Gill - A Profile - TrustNews August 1988
Born in Croydon in December 1936. Spent most of the War in a South London flat. In 1947 accompanied parents to Australia where father established a branch factory of the family's hypodermic injection equipment business at Portland, Victoria. Discovered horses (which soon became an esential means of transport) and developed a keen interest in training them, from the breaking-in stage to advanced dressage. Attended a boarding school renowned for its tolerance of pupils' horses and notorious for its wretched food and miserable academic standards. Left in disgust at 15 having learned nothing relevant to the chosen career - farming. Without training, managed cattle on father's 94-acre mixed farm and was the youngest person in Australia to be granted a milk licence.
Returned to England with family in 1953, feeling like a fish out of water and far more Australian than English. Parents squashed all aspirations of a career in Agriculture or horticulture: the only training considered suitable being the dreary secretarial one.
Subsequent jobs include 'dogsbody' in an antique business, secretary to the advertising director of a cigarette manufacturer, relief manager of a pig farm, sales representative in the wine trade, personal assistant to the managing director of an aviation test equipment company and executive secretary of a national trade association.
Moved to Hampshire in 1967 and was recruited by Jeffrey Smith as WPT Secretary towards the end of 1977.
Interests include walking, gardening, animal welfare, wildlife conservation, geology, conchology, art, family history and power yachting (12 to 600 tons). Principal dislikes include the road lobby, the Department of Transport and its acolytes, the 'keeping up with the Joneses' syndrome and hypodermic injections.