Welcome to my website, which came about after being sent on a course covering HTML writing for the website.
This course was to enable me to update the NAVY NEWS website at a later date. The company providing the training, 4thWave - based in Romsey, Hampshire, would be building the website. I must say that the training which I was given was excellent. If someone is looking for training, I would suggest that this is probably a good company to head for. I struck lucky whilst I was there, being instructed on a one to one basis, the others on the course had for one reason or another had to drop out. The tutor, Roger, spent many long hours going through the protocols with me, for which I thank him very much. When we started the course, we agreed that the aim of the course was to get a website up and running by the end of the course. As 4th Wave were building the website for my company and I had a hankering to build one for myself, we agreed to build my website, which you have now logged onto.
I have started off by covering my travels around the world and my lasting impressions. I have also included something about my family tree. There is a section on photography, including my personal gallery and I have also included a section covering my working life past and present.
Please email and let me know what you think of the site.
I was born in Fareham, Hampshire on the south coast of Britain just after the second World War. My father had been in the Army during the war seeing action throughout France, Holland and Germany.
When I was aged about a year old, we moved to Portsmouth, living in a flat above 'Pinks' The Grocers, Garage in Surrey Street. The building has long since been pulled down and a road exists where once was my home. In 1950, there was an addition to the family, my sister, Jenny. We lived here until I was almost seven years old and can remember vividly seeing the 'Circus' trains arrive at the 'Town' station which was directly behind the flat. Seeing the Clowns, the other acts and especially the animals - Elephants, Horses, and the Lions and Tigers in their cages - being paraded from the station to the common at Southsea was an exciting event for one so young, and one which we always looked forward to.
I started my education at Arundel Street Infants School, which has long since been demolished - not, I hasten to add, through anything that I may have done during my time there. I can really only remember one name from that school and that was Bobby Barter, who had a fantastic train-set at his house. This train-set was one of the latest Hornby 00 gauge sets, laid out on its own board with tunnels and bridges, points and two trains. Being able to go and play at his house was something that most of the boys in the class wanted to do. Whatever happened to him, I wonder?
My youth was as normal as anyone else's as was my education. In 1955 as a family we moved to Leigh Park, near Havant - this at the time was the largest Council housing estate within Europe. There was much scope for childhood fun, with Havant Thicket at the rear of the house, through which you could get into Leigh Park Gardens, a vast mansion which if memory serves me right was pulled down sometime in the early 1960's. Also nearby was what is still known as the 'Warren', except that during my time youngsters would be there each weekend with their 'Scramble Bikes'.
One house that still sticks in my mind is one that stood in Park Lane, between Leigh Park and Cowplain. This was the house belonging to Whitbread Farm, which was supposed to be haunted. Whilst it was never known for sure, whenever you walked by, you crossed over and walked just a bit faster until you had passed it by. Again this has long since dissappeared. The first house that we moved to in Leigh Park was on the northern edge of the estate, very close to the Thicket, but a couple of miles from the nearest school. As I was about to go into the Juniors at this time, we found the nearest one at 'Stockheath'. This was a collection of buildings used durng WWII as a 'Naval Base'. Each single story building housed two classes, one at either end. There was one very long block which besides the class at each end, had the offices in the centre. There was also a large hall for the assembly and dining areas as well as the sports hall. All of the buildings were arranged around the playground or as it would have been during the war - the Parade Ground.
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