A SECOND World War veteran who just last month asked Islanders, through the columns of the JEP, to remember the sacrifice of fallen comrades, had died aged 103.
Derek Touzel – one of the last surviving Jerseymen to have fought in the War – passed away on Christmas Day morning at Lakeside Care Home in St Peter.
Mr Touzel featured in the JEP this Remembrance Day, sharing his story publicly for the first time, with the message that young people cannot forget the sacrifice that so many of his friends and colleagues made to secure today’s freedoms.
“I was one of the lucky ones,” he reflected.
Playing tribute to Mr Touzel, Squadron Leader Martin Willing, a past chair of the local branch of the Royal Air Forces Association, said: “We in the Jersey branch of the RAFA are very sad to acknowledge to passing of Derek, our longest-serving member.
“Derek left Jersey aged 17 on one of the last boats to leave the Island prior to the Occupation. Arriving in Weymouth with his parents, he felt a strong call of duty to join up and serve his country. He was thwarted in this aim for almost two years as he could not pass the Ishihara colour blindness test.
“Finally, the RAF relented and accepted him for technical training that ended with his appointment as an instrument repair fitter, and he was sent overseas to Italy in late 1943.
“Joining an army-support RAF squadron, he spent the following year living a tented existence as the war moved northwards up the eastern coast of Italy.
“He was then posted to Egypt, to RAF Abu Sueir, to join the technical establishment looking after the many Lancaster bombers that were based there.”
Mr Willing continued: “In early 1947, he returned to England for demobilisation, and then to his beloved Jersey, where he joined his father in the tobacco business. His father retired in the early 1950s and Derek took over the family business with considerable success until his own retirement in 1990.
“Throughout his long life, Derek has always regarded his shortish wartime period of RAF service as his best experience, and as his health declined, he liked nothing more than to discuss RAF matters and his wartime service life. He will be greatly missed by all his friends and colleagues in RAFA and the Island.”
Mr Willing added that Mr Touzel was a “quiet and wonderful old Jerseyman” who was both private and humble, choosing not to claim the service medals he was entitled to and revealing little of his wartime experiences to friends, family and colleagues until later in his long life.
