Dermot de Trafford

Dermot de Trafford was born at Marylebone in London, but grew up at the Loder Dower House, Cowfold, Sussex, which had been rented by his parents in 1936.

[citation needed] He received his early education from his French governess, Genevieve Galopin, and at Egerton House Pre-Prep School in Dorset Square, London.

In 1934 he went to study under the Benedictine Order of monks at the Worth Priory Prep School; but following an illness was sent to Switzerland to recuperate at Le Rosey on Lake Geneva.

In April 1944, Dermot was attached to the Royal Naval Reserve under Lt Colonel Bill Toombs as Intelligence Office and resident Turkish interpreter at the Coastal Forces Base.

During the 1950s, Dermot served on the board of several industrial firms, which in 1961 he merged into a public company; The GHP (General Hydraulic Power) Group, becoming the first Managing Director, then Chairman in 1966.

Following his retirement from his business interests in 1990, Dermot became involved in charity work, he became a director of the Andover Crisis and Support Centre and of People Need Homes Plc.

[2] In 1972, Dermot and Patricia oversaw the sale of the 2,430-acre (9.8 km2) Newsells Park Estate, Barkway which had been acquired by his Uncle, Humphrey de Trafford, 4th Baronet in 1926 and also the disposal of the Stud Farm which the family had established there.