I have managed to deliberately engineer some considerable variety through my working life, with time spent in HM Forces before working in marketing, management and construction.

From school I went to Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth with the intention of joining the Fleet Air Arm and then served as a junior officer on a number of ships, specialising in communications. As well as learning to fly in Tigermoths and Cessnas, and qualifying as a Scuba diver, I saw the world, experiencing early live action in the Far East with the Borneo conflict of 1965. Denis Healey’s rapid downsizing of the Navy’s carrier fleet in the late 1960’s effectively put paid to any ideas of a flying career!

Leaving the Navy I gained an Honours Degree in Mathematics and spent ten years marketing photographic processing, then a boom consumer industry, eventually becoming Managing Director of the market leader running four laboratories churning out millions of colour photographs daily for international customers.

With an interest in building and wanting a complete change, in the 1980’s I turned my hand to property development, employing a team of mixed trades. By 1985 we were heavily engaged in building contracting as well as exhibition design and construction. In the evenings I went out designing, specifying and selling luxury bathrooms - it was the era for going ensuite, power showers, jacuzzis, and of course coloured suites with the then obligatory fashion statement – a bidet. Greater emphasis at that time also started being given to full ceramic tiling of floors and walls leading to gaining some skill in the craft with the benefit of having a mathematical mind.

In 1996 my wife had a big job offer in Singapore and we made the difficult joint decision to fully transfer our family home and possessions to Singapore for an indeterminate period. It was not quite the mid-career rest in the tropics anticipated! On arrival I secured local employment as Executive Director of the British Chamber of Commerce, helping arrivals from UK to set up business, organising an active event programme of business breakfasts, lunches, dinners and balls. We also published a quarterly business magazine British in Business for expats which gave me considerable editorial experience. On our return to UK some four years later I recommenced improving property, including one I had just inherited in Jersey.

I was a keen skier and an advanced scuba diver but felt it prudent to give up both on entering my seventies. My exercise is now restricted to swimming in the nearby sea at Deal and being taken on long walks by our English Setter. I am also having to adjust to life as a carer.

With all our careers embracing marketing, my wife, son and I are liverymen in the Worshipful Company of Marketors and my wife Sally is a Past Master. As well as serving myself on the Court of my mother company I also of course served a year as Master’s consort. In the Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers I have served as Deputy Chair of the Craft Committee, and I will continue to serve as a Steward for the time being. I have been able to bring my marketing and publishing expertise to the Company, instigating the improvement of our corporate branding and have helped edit our annual Upper Warden’s Newsletter for many years.