Cocking parish priest from 1959 to 1960
Sir Derwent William Kermode was a career diplomat who had served as the British Ambassador to Indonesia from 1950 to 1953 and to Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1955, before being ordained as a priest. He was rector at Cocking and Bepton from early 1959 until his death in January 1960.
Derwent William Kermode was born at Glenwood House, Winchmore Hill, Middlesex on 19 June 1898. He was the youngest child and only son of Frederic Bishop Kermode (1849–1936) and his wife, Florence Amy Isabel née Marshall (1856–1935).
Family background
Frederic Bishop Kermode was born in Ramsey on the Isle of Man on 2 April 1849. He was one of nine children born to Revd. William Kermode and his second wife, Jane née Bishop. His siblings included Margaret Letitia Josephine Kermode (1852–1937), a poet and playwright better known by the pen name “Cushag”, and Philip Moore Callow Kermode (1855–1932), an antiquarian, historian and naturalist. William Kermode (1814–1890) was Chaplain of St. Paul’s, Ramsey, and later Rector of Ballaugh.
Frederic Bishop Kermode graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1872, becoming a school master. He married Isabel Marshall at St Barnabas Church, Kensington on 25 August 1891; she was the daughter of Benjamin Marshall, the vicar of St Cuthbert’s Church, Carlisle. He was 42 and she was 35. Shortly after the birth of Derwent, he had established his own school at Green Lanes, Southgate, Middlesex before moving to Eastbourne, Sussex to establish Hartfield School at 17 The Avenue. He was still recorded as the school proprietor in 1921; after his retirement, he moved to Harrow-on-the Hill, where he died on 6 November 1936, aged 87.
Early life and education
At the 1901 census, 2-year old Derwent Kermode was living with his parents and three elder sisters in the school at 2 Green Lanes Villas, Southgate. As well as several pupils (all boys, aged between 9 and 18) and a schoolmaster, Charles Goslett, the family had three female servants, a nurse, a cook and a housemaid.
Ten years later, the family were now at the Hartfield School in Eastbourne, where Derwent was now a pupil at his father’s school, which at the time had two assistant teachers and 14 other pupils.
Derwent was later a student at Lynchmere School in Carew Road, Eastbourne before going on to Eastbourne College.
Military service in World War One
After training in an Office Cadet Unit, Derwent was promoted to Second Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery on 6 September 1917 and sent to France on 13 October. He survived the war and was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, although these were not sent to him until May 1923.
Following his discharge from the Army, he worked as a proof-reader for the Eastbourne Gazette newspaper for nearly a year.
At the census in June 1921, Derwent was living with his parents at Hartfield School, together with his married sister, Joyce McMinnies and her 4-year old daughter, Joan. He gave his occupation as “Just entering Civil Service abroad”.
Diplomatic career
Derwent Kermode entered the British Consular Service in late 1920, aged 22. He initially served in various consular posts in Japan including at Tokyo, Yokohama and Tamsui in Taiwan (then under Japanese occupation), before being appointed Consul at Kobe in June 1938, under Alexander Rutherford Ovens, Consul-General.
In 1939, he was appointed acting Consul-General in Seoul, Korea (then a protectorate of Japan). His predecessor, Arthur de la Mare was quoted by J. E. Hoare in his 2013 book Embassies in the East:
Heating [in the residential buildings in the embassy compound] was expensive and not very efficient; the long periods when the main residential buildings were not in use meant that they quickly deteriorated. De la Mare complained of huge gaps between window frames and walls in the number two house, through which the Siberian wind whistled.
He also claimed that when Derwent Kermode and his wife arrived to take over from him in 1939 that the condition of the number one house, which by then had been left empty and unheated for four or five months over the winter, was such that Mrs Kermode’s “consumption of gin and cigarettes, already assuring her of a very creditable batting average, sent her soaring into the Guinness Book of Records”.
He was later briefly transferred to Mukden (now Shenyang) in Manchuria, China (under Japanese occupation), before returning to England after Japan entered the Second World War. (An article in the Eastbourne Gazette in December 1945 describes Derwent Kermode rather fancifully as “the last man to leave Manchuria in the war”.)
