Beryl Derrick remembered as “a lovely lady” at a thanksgiving service for her life

FINAL tributes to “A lovely lady” who died at an Axminster nursing home were paid at a thanksgiving service on Friday.

The accolade to Beryl Derrick was led by the Rev Eric Holdstock at the service in Lyme Regis Baptist Church, following cremation.

Mrs Derrick, a widow, died at Magnolia Nursing Home, Axminster, aged 87, her former home before going into care being 72 King’s Way, Lyme Regis.

A member of a prominent Lyme family, she was born in Coombe Street and educated locally at St Michael’s School. Her first job was at Bridport Gundry, and it was the start of her very active and hard working life.

She marred her first husband at the age of 17, and she busied herself while he was on active service in the Second World War by working as a volunteer in the Forces’ NAAFI in the building which is now the Marine Theatre.

She did various jobs during her working life, one of them being at the Woodroffe School’s boys’ boarding house, at St Andrews, where she was a very popular assistant matron.

Mrs Derrick was an accomplished ballroom dancer, winning many cups and medals in her younger days, and was also passionate about the stage. A founder member of the reformed Lyme Regis Pantomime Society in 1984, she took a role in every production until 1996 when, at the age of 72, she bowed out with “Mother Goose.”

Mrs Derrick, whose second husband died a few years ago, leaves two sons, a daughter, grandchildren and a brother.