I attended the School for just three years, 1965-68. I keenly remember my sense of privilege at joining such a majestic-looking institution from a quietly modest state primary school.  I keenly remember too my deep regret at leaving the School early after my accountant father was invited to join the management team tasked with building (what was then at least!) a prestigious new town in the Northwest.

In due course, I graduated from Southampton University as a civil-structural engineer and found my first employment with a grand old design partnership based in central London. (The senior partners there – all male in those days - resembled the whiskery, rather deliciously eccentric characters of a good Dicken’s novel!) The workload of the firm was truly international, and I quickly came to realise that my professional future lay overseas.

My first “posting” – as it was then rather quaintly termed – was the tiny emirate of Qatar, which was - in those now far-off days - one of the very poorest of the Gulf states and which has since soared to become one of the richest nations (in per capita terms) on earth. I achieved my chartership with the UK’s prestigious Institution of Civil Engineers at just 25 (my submitted design project was a mountain cableway system in Iran) and – very soon after - my pan-European chartership. I then moved on – in turn - to Saudi Arabia (both the impoverished Shi’ite east and Taif - the de-facto summer capital located up in the cooler mountains west), Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, briefly Oman, Egypt, Qatar (again) and Libya.

I returned to the UK with many rich memories: the sights and sounds of old Arabia - now sadly all but disappeared, my regular morning runs with the Qatari prime minister’s head of security (who happened to be my private landlord and blessedly a good one!) along the brand new Corniche in Doha, sailing my catamaran across  the clear blue waters of the Gulf and scuba diving to the many wrecks which shimmered beneath, hunkering down during the First Gulf War with my British Embassy gas mask (and subsequently  being personally introduced to the victorious head of the coalition forces, one General Schwarzkopf), being “first manager on site” for the mighty Ras Laffan natural gas plant – a project which has since achieved so much in creating Qatar’s new found wealth and influence.  

Of the several countries I had the privilege to work in, I found Egypt perhaps the most splendid, with the sights and sounds - unchanged for millennia even today – of the Nile , the thundering grandeur of Karnak, Abu Simbel and the Pyramids, the many (many) evenings spent sipping ice-cold G&T’s atop the British Consulate in Alexandria, soaking up the sights and sounds of that tumultuous, chaotic, vibrant city. My wife – then an Embassy employee – and I married in the beautiful St Mark’s cathedral downtown.

Since returning to the UK, I’ve built up a modest property business, of which – on a good day at least - I’m discretely proud.

So, thank you Nottingham High School for giving me the education, ethics and aspiration to make my way through this enchanting world. I feel that keen sense of privilege again in the preparation of this article. It has been a true delight recently to rejoin the School community as an Old Nottinghamian, replete with distinguished neck-tie: an important part of me has finally “come home” to this most wonderful, worthy institution.