About Me

As a young Geordie lad, I left my home in Whitley Bay in 1971, and went to Liverpool and graduated with an honours degree in Applied Biology. After moving down south to work, I met and married Lesley and we raised our family together. Sadly, during this time, Lesley became very ill with depression and after 15 years of struggling, she took her own life in a psychiatric hospital. She was only 35. As a single parent with 4 young children, I continued to support my family, but the 15 years of coping with my wife's illness, and the numerous and highly traumatic medical emergencies, took a bigger toll on my own health than I had realised at the time. Thankfully, some years later, I was blessed by meeting the lovely Annie and we got married. Things settled down and I continued to work for a further 20 years, self-employed, but now I am retired (but not retiring).

My first job was to work as an entomologist for the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service (ADAS) in London and then in a government laboratory in Slough. After doing that for a while, I educated myself in Computer Science and became an Analyst / Programmer in The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and then in the Computer Science and Systems Division within The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) in Harwell as a Senior Scientific Officer. Finally, I set up my own IT business creating websites.

I retired in April 2021. The day I switched off my business email address, after a lifetime of working, life took on an exciting and new perspective.

MUSIC I taught myself to play the guitar from about 10 years old. As a teenager I played music with my friends, but I was never in a band. Then life look over and it wan’t until I married Annie that music came back into my life. I taught myself bass and played in the worship band in church. Then I joined a local folk dance group, playing guitar. I went on to teach myself mandolin, banjo and ukulele and joined more bands. More recently, I’ve been playing the music I enjoyed as a teenager; pop, rock, country blues and that sort of thing.

PHOTOGRAPHY I got my first camera when I was 12. It was an Halina which I bought second hand from Bonsers in Newcastle. I used Kodachrome 64 at first, but then became more adventurous and set up my own dark room in my bedroom in Whitley Bay. I’ve had many cameras since then. All good fun. So much so, I thought I’d show off some of my portfolio on a website. This one!

Retirement has given me more time to spend with my wife, my grandchildren, my music and my photography. And time to do nothing at all. Being a family man, my roles as husband, Dad and Grandad are the best things in my life.

I am an active Christian and enjoy being part of Wantage Community Church. Over the years I have been involved in room setup and sound engineering for Sunday services, led several Alpha Courses, and ran Marriage and Marriage Preparation Courses with Annie. I started and ran our church’s first website and served as a Street Pastor in Wantage for a short while before my knees got the better of me. These days I stick to playing in our Worship Bands, which I really love doing.