Michael Woodford

mikediwoodford@gmail.com

Man Leigh Kindergarten (Berea Road) 1951
Mc'Donald Road (now Glenwood) Infants School 1952 - 54
DPHS 1955 - 59
DHS 1960 - end 63
Thereafter- the University of Life with a City & Guilds in Adult & further Education from Eastbourne College of Arts & Technology.ć

Various University of The Third Age groups, dogs (Rhodesian Riidgebacks particularly) matters motoring, wildlife & places, economics.

Despite its many attributes, DHS didn't do it for this particular individual. Whilst relishing the comradeship of contemporaries & the efforts of a few outstanding teachers (take a bow Messrs Chater, Mc'Michael & Thompson) I found the education & atmosphere stultifying and oppressive. Submit, conform or suffer condemnation, pain & exclusion. But hey - my problem, as many of my contemporaries flourished! A reluctant / recalcitrant sportsman & certainly no academic, my only claim to fame was donning a moth eaten leopard skin & beating the base drum in the highly successful cadet band, wining the Provisional Cadet Band Competition in 1962/3.

1964 to 1967: Clerk at SAR & H in Durban (only because they made up the 5 bob a day National Service pay.)
1967 to 1969: Production Planner at T Wall & Sons in Harlesden London.
1969 to 2000: UK Police Officer in London, detective at Scotland Yard and Brighton Sussex until 1979. Thereafter served in a number of roles in Response / Special Operations / Firearms / Counter Terrorist Search / Vice / Community Policing and finally Training.
2000: Retired relatively young, returned to SA & set up home in Marizburg. Relished those aspects of Natal life I'd missed for so long - bundu / beach / berg / battlefields etc the heritage & art scene, plus of course family & friends.
2012 to date: Returned to the UK settling up in Melton Mowbray in the East Midlands. "Vita Magna Est" as Theo's swots in white bashers used to say.