"[1] During World War I, his knowledge of German meant that in 1916–1917 he was employed by the British army at a listening post only 200 metres away from the enemy lines, eavesdropping on their telephone conversations.
In the mid-1920s, he fractured his hip, which kept him away from work for a year, after which his growing fascination with bridge meant that he turned to it as his sole way of making his living.
[1] Initially only playing rubber bridge, in 1932 he watched part of the final of the 1932 Gold Cup.
[4] He made three appearances in the Camrose Trophy for England in 1937–1939, two matches being won and one lost.
[6] A number of top players, including Maurice Harrison-Gray, Terence Reese, Kenneth Konstam and Adam Meredith, honed their game at his eponymous club Lederer's in the late 1930s.
In 1939, the club had to move to smaller premises and was renamed the Tyburn, Reese observing that "Dick was a big man in every way, but business-like he was not.