My friend and former colleague George Derbyshire, who has died aged 85, was a first-class financial administrator who applied his skills to the running of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts.
Beginning his career with the BBC, George ran the World Service relay station at Johor Bahru in Malaysia, an experience that instilled a lifelong love of Chinese culture. On his return to the UK he was in charge of finances for BBC Schools television (1972-79). It was there that he met John Hosier who, on becoming principal of the Guildhall School, invited George to become director of finance and administration. I was the director of music at the school at that time, and worked closely with both of them.
After a decade in that role, George followed John to Hong Kong to fulfil a similar role at HKAPA and renew his love of the local culture. He prided himself on his grasp of Cantonese, but occasionally embarrassed his family in Chinese restaurants when his vocabulary failed him.
Born in east Manchester, he was the son of George, a sheet-metal worker, and Isabel (nee Airey), a housewife and cleaner. After school at North Manchester grammar, George Jr gained a place at the London School of Economics to study law. On completing his degree in 1962, he worked for a short while for the Co-op Insurance Society in Manchester. That city never left his heart, and he was a lifelong supporter of Manchester City.
He joined the BBC in 1965 as a management trainee, the same year that he married Elaine McKnight, a primary school teacher. Two years later, he took up the Malaysia role.
After retiring from Hong Kong in 1997, George settled back in the UK with Elaine. Following John’s death in 2000, George helped his partner, Biddy Baxter, set up the John Hosier Music Trust. A fierce supporter of the Liberal Democrats, George became a local councillor in Watford and took the role of chair of the borough council in 2014. His last great consuming political cause was the campaign for the return of the UK to the EU.
He is survived by Elaine, their children, Jonathan, Andrew and Victoria, four grandchildren and his sister, Dorothy.
