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Why Dover?
Well, for me it is more a case of history. I was born here and my family go back quite a few generations here. My Great Grandfather owned and ran a bicycle and pram retail and repair shop near the Methodist Church on London Road at the time of WW1. Initially the family lived in Dover too, but my grandmother was so terrified of the zepellins and the shelling that the family moved out to Eythorne to live in the house where my family and I live today. My Great Grandfather built a row of houses and shops in Eythorne, commencing construction the year that George the V was crowned, hence the name Coronation Villas. Eight of the ten buildings were originally shops with flats above them and my Grandmother and Great Aunt ran one of them right up until the 1980's (its the one that Peter owns now).
I grew up out in Eythorne and went to the Boy's Grammar school in Dover. When I was little, going to Dover was a big thing, a special treat and a full day out taking the bus and getting dressed up in best clothes. Dover was and is special, its history, its heritage, its industry and its potential. Later, when I was at the Grammar, I would come into town at the week-ends and spend Saturdays with school friends exploring the Napoleonic fortifications on the Western heights, discovering hidden tunnels and passages with secret entrances behind the cliffs on the East and all the way to St Margarets at Cliffe.
I moved out to 'see the world' when I finished school and served as an officer in the Merchant Navy before coming ashore into port operations and working out of Felixstowe as the port their grew. Not at home in Felixstowe I got itchy feet and moved out to the Far East where I continued in Ports and served as Director on the boards of several developing and growing container ports, then moved to the Philippines to get a new multi-purpose port built from scratch.
When the time came to move back to the UK, I looked at the options and decided on Dover. It is HOME. The place had changed considerably during the years that I'd been away (and not for the better). Until recently I quietly got on with life, working for a major shipping line, commuting and doing bits and pieces in a small way to try and improve my local community and to serve it. With the purchase of the company that I worked for by a German operator, I stopped commuting and started my own business in the Maritime sector. I also started to be more involved with local things again. I especially looked at what I could do, how my knowledge and skills aquired over more than 25 years in the maritime industries could be used to benefit our communities and our young people. You all know what has followed.
So - Why Dover? It is a very special town and district, it is my home and I refuse to sit by and see it slip into the darkness without at least putting every fibre of my own being into trying to halt and reverse the decline. I will stand exposed in the breach and apply myself, my knowledge and energy to trying to bring this great town some measure of revival.