Attention: You are using an outdated browser, device or you do not have the latest version of JavaScript downloaded and so this website may not work as expected. Please download the latest software or switch device to avoid further issues.

News > In Memoriam > Jim Dove, Saunton Sands 1941 - 1945

Jim Dove, Saunton Sands 1941 - 1945

One of our oldest Dukies, passed away at the age of 94.
6 Nov 2024
In Memoriam

Sad news from New Zealand, that one of the last surviving  Saunton Sands Dukies, James (Jim) Dove, has died not long after his 94th birthday.

Jim Dove, who died in New Zealand on October 31st  aged 94, was born in 1930 into a London East End family of shipwrights. However his father was a career soldier, an explosives expert who served in the BEF in France in 1940, eventually retiring in the rank of major. His grandfather was a legendary footballer with West Ham United, provoking a near riot when he was transferred to arch rivals Millwall.

Jim chose DoYRMS after reading about it in a wartime magazine. He joined in May 1941 at Saunton Sands, staying until 1945 so he never made the return to Dover. He progressed to army apprentice college, joining the Royal Signals in 1948 and serving in the Malaya Emergency. In the late 1950s he emigrated to New Zealand, transferring to the Royal NZ Signals where he rose to the rank of WO2. He next put in a long stint with New Zealand Airways in its fledgling IT unit. He took senior voluntary posts with Dukies Downunder, making a return to the UK to visit the School in Dover in the 1980s. He was a proud - and smart - parader on ANZAC Day and other memorial events, keeping fit with weekly aerobics sessions in the garage he converted into a gym. He was also a keen photographer from early days, specimens from which archive have been transmitted to School.

Jim was married and widowed twice, latterly to Mary who died in 2022. He spent most of his retirement in New South Wales, Australia before his son Steve engineered his final return to New Zealand to be near family. Jim was also one of the founder members of the internet loop set up by Dukie and School historian Art Cockerill (1939-44), on which he was a regular and informative correspondent. In 2022,  through The Dukies' Foundation, he donated to School the ceremonial naval sword to be held by the RNVR CCF officer (currently Steve Socci), carried at the Coronation of King Charles. It was presented on his behalf by Chris Crowcroft (1963-70) who has prepared this obituary.

Jim Dove was above all the ideal Dukie, active, cheerful with all and, until this last post, indefatigable. Requiescat.

Chris Crowcroft

Similar stories

Peter Somerville, front left.

Peter Jaffray Somerville 20.06.31 to 11.10.22 Regimental Number 418390 More...

The School remembered Matt Benjamin in Chapel today. More...

Sons of the Brave Volume Two is now avaiable to purchase. More...

Courtesy of the incredible work completed by Andy Benns, Chris Tomlinson and the late Rick Watt, the school chaplain del… More...

Most read

It is with sadness to advise you that former pupil, William Benjamin Cox born 1934, passed away on 14/01/2025 aged 90 years More...

The Battle of Isandlwana. By Charles Fripp who visited the battlefield a few weeks after the battle.

The Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879 was the first major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Sever… More...

The four Dukies who died at Hutton during World War 1 remembered in All Saints Churchyard.

Many will know that School was evacuated from its Guston site during both world wars, but not much is recorded about where it was moved to during the … More...

Have your say