Derrick Bailey

Sir Derrick Thomas Louis Bailey, 3rd Baronet, DFC (15 August 1918 – 19 June 2009) was the son of the South African entrepreneur Sir Abe Bailey and of the pioneer aviator Dame Mary Bailey, and won fame for himself as a decorated Second World War pilot, a cricketer and a businessman. Inheriting his father's baronetcy in 1946 from his elder half-brother, he was known for the last 63 years of his life as Sir Derrick Bailey.

Born at Marylebone in London, Derrick Bailey was Sir Abe Bailey's second son, and the first son of Abe Bailey's second marriage. He had a twin sister, Ann. Derrick Bailey was educated at Winchester College, where he was in the cricket eleven as a right-handed batsman in 1936. He also attended Christ Church, Oxford and played Minor Counties cricket for Oxfordshire in 1937, achieving some success as a medium-pace right-arm bowler, with 12 wickets, but less as a batsman, with a highest score of just 33 in nine innings. He played in the Oxford University Freshmen's trial match in 1937, scoring 53 in the second innings before retiring; though this was the joint highest score in the match, he was never picked for a full Oxford University team.

Bailey served with the South African Irish Regiment and then with the South African Air Force during the Second World War. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 25 August 1944 for "gallantry and devotion to duty in the execution of air operations" flying with No. 223 Squadron RAF (later renumbered No. 30 Squadron, South African Air Force).