Eric Dietrich-Berryman

Eric Dietrich-Berryman was born in Berlin, Germany and grew up in Aberdare, Wales and Gloucester, England. He came to the United States at the age of seventeen as an unaccompanied immigrant on the German quota for 1957. He was educated at Upfield Preparatory School, Stroud, England; Hofstra University, New York (BA, 1966); and the University of New Mexico (MA, 1968; PhD, 1971). He served in the U.S. Army as a helicopter door gunner in the Vietnam War and retired from the U.S. Navy in 1994 as a commander. He retired a second time in 2003 from what is now the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Eric and his wife Bobbie live in Virginia Beach, Virginia at the western foot of Cape Henry.

Charlotte Hammond was born in Brighton, England. She spent her early years in Hove in a flat that overlooked HMS King Alfred. Educated at Chatsmore Catholic High School and Worthing Sixth Form College, she was Head Girl of her secondary school. She completed her professional studies at the College of Law, Guildford, and is an associate solicitor, Commercial Litigation Department, in the Sea Lane Chambers of Bennett Griffin, Solicitors. Her paternal grandfather served in the plans section of the U.S. Navy's Grosvenor Square facility cited in this book, and afloat on the destroyer USS Barton and the cruiser USS Columbus. She was formerly a legal advisor in Court Service where she met Police Constable Ronald White. Charlotte died of cancer on July 31, 2012. She leaves a husband, Matthew Wrighton, daughter Sophie and son Joe.

Ronald E. White, known to everyone as Chalky, was born in 1937 and educated at Cobham in Surrey. He entered the Royal Navy at the age of fifteen as a Boy Seaman and continued his education and naval training at HMS St Vincent, Gosport. Chalky served on board ships all over the world, including the destroyer HMS Barrosa, the frigate HMS Troubridge, and the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious. He joined Sussex Police in 1962 and served in various postings including Steyning, Shoreham-by-Sea, Arundel, Eridge, where he was the village police officer, and finally at Littlehampton, all within the County of Sussex. Chalky admired and respected the late Bernard 16th Duke of Norfolk and had a great affection for him. His Grace reciprocated in kind and when he died in 1975, having planned his own funeral, Chalky was asked to lead the funeral procession. In 1982 he was invited to a reception in St. James' Palace where the Marquess of Abergavenny introduced him personally to Her Majesty the Queen as "This is Chalky, my policeman!" He retired as a police constable in 1992 with more than thirty years' service and six commendations and lived in Goring-by-Sea. His hobbies included naval history research, long-distance country walking, and gardening. Chalky White died of mesothelioma in the spring of 2009.