Derek McCracken attended George Heriot’s School from 1942 to 1955. He lived just over the wall from Goldenacre so, as a youngster, he spent many happy hours trespassing on the hallowed playing fields and irritating the groundsman with two neighbouring pals who would remain lifelong friends – Ken Scotland and Eddie McKeating. They were a highly-talented, close-knit trio, all born within days of each other.

It surprised nobody that the three boys became superb all-round sportsmen, and Derek played with distinction in the School’s First XV at rugby, in the First XI at cricket, and in the School tennis team.

On leaving School, Derek entered the RAF, intending simply to get his National Service over and done with. However, he found he enjoyed military life so much that he spent the next eight years in the RAF, starting with flying training while based in Canada.

He returned to Cambridge and was promoted to Flight Lieutenant with 6 Squadron, flying in Canberra bombers and Javelins as navigator, seeing action in Cyprus and myriad other terrorist trouble spots all around the world. Derek also had the more peaceful privilege of acting as aide-de-camp to HRH Princess Margaret during her official visit to Northern Ireland

Airforce duties inevitably curtailed his opportunities to play former pupil rugby, yet in the early-to-mid 1960s Derek managed, on leave, to fit in many games for Heriot’s FP 1^st XV. He was tall, rangy and quick at wing-forward, sometimes a high-leaping lineout man at lock, and he scored some crucial tries for Heriot’s, not least against traditional rivals, Hawick.

Derek’s RAF officer credentials (allied to his elegant bearing and a natty sports car), were possibly the origin of his affectionate Goldenacre nickname, ‘Gentleman Joe’ – though nobody could quite explain the ‘Joe’ part. If absolutely necessary, ‘Joe’ packed a gentlemanly right hook, as the combative Ronnie Glasgow once discovered. (Referees were less intrusive then.) Derek’s very last game of rugby was in 1969 at Raeburn Place when, yet again, Heriot’s FP won the Old Crock’s Tournament – in which he sustained a broken nose, as pictured.

He had really stopped playing serious rugby after 1964, when he left the RAF for Civvy Street and joined Ethicon Limited, a 2,000-employee Johnson & Johnson company manufacturing surgical sutures and other wound closure products, headquartered at Sighthill in Edinburgh. He soon moved up the sales management ladder, and given his far-flung RAF experiences, it seemed pre-destined that he would gravitate towards the exporting side of the business.

Within 10 years, Derek was appointed to the Ethicon Board as Export Sales Director, and he was hugely influential in the company winning no fewer than six Queen’s Awards for Export Achievement.

Naturally, with over 100 export markets developed, his work took him abroad to multiple countries, so once again he was a frequent flyer – not as navigating officer now, just another commercial passenger. (Nonetheless, as an airman, he particularly appreciated the numerous opportunities he had to fly on Concorde, to and from the USA and Singapore.)

Derek’s ‘ambassadorial’ sales role when visiting customers (surgeons, government health ministers, agents) in countries such as Iran, Iraq and Israel required a special kind of tact and diplomacy. In this he was occasionally supported by the presence of his elegant and charming wife. Margery’s inimitable storytelling and sense of fun often featured Derek as the affectionate butt of her humour: he would just smile, clearly loving it . . .

Soon after Derek’s retirement from Ethicon, he and Margery, with daughters Jane and Jill, left Edinburgh and moved into their beautiful new country home in Warenton, Northumberland. With an architect, Derek had largely designed the substantial property within the hamlet where they used to spend idyllic summer holidays. Thereafter, ‘Old Shepherd’s Cottage’ warmly welcomed many old Heriot’s FPs and other friends for typically generous McCracken house parties and overnight stays.

In recent years, Derek suffered increasingly from Parkinson’s, but always retained with unfailing, courtly grace his quiet dignity and pawky sense of humour. He finally passed away on Sunday 17^th May, and his funeral will be held at Warriston Crematorium on Wednesday 3^rd June at 1 pm.

Derek S McCracken will be very sorely missed by his many friends.

Our sincere Heriot’s condolences go to all of Derek’s family and friends.