War years

My father, then a curate at a church in London, met my mother, a shorthand typist who was also Akela of the church Cub pack.

Their backgrounds were very different. My paternal grandfather was a Conservative-voting qualified surveyor who owned a building firm constructing bespoke houses for wealthy clients. My maternal grandfather was a Labour voter and London docker who had been wounded and invalided out of the First World War.

Politics therefore looked rather different depending on which side of the family you listened to. Perhaps that helped teach me to see both sides of an argument.

Mayor 2016 -9 

1947

I was born at Towcester. Dad was a curate

Family moved to Shrewsbury, Dad a curate in charge of a small local church

Dad vicar of Ettingshall church. An industrial parish in the West Midlands.

1962

Family moved to St Andrew’s Church, Birchills, Walsall, another industrial parish

1955 – July 1965

Five years at Prestfelde Prep School, Shrewsbury followed by another five years at Ellesmere College, a boys’ boarding “public” school at Ellesmere, Shropshire. Started learning Latin at the age of 9 (amongst other subjects)

1963

Started learning Classical Greek

1965 - 1968

Dismal A level results and personal indecision led to me losing out on university entry and ending up at the College of Commerce in Liverpool studying an external University of London degree in Law. This was probably the best thing that could have happened to me, as I soon fell in love with the North,  its friendly people, Liverpool and the Yorkshire Dales. Law bored me, and I continued to read Latin and Greek texts in spare time. I finished with a lower 2^nd Class honours London University LLB degree

I joined the Liverpool University Potholing Club (LUPC)

LUPC 1967

1968 -9

Liverpool Law School, studying Law Society professional exams.

1969-71

Articled to a Jewish firm

1971-2

18 months working as a legal assistant at Liverpool Regional Hospital Board

July 1972

I qualify as a solicitor.

1973

I move to Bristol area and work for Sodbury Rural District Council

August 1979

Awarded London University upper second class honours degree in Classics as an external student – I had arranged my own correspondence course to cover the syllabus set by the university and corresponded with university lecturers. Same exams as internal students

Early 1980’s

Re-union of former members of LUPC. We called ourselves “The Northern Boggarts”.  In 1983/84 I do a correspondence course with London School of Journalism – on writing articles and short stories. Northern Boggarts have a monthly journal describing caving trips. I contribute lots of articles and get a taste for creative writing.

With Northern Boggarts, Easter Grotto, Easegill Caverns 

At the Colonades, Lancaster Hole 1968

1973 – 1997

Various appointments to a succession of local authorities: Sodbury RDC, Northavon DC, Kerrier DC (Cornwall), New Towns Commission (Corby), St. Helens Metropolitan Borough, finally ending up at Ryedale DC in 1988 as their chief solicitor

1989 - date

I stop caving and start sailing (less strenuous but equally adventurous), first on the River Ouse, then with Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club at Bridlington, ending up with Scarborough Yacht Club in 1999. I still have a yacht in Scarborough Harbour and remain a member of SYC.

Starchick

1997

Following local government reorganisation, I go into private practice and join the Liberal Democrats. I run a LibDem campaign to build a joint use dry sports centre at Malton School – which eventually succeeds some years later against Conservative opposition. I begin writing letters to the local newspapers. I also join Habton Parish Council and lead a campaign to save our local pub – which succeeds.

2000

We  move into house where we still live. I am asked by one local newspaper (Gazette and Herald) to write a paid monthly column – which I keep up for ten years.

2003

Elected District LibDem councillor for Malton ward (a three member ward)

2004

I join out of the LibDems and go independent

2006 - 10

I publish novel “The Loner” through Matador

2007

Re-elected district councillor for Malton as independent by four votes, and elected onto Malton Town Council

1997 - 2008

Four years working for a small legal firm, then agency work, at first working 11 months a year, then 9 months and finally 6 months. The crash of 2008 wrecks the housing market, including the legal conveyancing business and I retire permanently from paid work.

2007 – 2023

I fight and win four elections for Ryedale DC’s Malton ward as an independent. This was a three member ward, which I shared initially with a LibDem and a Conservative, and which eventually had three independents. I wrote all my own election campaign literature. Ryedale District Council ceased to exist on 1^st April 2023, and I did not contest any of the divisions of the new authority.

As a district councillor, I campaigned against Council car park charges and eventually persuading the local estate company to take back the town centre car park from the council and make it free.  I led a successful campaign against building  a new superstore on another  council car park which would have destroyed Malton Town Centre shops.  I opposed the Environment Agency’s plans to take down flood defences protecting farms and villages, including persuading Ryedale to pay for a hydrological engineer to negotiate with the Agency and getting a joint university team to look at a solution for flooding in Pickering. I raised £30,000 with the help of Frackfree to enable me to take legal proceedings against the government on fracking.  I published articles and letters on all these matters in the local press.

Outside the High Court, London

2013 - 2016

I wrote the “Warrior from the Tin Islands”

2016 – 2019

I was the elected Mayor of Malton. I arranged annual civic services and charity fund-raising concerts. I raised £3,000 as Mayor for Acorn Community Trust, Malton Hospital and Malton in Bloom. I obtained a grant from Malton Town Council to restore the Assembly Room in Malton’s Georgian entertainment complex, The Milton Rooms. I initiated the improvement of the look of the town through “Malton in Bloom”, and supported projects to improve green facilities for public use in the town, the restoration of the local cemetery chapel and the refurbishment of a public playing field and the refurbishment of our skate park.

Escorting the judges at Malton in Bloom 2017

With Di at Malton for Tour de Yorkshire

With sculptor Emma Stothard at Malton Food Festival 2018

2019 - 2020

Voted Chair of the local arts centre, The Milton Rooms, Malton, which I keep for a year.

2021 - 2023

Voted chair of Ryedale District Council’s Planning Committee and tried to get some sense into the Local Plan, which forces Malton to take 50% of new houses, when the infrastructure is inadequate.

I was made an honorary alderman of Ryedale District Council before the Council ceased to exist – all honorary aldermen of the North Yorkshire districts automatically became honorary aldermen of the new North Yorkshire county.

Receiving Honorary Alderman certificate 

2007 and 2020 - date

Yorkshire Post accepts articles from me.

 Retired at last!