| Derek John Montefiore (B3 1942-46), passed away in August 2025. He was father to James Montofiore (B3 1974-78). He was born at 5 Draycott Place, in London on 6 May 1928 to Millicent (nee Lazarus) and Langton Montefiore. At the onset of the Second World War the family moved to Valley Holme, Horsted Keynes, in West Sussex. He went away to preparatory school as a border at Durnford School on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset in the village of Langton Matravers. Post Durnford, Derek attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire from 1942 to 1946. During this time at Marlborough, his father became a casualty of WWII and went missing in action in the Greek campaign. After school, while his mother suggested further studies in accountancy, his grandmother suggested architecture. And it was this that he pursued for a career, reflecting his love of art and drawing and also managing and leading people. Derek continued in this fulfilling work well into his 80s. Derek was a cadet when at Marlborough College, and joined the Royal Artillery in 1946. He was commissioned as 2nd Lt in 1947 and was released from service in August 1948. For National Service from 1949 he enlisted in the Territorial Army, serving for most of his time on Salisbury Plain, based at Larkhill. In the military, Derek won a title as featherweight boxing champion and also had medals for rifle shooting. Following on from his service he joined the Honourable Artillery Company, where he remained a stalwart supporter of one troop, A Battery for over 70 years and was given the ultimate accolade of being known as Father of the Regiment. He trained at the Architectural Association from 1948 to 1953 and his first major role was with Llewellyn Davies and Weeks: pathology building at St Mary’s Paddington. He also worked for Collistors working on the Governor’s Residence, Enugu, Nigeria. Also housing in Diobu and Enugu. And he also developed schemes for the government buildings in Iran, or Persia as it then was. But most of his architectural career was as the lead in his own practice, MHM Partnership. Derek’s particular skill was in designing hospitals including at Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn, Huntingdon and Peterborough. He also redeveloped several barracks across the UK, beginning with Weeton Camp, Lancashire; upgrading the Hyde Park Barracks, London; and most notably remodelling the Royal Citadel in Plymouth. In final years of working, Derek became a specialist in party-wall awards (he kept a list of all of them from 2007 to 2013), not stopping until 2014. He was also a keen activist in the Franco-British Union of Architects often hosting the Gaullist contingent at his home in Wellesley Road, conducting their visits across the UK and being hosted in reciprocal fashion in France – always a colourful aspect to his profession. He married Kathleen Kasischke in 1957 (divorced 1979) and they had three children: Sara, James, Anne. They divorced in 1979 and after some years Derek found himself in Wellesley Road in Chiswick, west London. During many of the subsequent years he was in a long-term partnership with Christine Ferrier until around 2010 when Christine died of cancer. Derek had a strong relationship with Christine and her children: Fifi, Nikki and Mandy. He was gregarious and he loved people and company. He was generous and he was kind – he was a gentleman. His life was full of activity – always visiting exhibitions, galleries, horse racing, attending the theatre and opera, dining well, travelling widely and of course the shooting and country pursuits learnt from boyhood served him well until late in his life. In the latter years, he had tremendous support and love from his neighbours on Wellesley Road. And finally at his nursing home in Chiswick where he passed away. Funny that he often worked on nursing homes in his architectural career, for which he remarked that he would like to finish his days in one of his own-designed homes! |
