Peter G. Andrews

WILMINGTON - Peter Gibson Andrews, age 94, of Wilmington, Delaware, died June 4, 2014. Born in 1920 in Chiswick, England, the son of George C. G. and Ada Andrews (nee Davies), he grew up in Carshalton, England. He graduated from the Whitgift School, Croydon, England. He won a scholarship to Sidney Sussex College at Cambridge University, where he read Mechanical Sciences. He graduated in 1940 with a First Class Honors degree and earned the Rex Moir Prize as the top engineering graduate. After a year doing rocket research for the Admiralty, Mr. Andrews was assigned to the Royal Navy where he served on four different warships as an engineering officer. As part of the Allied Russian convoys, in 1942, he survived the sinking of the light cruiser HMS Edinburgh in the Arctic Circle. In 1943, he served on the light cruiser HMS Belfast during the Battle of the North Cape, in which the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was sunk. On D-Day, he was aboard the HMS Belfast off of Gold Beach in support of the Allied landings. The HMS Belfast is now part of the Imperial War Museum, permanently moored on the Thames River in London. After demobilization in 1946, Mr. Andrews joined Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in the north of England. He was sent to Providence, Rhode Island in 1952 to work on an ICI joint venture. There he met Jean Carol Fitzgerald. They married in 1954, and returned to live in England, where their two children were born. In 1958, the family moved to the United States, and settled in Williamsburg, Virginia, where Mr. Andrews worked for the Dow Chemical Company. In 1971, he moved with his family to Bethesda, Maryland, where he worked for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, and became an expert in synthetic fibers. He retired in 1985 and continued to consult for a number of years. Mr. Andrews was one of five founding directors of the Sidney Sussex Foundation, and he was later a member of Sidney's 1596 Society. He was a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers London. Mr. Andrews became a U.S. citizen in 2009. Mr. Andrews was an enthusiastic athlete and skilled marksman. He enjoyed playing rugby, skiing, and golfing. A competitive runner, at age 65, he completed the D.C. Marathon in 3 hours, 41 minutes. Mr. Andrews travelled abroad extensively for work and on vacation, and visited more than 80 countries. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews walked across the north of England in 1993. They also enjoyed family beach vacations in the Outer Banks of North Carolina for many decades. They both enjoyed playing bridge. In 2008, after 53 years of marriage, his beloved wife Jean predeceased him. He is survived by his sister, Joan Andrews, of Sutton, Surrey, England; his son, Richard Andrews, and daughter-in-law, Cathy Lanctot, of Wilmington, Delaware; his daughter, Patricia Andrews, and son-in-law, Michael Gray, of New York, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts; and his two grandchildren, Peter and Amy Andrews, of Wilmington, Delaware. Services are private. Contributions may be made to the Worldwide Wildlife Fund. 1250 Twenty-Fourth Street, N.W. P.O. Box 97180 Washington, DC 20090-7180 or WWF.org. chandlerfuneralhome.com 302-478-7100