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