Tributes to Hove shopkeeper who contacted space shuttle

Granddaughter Laura Roberts remembers him talking about how he called every country in the world from his Portslade home.

Once, he holidayed with friends in South Africa he had first met via radio.

In 1983 he even managed to get through to the Space Shuttle Columbia on its mission to carry the first space laboratory into orbit. Astronaut Owen Garriott later sent him a calling card.

Derick died on May 2 aged 85 after suffering from dementia. With coronavirus lockdown in full force, his family were not able to hold a funeral.

A calling card from the Space Shuttle Columbia

Laura, 27, said he was a popular figure in Hove after opening D F Browne Television and Radio in Portland Road in 1962.

“He closed the shop before I was born but he used to tell stories about it all the time,” she said.

“All the local old dears knew him and used to go into the back to make him coffee.”

Always going the extra mile for customers, he was often seen driving around Hove in his company van, nicknamed "The Hearse".

He changed the spelling of his last name from Brown to Browne so his business would appear at the end of the Browns in phone books.

Derick, left, showing off a new TV in his Portland Road shop

But he was not afraid to get crafty if anyone tried to swindle him.

“One of his customers rented a TV from him and hadn’t paid for three months,” said Laura.

“So my grandad snuck on to the customer’s roof and cut the aerial cable.

“The customer had the cheek to call up my grandad and request a repair.

“So my grandad turned up straight away acting all nice and sweet and said the TV needed to be taken back to the workshop.

“My grandad never brought it back.”

Derick’s interest in TV and radio extended far beyond his shop.

Derick's company car, nicknamed 'The Hearse'

A mammoth 100ft aerial still stands in his garden, picking up television signals across the world.

“My mum would always want to watch Top Of The Pops but she would turn the TV on and some obscure show in Russian would come on,” Laura laughed.

Though she visited Derick every week after he was moved to a care home due to his dementia, Laura only saw her grandfather once this year.

“When I found out I was pregnant on New Year’s Day I had morning sickness and he had a chest infection so we couldn’t see each other,” she said.

“When we both got better, lockdown started.

Laura with Derick four years ago

“I only saw him once, but I told him I was pregnant with his great-grandchild.

“I don’t know if he understood what I was saying but he squeezed my hand.

“I’m always going to remember that as my last memory of him.”

Derick is survived by wife Margret, daughters Michele Gainer and Julie Beale and granddaughters Laura, Alice Gainer and Lily-Ella Beale.