Starting life in South Yorkshire, after a 'normal' education to High School level, John joined the Police Cadets, and after three years of training and introduction to the Police world, he completed his training as a Police Constable, and was posted to a number of mining villages in South Yorkshire, before voluntarily transferring to Sussex, where he was posted to Rye, a beautiful 12th century market town close to the Kent border. His duties there included foot patrol around the town, and later as crew of the Sub Divisional response car, still working from Rye. In the summer of 1983 he successfully applied for the post of village bobby in one of the village beats within Rye Sub Division, responsible for a number of villages covered by three different parish councils, and including a stretch of the Channel coast, and a coastal country park at Fairlight, just outside Hastings. This idyllic life was interrupted in the autumn of 1984 by two major events. He was on duty for the Conservative Party conference in Brighton, when the Grand Hotel was bombed by the IRA. Shortly afterwards, for about a year, he found himself covering the miners' strike in various locations around the UK. Towards the end of his service, he became involved in tutoring newly-appointed police constables, and then, on a monthly basis as an assessor, involved in the selection of potential recruits applying to join the Force. He also became involved in the training of Special Constables, and in the running and training of his Station's Police Cadet unit (See the poem - A Jubilee Walk!) On retirement in 1999 he toured Europe in an American motor home, before settling with his wife Dorothy in rural Shropshire.