13th Agugust 2025  

FROM KNOCKHOLT TO SYDNEY

I was born in 1948 and raised in Knockholt (1½ hours bus ride each way to St Mary’s) I certainly did my homework on the bus!!

I went to St Annes Primary, Orpington where Kilmartin was the 11+ preparation year class teacher. He ran a second private class and evening classes for a direct tuition fee. Along with most of my classmates, I failed the 11+.With hindsight I could have “killed martin!” Hence my secondary year 1. at St Joseph’s Boys next door. An interesting teaching approach. Failure at times tables and word spelling was rewarded with the cane…. I was first the in class by the end of year 1.

In year two, three of us, myself, Seamus McCabe and Alan Wilson were put up for transfer as “late developers” to St Mary’s GS and all passed the tests, leaving St Joseph’s at the end of our second year, 1961.
We had to redo Year Two at St Mary’s. Unfortunately, there was a switch in some subjects between the two schools. I left Spanish for French and copped (a total waste of time) Latin also. On the other hand, I sat through two terms before the maths syllabus broke new ground… I woke up suddenly!! My first year was further challenging, there being six weeks with no buses through Knockholt, isolated because of the great winter snow of 1962.

Woodwork and Technical Drawing were newly included in the syllabus. David Reddington (RIP) and I were both ace at each subject and very competitive, finishing the term’s work halfway through, so much so that we had to spend half of each term “counting the storeroom stocks” for something to do!

God bless Mr Harding – his first year too! I was quite famous at the time as the Rev. Fr. Shorttle came up behind the queue and smacked me round the head and bounced it off the wall; unfair as there wasn’t the usual “Eh you boys!! Warcry… I was the last in line at the top of the stairs queuing for the physics lab.
Sports-wise I was in the first year of the school’s switch to rugby and was the Colts hooker and captain. Cannock House was our first game… say no more!! John Howard was my best mate and I’m still in touch with David Palmer and Pat Driscoll.

I came away at the end of the fifth year with three grades ‘6’ and three grades ‘5’ ‘O’ Levels, one grade ‘1’ and newly included school prize for Engineering Drawing. I left school in 1965.
Some years later I scored an A Level accounting as part of my studies for the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of which I became a Fellow. I also became a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing by examination.

Varied Employment

My UK employment was very varied, between the accounts department at the Bank of America, various positions with a major civil engineering company, Sony UK and several different roles in distribution and marketing with Alfred Dunhill Ltd. During this time, accounting and distribution systems processing had moved through NCR machines, punch card processing to main frame processing.

With Alfred Dunhill, one of my early roles was to oversee the adaption and installation of a computer-based banking accounting system to the Alfred Dunhill business. I was appointed market manager of the N. European market from Finland down to Belgium. This was now the early ‘80s, when Europe was seriously concerned with Russian posturing.

My wife Sandra and I (now into our 51st year) were considering one evening that we should move overseas with our two boys, both under two, but decided that Canada was too cold, South Africa was too temporary, and Australia was too far. The next morning the phone rang and the ex-Dunhill’s Group Financial Controller (GFC), who had migrated to Australia a year earlier said, “Hi John, have you ever thought about moving to Australia……….” The rest is history; we migrated in 1982.

Life Down Under

In Sydney, the GFC and I were given two years to have the group consolidation accounting system up and running for James Hardy Industries, a large public company with over 200 subsidiaries at the time. To achieve this, we realised that we needed freedom from the “high priests of the main frame” and installed an IBM System 34 under our (group accounts department) control. Between the boss, I and a small team, we recruited with the right skills, we installed the system in three months; one year ahead of schedule… and me without a job!

One of the best ways to settle in as a “Pom” was to take up consulting work across several industries which I did, working initially for one of the ‘Big 5’ accounting firms, then out on my own. There were several governments funded grant programs for small to medium sized businesses, to a maximum of $2M per project. By now I had got to know and organised up a small network of independent consultants such that there was one in the capital of each of Australia’s five states. “Nothing succeeds like success!”

Ultimately in the early ‘90s, I partnered with an ex-government executive to raise and manage a “small business investment fund” similar to the UK’s Investors in Industry ‘3i’ in many ways. We ran the fund for 12 years end to end and I’ve been “foot loose and fancy free” and ‘retired’ since 2011.
I have to say that I really don’t believe that the opportunities I fell across (despite being a ‘Pommie B……’) in Australia would have been possible in the UK. I also bless the schooling at St Mary’s Grammar School for Boys! It’s reputation certainly got me on my way with my first job at the B of A.