Chris Hicks

Left Lanson College in the Summer of 1961. Played cricket for Cornwall Colts during the holidays. Fluffed my A-levels (my fault, not Wally's or Fred's!) and spent the next year at Walthamstow Technical College. Passed surprisingly well on retake and went to Queen Mary College, London University, to read Aeronautical Engineering. What a mistake!

I delayed my departure from QMC until Summer '67 (being more successful at playing golf and cricket than passing exams - although breaking bones in my back playing rugby in the Autumn term of '64 didn't help). Still, I got a degree!

In October '67 I joined IBM working in London. Shock, horror - my first training course was run by JM (Mike) Williams, last seen as our dormitory prefect in 1955! I spent the next 30 years working for IBM in a wide variety of roles including writing software, providing support to customers, teaching - from techie stuff to "Janet and John Learn About Computers" for executives. I finished up as a senior consultant. Over the years I managed to get IBM to take me to all sorts of places - some not very nice - in Europe (including 18 months living in Germany), Africa, North America and Asia.

I was found to be surplus to requirements in 1997, since when I've done a bit of consultancy work and lots of web site design. I have now retired!!

Met my wife, Linda, while she was 'temping' at IBM, and we've been married for nearly 40 years. We have a daughter, Jen, (married with a little girl - our first grandchild!) and a son, Steve.

Extracurricular activities still mainly involve sport, although watching rather than doing - apart from the weekly hack around a golf course and walking.