A little about myself
Born in Carlisle, Cumbria in 1958, my first family home, Croft House, Brampton, had formerly been a school in the latter half of the 19th century with Titanic connections: both Bruce Ismay’s (Chairman of the White Star Line) father, Thomas, and Joseph Bell’s (Chief Engineer on the Titanic) uncle, George, had been educated there in the 1850’s. The house was also said to carry a curse following the murder of a lady residing there in the 1890’s. After my first family break-up, I then spent a year living at nearby Naworth Castle, courtesy of Lord Charles Howard, 12th Earl of Carlisle who proved to be very proficient with a fire extinguisher when a certain young lad decided to experiment with electric heaters early in the morning!
My own family connections may also be of some interest: my great-great-grandfather Lord Justice Robert Lush PC (one of the first Lord Justices of Appeal), his 4th son Sir Charles Montague Lush PC (the last judge to sentence suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in 1913), his youngest son Dr Percy Lush (first chairman of the Medical Mission Auxiliary) and his great-grandson Sir Godfray le Quesne (Treasurer of the Inner Temple and chairman of the Monopolies & Mergers Commission); my great-grandfather Joseph Warren Smallwood (chairman of Smallwood & Sons, one of the oldest wine and spirit businesses in the UK stretching back to the 17th century) and cousin Ernest Lush (famous as a senior staff accompanist for the BBC during the early days of recording). Other notable relatives, either collateral or otherwise, include Sir Charles Locock Bt (obstetrician to Queen Victoria and the Empress Eugenie), my great-aunt Dr Joan Lush (one of the first female GP’s in the UK who practised at Southend-on-Sea) and my maternal grandfather Dr Harry Nelson (a local Cumbrian celebrity who clocked up as many as forty-nine years in medical practice and led one of the largest medical practices in the UK).
I was first educated at Kiln Croft (‘Miss Elton’s’), Carlisle, Bramcote, Scarborough, Sherborne, Dorset and Lausanne, Switzerland before making my way back to London where I graduated for the 1st time at the London College of Music then directed by William Lloyd Webber, father of composer Andrew and cellist Julian. I then taught full-time at Stoke Brunswick, Sussex, Cheam School, Berkshire and Croftinloan, Perthshire. One of the advantages of teaching in prep schools was that I was able to develop some of my own interests while sharing them with the children. These included fishing, shooting, fly-tying, photography and music and I was fortunate enough to fish the finest chalkstreams in the south, harry the pigeons on the Earl of Shelburne’s estate in Wiltshire while serving as Private Tutor to his son William, obtain my LRPS in photography and, thanks largely to the guidance of Gerald Finzi’s son ‘Kiffer’, conduct my very own chamber ensemble. Ultimately, however, it was my love of salmon fishing on the Scottish spate rivers that took me north of the border where, in 1992, I set a new record for the most salmon caught by a single rod in one week on the Upper Oykel and developed a passionate interest in archery.
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As luck would have it after making the ‘big move’ north, it wasn’t long before Croftinloan fell on hard times as indeed did I but, in retrospect, I would never have enjoyed many of the experiences that followed had I remained as a full-time teacher. Initially, I continued to teach both academic and extra-curricular subjects on a part-time basis at Ardvreck, Butterstone and Kilgraston and might have secured a long-term position at the former had it not been for the untimely decision-making of the member of staff I had been replacing. But that didn’t happen so I took another route into retail which soon found me managing two menswear departments at McEwens of Perth owned by the Bullough family, former Cumbrian friends of my father. This was a challenge I rather enjoyed and a regular income was always welcome. However, the creative urge never died and, once my circumstances had improved, I decided to try and make a career out of writing successfully self-publishing my first three books, a romantic novel entitled Single Fury, a poetry book entitled Selected Poems and a family biography focussing on the Lush judges Like Father Like Son, the research of which introduced me to the ‘Locock legend’ and along with it some very helpful and interesting members of our extended family. I shall never forget that day when I opened one of the family albums containing such a fabulous collection of photographs of the Russian imperial family taken in the 1870’s by the royal photographers of the day. However, although I had gathered most of my material for the Locock biography by the year 2000, I felt that I really needed to advance both my literary and historical research skills in order to make a good job of this book. So I applied for a place at the University of St Andrews and matriculated that year. Initially, my two core subjects were English and Modern History but there was only so much Milton I could swallow so, after my first year, I swapped English for Art History, a switch that would soon take me down another path.
