Obituary: Entrepreneur Diana Searby has died aged 94

As well as creating art and writing memoirs, she also turned her hand to setting up a bed and breakfast after working in a bank for 17 years. 

It is fair to say that, before her death aged 94, Mrs Searby embraced many changes and phases within her life. 

Her daughter, Victoria Searby, said: "Diana was a phenomenon, a force of nature, living her life entirely on her own terms with boundless energy, drive and determination. 

“She had enormous strength in adversity, despite her many illnesses and hospitalisations, and faced them with grace, elegance, and an impish sense of fun, which is a rare combination.” 

Diana Searby with her mother, Frances (Image: Supplied by family)

From a 1930s childhood in Sidcup in south-east London, she attended various schools due to the Second World War evacuation scheme.  

Towards the end of the war, she won a scholarship to the nearby Chislehurst County Grammar School. 

Although a keen and talented artist, after leaving school she started work at the Bank of England, mainly in the Exchange Control Office, travelling up from Kent, then Sussex.  

As London was being rebuilt after the war, it meant she had many recollections of that time. 

This included seeing Roman bust of Mithras being uncovered in 1954 at the Barbican while new foundations were being dug for the London buildings, hearing tube trains travelling to vaults to retrieve classified documents, and seeing the gold bullion being unloaded. 

Diana Searby's husband, John Searby (Image: Supplied by family)

After 17 years at the Bank of England, she settled down with her husband, John Searby, after he retired from the RAF on health grounds. 

Together they travelled through France and Spain, then in 1970 with a toddler in tow, they moved to Norfolk. 

Here she financed a start-up bed and breakfast in the old rectory at Dickleburgh, selling local crafts as a side line, before moving to a bigger property near Diss in 1972. 

Forever an entrepreneur, her crafts side line grew into an antiques business from the barn of the old farmhouse. 

In 1974, bedbound with a back injury, she used the time to write her wartime evacuation story, illustrating it with documents, family photographs, and original letters. 

In 1976, with help from her parents, she began converting the stables behind the farmhouse and moved there two years later. Here she converted a further barn, furnishing it with local bygones, a collection that was later bought by Gressenhall museum for one of their worker’s cottages. 

Diana Searby (far right) working in the Exchange Control Office at Bank of England - here she is working on confidential documents (Image: Supplied by family)

She nursed her husband, a former Air Commodore, through a heart condition, before his death aged 72 in 1986. 

He had yet to publish his own autobiographies when he passed away, so Diana threw herself into finding a publisher and also arranged for his RAF audio histories to be recorded at John Mountford studios at Hethersett.   

In 2022, she published her own wartime evacuation story ‘Wherever Next?’.  

She had the pleasure of presenting a copy to King Charles on Christmas Day of that year at Sandringham, when he stopped to chat with her after the service. 

Her daughter added: “She was a true entrepreneur and continued her many interests right to the end of her long life.” 

Diana Searby enjoying dinner at the Guildhall, in London (Image: Supplied by family)

Diana Cynthia Searby died on June 10 and her funeral took place on July 1 at All Saints, Honington. 

This was her wish as her husband's RAF memorial stone is also there, situated next to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission plots. 

Attendees included RAF Honington’s station commander Wg Cdr Max Hayward, station padre Sqn Ldr Rachel Cook, station engagement officer Sqn Ldr Dave Williams, and the station’s senior warrant officer. Two officers from the RAF police also attended. 

The service was officiated by Rev Canon Sally Fogden MBE and was followed by a private committal ceremony at West Suffolk Crematorium. 

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