When he first became aware that he was alive he found that he was living in Loughborough, Leicestershire and that there was "a war on". After graduating from the tiny Nanpantan infant school he attended Shelthorpe junior school. The 'eleven plus' led to two years at Loughborough College School, a technical school feeder for Loughborough College (now Uni) following which in 1950 the family removed to the village of Kennington, near Oxford. There the LEA required him to attend the rather posh Abingdon (Roysse's) Grammar school. Due to family circumstances he had to leave after four years, but by then clutching two handfuls of 'O Levels' and with his Leicestershire accent almost eliminated. The school found a position for him as an office boy with Messrs. Buckell & Ballard, estate agents in Oxford. After six months, bored to tears with addressing envelopes and by virtue of his self taught knowledge of radio, he found himself a job repairing such equipment for Messrs. Russell Acott of the High, Oxford, radio, tv & musical instrument dealers, a business now defunct.