Born in Guildhall Street, Bury St. Edmunds. After school joined Standard Chartered Bank for training for overseas service and subsequently was posted to Singapore. After thirty years of banking n the middle and far east I diverted to a firm building developments in Dubai and then to Aircraft Engineering. After obtaining a Diploma in Business Management in 1981 joined a Saudi company set up to cater for a workforce of up to 18000 men engaged to build a new city. I returned to Britain 1987. As a volunteer I became a director of the Bury St. Edmunds YMCA for 25 years and have been a trustee of the Friends of West Suffolk Hospital for a similar period.