This is the story of the life of Derek the youngest son of the family. Born when his brother Arthur was only two years and three months old this meant that when his Mother was attending to Arthur someone needed to look after him. This job most often used to fall to his Aunt Lillian, the younger Sister of his mother, thus the first interesting story about Derek was as follows.
Having been made homeless by Hitler’s bombs, like many people in the east end of London, the Fairey family, through the good offices of a friend of Florence, found one room in a house, where the friend also lived, in Spencer road. However a few days before Derek was born the friend was so upset by the conditions of life that she put her head in the gas oven to try to commit suicide. This obviously upset Florence and she was advised to move out, if she could, to temporary accommodation until the child (Derek to be) was born.
The only place where she could go at the time was her Father in Law’s flat. Her Father in law was the foreman of a Cartage company which used only horses and carts at that time. He lived in a flat over the stable and should have got special permission from his boss. He did not get this permission but Florence moved in regardless and a few days later, on the second of July Derek was born.