R. James deRoux

Robert James deRoux, CD. (March 17, 1930 – November 25, 2012) was a Jamaican businessman and the longest-serving Custos in Jamaican history. He served as Custos Rotulorum of Clarendon for 30 years.

Early life

deRoux was born on 17 March 1930 in Mandeville, Manchester, the only son and second child of Robert Redvers deRoux, a hardware merchant, and Marie Lucille . The deRoux family came to Jamaica as a part of the wave of French refugees fleeing the Haitian Revolution and settled on the island as merchants, clerks, and planters. He was a descendant of the Lindo family, an eminent Sephardic Jewish family, through his father, a great-grandson of fellow Custos Alexander Joseph Lindo.

He attended Cave Valley Elementary School and Jamaica College, where he was schoolmates with Michael Manley, and excelled in football and diving. and was the managing director until his retirement. In 1962 he was named as one of the inaugural Justices of the Peace for the newly independent Jamaica.

In 1964 he founded and was President of the May Pen Business Association which was the forerunner of the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce, of which he served as first Vice President from 1968 to 1975.

An active community member, he served as Vice Chairman of the May Pen Secondary School, Member of the Board of Management of Glenmuir High School, Director for the Hardware Merchants Association,

deRoux and the Custodes Rotulorum for Manchester, The Hon. Dr. Gilbert Allen and for St. Catherine, Rev. The Hon. Mrs. Sophia Azan, at the Governor General's Consultative Youth Breakfast at the Caymanas Golf Club, May, 2009

On May 5, 1981, he retired on July 31, 2011,

He was awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander in 2002.

He was posthumously awarded the Governor-General's Medal of Honour in recognition of his service to the country in 2023 on the occasion of Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee.