I was born in Croydon in 1950 and left school at 16. After trying different occupations and failing to get into the RAF as a pilot. (They thought it remarkable that someone with my dexterity and speed of reaction could actually ride a bike!) I got a job as an air traffic control assistant. Very soon I became curious about where all these aeroplanes were coming from and going to. So in 1971, at the age of 20, I joined the Royal Navy to see the world. After a year at the Britannia Royal Naval College I saw the world! In 10 years I visited around 30 countries. Those were clearly formative years!
In 1982, a civilian once again, I got a place at the University of Sussex under the mature students scheme (no A-levels!) to study law. For my entire legal career, including a year of further study in Bristol, I was employed in Magistrates' Courts dealing with criminal law, family Law and licensing. In 1992 I came to work as a Legal Adviser in the Isle of Wight Magistrates' Court. We moved to Brading in 1993. I retired from HM Courts Service in 2011 and worked as clerk to the governing body in two island primary schools until 2016.
Despite me spending much of the 1970s outside the UK, Jan and I got married 1975. We have one daughter. We are members of Sandown Baptist Church.
I joined the Liberal Party (subsequently the Liberal Democrats) in 1982 and I was a district councillor in Havant before moving to the Island. That tells you something of the way I think about politics on a wider scale but on all issues I will always vote in the best interests of Brading.