parachuting into Egypt to help capture the crucial El Gamil fortress and airfield.
He was also a founder member of the Red Devils parachute display team when it was formed in 1964, and he worked as a personal driver for inspirational and much-decorated Parachute Regiment leader General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley – nicknamed ‘Farrar the Para’.
In February 1968 Chick, who was awarded the British Empire Medal in recognition of his service, also made history when he took part in a jump with his son Steve, then just 17 and the youngest qualified army parachutist in the world.
It was the first time in the history of the Parachute Regiment that a father and son had jumped from the same aircraft.
Speaking to the Rochdale Observer in 2007, the great-granddad recalled the momentous occasion and the interest it created. He said: “I remember there were lots of people in the plane, but only Steve and I were doing the jump – the rest were reporters.” Inspired by his father, Steve would eventually serve 25 years with the Paras and was mentioned in dispatches during the Falklands War. In the later years of his career Chick rose to the rank of warrant officer and was responsible for recruiting hundreds of Paras from the North West. Chick’s daughter Jill, also of Littleborough, said: “I couldn’t have asked for a better father. He was an old-fashioned gentleman, charm personified. “He was respected and loved by everyone who knew him. “He just had an aura about him. Daughter Jill