Admiral Peter Deeth, who has died aged 92, was the founding member, Commodore several times, and avid supporter of the English Harbour Yacht Club, later renamed the Antigua Yacht Club. Born in Leigh-on-Sea, England, Peter briefly attended Oxford University before being sent to Canada to train as a pilot for the Royal Air Force in 1942. He flew for the RAF until 1947, ending up in command of a B24 bomber in the Far East. He then moved to India to join his father’s import-export business where he met Ann and bought his first boat, Kelpie, which they raced successfully together. They married in 1954 and moved to Trinidad in 1957, after Peter retrained as a commercial airline pilot and was hired by British West Indies Airlines. A detached retina forced an early retirement from flying and brought Peter, Ann and daughters, Alison and Astrid, to Antigua in 1960 where they added son, Paul, and built and opened The Inn at English Harbour. They operated The Inn for 30 years helping to bring tourism and employment to English Harbour, which, at the time, was impoverished, undeveloped and little visited. Given his passion for sailing, Peter, along with Desmond Nicholson and Howard Hulford, decided to start a friendly racing event to mark the end of the tourist season for hotels and charter yachts. This event, which Peter co-founded and chaired multiple times, became Antigua Sailing Week, which in 2017, celebrated its 50th edition.
Peter was an active Life Member of the AYC and ended his sailing days in the Caribbean three years ago at the ripe old age of 89.
Married 62 years, his wife predeceased him in January 2017.
Admiral Peter Deeth, born 16th September 1924, died 9th August 2017