After the war, he returned to Seoul as Consul-General in April 1946. Conditions at the consular buildings had not improved since 1939. In a telegram to the Foreign Office in June 1946, Kermode complained that the residence was depressing, and water shortages made baths difficult, while a lack of glasses forced him to use jam jars to serve drinks. Furthermore, without a safe, he could not use cyphers, precluding a secure means of communication and almost all telegraphic material had to be sent to Tokyo for transmission.
After the collapse of the Japanese empire at the end of the war, Korea was administered as a trusteeship, with the Soviet Union administering the northern part of the peninsula and the United States administering the south. Derwent Kermode endeavoured to represent British interests during a period of conflict between the two super-powers, and to keep the Foreign Office informed of events on the ground.
In 1946, one of the main southern Korean politicians was Dr. Syngman Rhee. In a telegram to the Foreign Office in June 1946, Derwent Kermode observed that Rhee was “more interested in his own fortunes than in the welfare of the people to commend himself as the nation’s future leader”. In February 1947, he described Rhee as “a ‘megalomaniac’ bent on achieving his ambitions of Korean unity at any price”.
In August 1948, the new nations of the Republic of Korea in the south (with Rhee as the first President), and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the north were established. As a consequence, Britain’s representative in Seoul was raised to the status of Minister, and Derwent Kermode had been recalled to London in May to be replaced by Vyvyan Holt. Before relinquishing this post, he was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1948 New Year Honours.
He was appointed the first British Ambassador to Indonesia in January 1950 following the country’s transfer of sovereignty and the establishment of an Embassy in Jakarta. On departing for Jakarta, Lady Kermode commented that she hoped that the residence would have a piano, as her husband was fond of music.
He was promoted to Knight Commander (KCMG) in the 1952 Birthday Honours.
He was recalled to London in January 1953 and appointed as the British Ambassador to Czechoslovakia the following month. On 24 March 1953, Derwent Kermode and his wife were received in audience by HM Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace when he “kissed hands”, before having his knighthood formally confirmed.
He retired from the Consular Service in December 1955, and was again received by the Queen on 7 December.
Marriage and family
In 1925, Derwent (aged 27) married 24-year old Barbara Nell Thorn, at Eton, Buckinghamshire. She was the daughter of Clifford Saloman Thorn, a coach builder, and his wife, Rose. Their first child, Peter Derwent, was born in Tokyo on 16 August 1926. Three further children were born in Japan over the next six years: Lois Barbara (born 1928), Brian Patrick (born 1929) and Deborah Mary (born 1932).
Brian married Shirley Whittaker in April 1954: their children included Robin Kermode (born 1958), the actor, and Chris Kermode (born 1963), the tennis executive.
Clerical career
On retiring from the British Consular Service in 1955, Derwent decided to take up holy orders. In an interview with the Wells Journal in December 1956, he said that he had contemplated entering the church for some years before his retirement. “I have begun a new life, and I am also carrying on a family tradition. Both my grandfathers and three uncles were called to the ministry.” He later said: “Retirement is living death. Work, however humble, is life. Work in the service of others, is a profitable life.” “If a person is in good health, 70 is the earliest age to retire.”
On 16 December 1956, after a year at Wells Theological College, Derwent (aged 58) was ordained as a deacon at Wells Cathedral, by the Lord Bishop of Bath & Wells, Harold Bradfield, following which he was appointed as curate at St Peter’s Church, Portishead, as assistant to the Revd. W.L.M. Coombes.
On 16 June 1957, at Wells Cathedral, he was ordained as a priest by The Right Reverend Mark Hodson, Bishop of Taunton.
In December 1958, it was announced that Derwent Kermode was to be appointed as rector to the united benefice of Cocking with Bepton in West Sussex; he was installed at Cocking church the following month.
Death and funeral
Sadly, his sojourn at Cocking and Bepton was brief, and he died suddenly at Cocking Rectory on 12 January 1960, a year after his installation, aged 61. The causes of death were a cerebral haemorrhage and hypertensive heart disease. His tenure as parish priest at Cocking was the shortest since the foundation of the Church of England.
He was buried at Cocking church on 18 January 1960. The funeral service was conducted by The Right Revd. Roger Wilson, Bishop of Chichester assisted by the Archdeacon of Chichester, The Ven Lancelot Mason and Revd. Race Godfrey. The funeral was attended by several dignitaries including Sir Hubert Graves (representing the Foreign Office) and his wife, and Major-General Sir Humphry Tollemache.
