I was born in 1947 in Southampton, the eldest of five children, with my other four siblings still living there in satellite areas around the edge of the New Forest.
After passing the 11-Plus I went to Taunton's Grammar School and then as an apprentice on to Technical College (as it was called then), and the London Borough Polytechnic for the Higher National Diploma in Mechanical, Electrical and Public Health Engineering. This was my favoured progression instead of going to university, as my parents wanted but couldn't afford!
In 1969 I married my wife after a holiday romance in Torquay two years earlier, when she moved to Southampton from her home city of Hull, and we went on to have three children, four grandchildren and one great grandchild (up to now).
After my apprenticeship I progressed through the ranks to Project Manager and then General Manager running large industrial building contracts all around Britain, and which brought me to Bury St Edmunds in 1971 for the construction of the West Suffolk Hospital, and where we have lived for the last 50 years (with the exception of a sojourn for 3 or 4 years, back in Southampton).
In 1984 I moved to a similar company in Cambridge as General Manager, where I later became Managing Director. In 1995 I took the plunge to start my own business (and wondered why I hadn't done it earlier!), and retired in 2009.
I was introduced to UPBEAT in 2005 following a heart attack and recuperation in the West Suffolk Hospital, and I've been an active member exercising 2 / 3 times a week and taking a keen part in it's other activities ever since.
By accepting the position of Committee member, I hope to help the club going forward and continue giving back the help others have given me.
