The next thing, I was recording them for him."These two songs were the A and B sides of the first of 20 Jamaican chart-toppers for Dekker (as he became) over the next five years. After the first five singles, he recruited the backing vocalists the Aces, who sang on "Rudy Got Soul", "Rude Boy Train" and "Sabotage", as well as the James Bond-inspired "007 (Shanty Town)" which charted in Britain in 1967. He trained as a welder and loved singing along to the radio while listening to Nat "King" Cole, Brook Benton, Jackie Wilson and the Platters.While working at the South Camp Road Yard in Kingston, he met the young Robert Nesta Marley, who complimented him on his singing. Encouraged by other workmates, too, in 1963 Dacres decided to try his luck and audition for the producer Leslie Kong. Dacres was kept waiting on several occasions and, knowing that his boss wouldn't let him have any more time off,"I forced my way in the studio and said: "Mr Kong, you want to hear me or not?" He said: "Alright, sing." I sang him some of my songs, including "Honour Your Mother and Father" and "Madgie" and he liked them. He recorded with the Specials, Robert Palmer and Apache Indian and remained a presence on the live circuit throughout Europe well into his sixties.Born Desmond Adolphus Dacres in Kingston, Jamaica in 1941, although he sometimes said 1942 or 1943 - "I like to keep people wondering" - he lost his mother at an early age and was raised by his father on a farm in St Thomas before moving back to Kingston to finish his education at the Alpha Boys School.

However, Dekker himself struggled financially and in 1984 was declared bankrupt. He settled in Britain, became a rude boy and skinhead icon in the early Seventies, and saw the music he had helped originate revived by the 2-Tone movement at the end of the decade. After leaving ACTT, he set up Interconnect AV, a company aimed at supporting British film-making He retired in 2000.Terry Pattinson. Desmond Adolphus Dacres (Desmond Dekker), singer and songwriter: born Kingston, Jamaica 16 July 1941; married (one son, one daughter); died Thornton Heath, Surrey 25 May 2006. The first international hit recorded in Jamaica and the first reggae song to top the British charts, Desmond Dekker's "Israelites" (1969) was the most important record in the history of Jamaican music. Its influence can be heard on the Beatles' "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" and Dekker's success paved the way to the mainstream for Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley and the Wailers. Dekker had already made his name alongside Laurel Aitken and Prince Buster in the ska and rock steady era with "007 (Shanty Town)" (1967) and he went on to score a further five hit singles in the UK.

He enjoyed inviting employers' negotiators to meet him at fashionable Soho restaurants near his office, and invariably left them holding the bill.He held many other posts during his career, serving as President of the Confederation of Entertainment Unions from 1970 until 1991 and of the International Federation of Audio-Visual Workers, 1974-94. He was a governor of the British Film Institute, 1974-94, and of the National Film School, 1980-95; and a director of Ealing Studios from 1994 until his death.In 1991 he was successful in merging the ACTT with another union to form Bectu, the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union. He declared there was "nothing wrong with supping with the devil" if it meant a good deal for his membership. He was never a "rent-a-quote" union chief, but was always accessible to journalists.