Barbara, Lady Kermode survived her husband by 28 years and died at Alverstoke, near Gosport on 7 July 1988, aged 87. She was buried alongside her husband in Cocking churchyard. The gravestone bears the epitaph:
Courageous & steadfast in their faith in God
Unswerving in their love for each other
BELOVED BY US THEIR CHILDREN
Sources
Ancestry.co.uk:
1901 England Census
1911 England Census
1921 England Census
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966
UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960
UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960
UK, WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920
Baxter, Christopher James. (2000) Britain and the Origins of the Cold War in East Asia, 1944-1949. King’s College London. Pp.102-120, 236-256
Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore): 4 January 1950. Britain’s Ambassador to Indonesia
Cocking History Group (2005). A Short History of Cocking. p.109
Daily Express:
17 February 1953. Iron Curtain Envoy
23 July 1959. Work is Life
Daily Telegraph: 18 January 1960. Court and Social
Dublin Daily Express: 7 September 1917. War Office – Special Reserve of Officers
Dundee Evening Telegraph: 4 January 1950. Ambassador at Jakarta
Eastbourne Gazette:
26 December 1945. Interesting Christening
18 February 1953. Sir Derwent Kermode’s New Appointment
Eastbourne Herald:
20 October 1951. Engagement
6 December 1958. Diplomat Turns Priest
Evening News (London):
18 December 1958. Going Home
13 January 1960. Ex-Envoy Priest Dies Suddenly
Express & Echo: 13 January 1960. Former Envoy Dies
Find-a-Grave: Sir Derwent William Kermode
Hoare, J.E. (1999) Embassies in the East. ISBN: 978-0-7007-0512-2. Routledge (quoted in Secret Siam, Bangkok Stinks by Andrew MacGregor Marshall)
Illustrated London News:
28 February 1953. People in the Public Eye
23 January 1960. Diplomat and Rector
Indian Daily News: 4 January 1950. First British Ambassador to Indonesia Named
Isle of Man Times:
26 May 1951. Engaged
21 May 1953. Another Manxman Ambassador
London & China Express: 19 August 1926. Births
The London Gazette:
6 September 1917. No. 30271 (Supplement). p. 9253
24 December 1946. No. 37828. p. 6253
30 December 1947. No. 38161 (Supplement). p. 7
23 January 1950. No. 38952. p. 3257
30 May 1952. No. 39555 (Supplement). p. 3011
The National Archives:
WO 339/90352 Lieutenant Derwent William KERMODE Royal Field Artillery
Nottingham Journal: 3 January 1950. New Envoy
Rust, William. (2019) The Mask of Neutrality: The United States and Decolonization in Indonesia, 1942–1950. pp. 359-386
The Scotsman:
6 January 1953. New British Ambassador to Indonesia
8 December 1955. The Court
The Straits Times:
27 February 1950. Anglo-Indonesian Toast
18 February 1953. New Envoy
Sunday Herald (Sydney): 22 January 1950. Envoy to Indonesia
Sussex Daily News:
6 January 1953. Sussex Scene
17 February 1953. Sussex Man is Envoy to Prague
27 February 1953. Erratum
Sussex Express: 20 February 1953. British Ambassador at Jakarta
The Times:
6 January 1953. British Ambassador to Indonesia
17 February 1953. New Ambassador to Czechoslovakia
25 March 1953. Court Circular
17 December 1958. Church Appointments
13 January 1960. Rev. Sir Derwent Kermode
16 January 1960. Today’s Arrangements
18 January 1960. Deaths
12 July 1988. Deaths
Wells Journal:
21 December 1956. Ecclesiastical News
21 December 1956. Wells Cathedral Ordination
21 June 1957. Trinity Ordination
22 January 1960. The Revd. Sir Derwent William Kermode
1 April 1960. Lived at Wells
Western Advertiser: 22 June 1957. Priests and Deacons Ordained
Wikipedia: Derwent Kermode
Yorkshire Post: 25 March 1953. Court and Personal
Picture credits
Portrait: National Portrait Gallery
Gravestone: David Earley