After befriending one young student, who was not only a gifted artist but also a seriously dedicated art historian, I too was encouraged to take up the brush and, within two years, was holding my first solo exhibition at the St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum. Nor was it long before I was showing paintings at Kilbryde Castle, Edinburgh Airport and on Channel 5’s Big Art Challenge and selling some of my work in the process. So in effect, my interest in History had introduced me to Art History which in turn led to me becoming an artist myself.
My time at St Andrews was certainly busy and well spent. Besides fulfilling my academic studies, I was not only developing my artistic skills but continuing to engage with the Locock story which gathered momentum when a member of that family decided to launch a petition through the ecclesiastical courts for a DNA sample to prove or disprove what we had heard about the ‘Locock legend.’ If the connection could be scientifically proven, he would finally know for certain that he was indeed a descendant of Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter Princess Louise. And not surprisingly, it was a story which also engaged the attention of the media with myself being interviewed by Endemol UK, Sky News and the Today programme. Moreover, when time permitted, I also sang and played double bass with various university ensembles, managed the Dashwood Historians Club and earned my colours while shooting with the University of St Andrews Clay Pigeon Shooting Club. So not a moment of these wonderful four years was wasted.
Leaving the shell of university life when I graduated in 2004 with a Joint Hons degree in Art History and Modern History was, I suppose, something like returning to civvy life after a spell in the armed forces and I was hardly young enough to join a company and work my way up the ladder as many of my fellow students would have done. But I was still writing and painting. Shortly after my graduation, I self-published the biography of an Edwardian artist, John Brakewell Baldwin, on whom I became the leading authority. A year later, I was invited to join the field sports coaching team at Dunkeld Park while still teaching at Gleneagles. In 2007, an opportunity then arose to take part in an all-British art exhibition in Manhattan after which I soon found myself heading for Eggleston Hall near Barnard Castle to take part in the RDF reality-tv show Ladette to Lady where I would appear as the special guest at the girls’ first dinner party. And since that seemed to be something of a success, I was invited back to provide the girls with some cultural education. I also took them fishing and Nicole managed to hook a very lively trout on one of her first casts. Unfortunately, as I was trying to untangle the bird’s nest created by one of the other girls at the time, a tug-of-war with said fish resulted in a win for the latter. But it was all tremendous fun and the occasion was fittingly marked by a champagne picnic afterwards.
Further invitations came my way to appear on the above show and it was even suggested that I became the Head of the Ladettes’ school. However, I then ran into a spot of trouble with the media having been caught offguard when returning home very tired after the long drive from County Durham. Alright, we had all been warned about what the media had a habit of doing by one of the members of the RDF team and, once I knew who the caller was, I should have simply put the phone down. Indeed, I had never liked speaking on the phone and still don’t. But hyped up after all my recent television activities, I made the mistake of engaging with the caller who essentially transmuted what I had regarded purely as an historical perspective into something that would make a compelling headline. Consequently, there were repercussions which temporarily stalled my television activities, curtailed my livelihood at Gleneagles and ultimately led to me losing my house.
Meanwhile, however, after meeting up with a delightful gentleman on the banks of my favourite River Halladale in Sutherland, he soon bought some of my paintings, commissioned more and offered to make it one of his objectives, now that he had taken early retirement, to promote my art down south where he believed I would have a more expansive market in which I could command higher prices. So we started by working on the launch of a professional website while he spread the word amongst some of his artistic contacts in Shropshire thereby giving me new hope and going some way to restoring my faith in humanity. But as luck would have it, no sooner had we set the wheels in motion when he suddenly became seriously ill and within a year or so, he sadly passed away taking all hopes of this new enterprise with him.
Dunkeld Park, where, unlike Gleneagles, the management had stood by me during the media crisis, now became the centre of my field sports coaching and was blessed with excellent grounds for practising some serious longbow archery. I joined a number of clubs and even held some successful charity events there which, incidentally, attracted rather more favourable attention from the press. Then, in January 2010, I received a Facebook message from one of my former RDF contacts inviting me to take part in the next Big Brother application process. I can’t say that I was a big fan of Big Brother but it did sound like another interesting experience which it most certainly was. Consequently, I was the first successful applicant from a pool of about 15,000 to enter the infamous Big Brother 11 house where I remained for three days during the Trial Run. It wasn’t an easy process by any means but I was lucky enough to have the support of a very special young lady from Paisley without which I would have most probably pulled out.
Since those heady days, I have continued to work as a field sports instructor at various shooting schools, work with my dogs on a number of beautiful estates, manage a trout fishery for a year and a half, paint some more commissions, review the WTA tennis matches and expand my library of self-published books. And I still have several projects to complete and several to begin for which the ‘Perthshire Baron' still has a few tools left in his bag.
