I joined Barclays at Market Place, Haywards Heath branch in 1971, where I met Tony Comber, Nigel Field and Christine Goose. Stephen Barnett and I go back even further – we were at primary school together.

I worked at Crawley and 139 North St, Brighton, then in the LHO Advances team before leaving the Region in 1981 for a year in General Managers’ Office in the old 54 Lombard St. My first appointment was as a Corporate Manager in 9 Gracechurch St, then I joined London Eastern Region first as Advances Manager, then Assistant Retail Director and finally Business Centre Director for a group of East London branches.

In 1994, I moved to Northampton to become Clearing Services Director – a fantastic experience. I left Barclays in 1998 to join Unisys and spent 5 great years with them running payment operations before setting up my own consulting business. That still keeps me pretty busy. I have to keep working to fund an expensive habit – the bottomless pit that is our house near Granada – so I don’t get to join many of the trips yet.

David is my partner of 30 years and we live in Burgess Hill. I have three grown-up stepchildren and five grandkids. We enjoy walking, visiting our place in Spain and travelling – the mountain states of the US are favourite. We like the garden and now that my elderly Mum – a keen gardener - has come to live with us, maybe we can knock it into shape, though she’s not so good with a spade these days.