Within a month of his birth, his Victorian Grandparents took over raising Roger while his widowed mother returned to work to support herself and her son. Because of where they lived until the day he started school on his fifth birthday, Roger only met one boy of his age. Being inquisitive, he liked to find out what made things 'tick' including three alarm clocks that never ticked again after he investigated their mechanisms. His Grandfather taught him to use tools and woodworking and also creating in Roger a spirit of adventure by reading him Victorian adventure stories. In 1938 he joined the overcrowded infant's class at St Clares School, Higher Blackley in North Manchester that already had over fifty pupils in every class. Just two days after Britain declared war on Germany, the school was evacuated, Roger to North Wales where he went to live with an impoverished Welsh only speaking family. His experiences included including sharing a bed with the other boys in the family. During this period he rapidly gained a useful smattering of the Welch language. Six weeks later his mother visited him. After finding his living circumstances and in particular that he had to act as the interpreter during her visit, rescued him and took him back to still bomb free Manchester. At home with all the schools closed, his Grandparents continued very successfully his education for over a year. When the Manchester blitz started, his mother took him to live high up in the Pennines at Facit, near Rochdale. When he joined a class in the local school that included several pupils from the same class he had left, it was found that he was ahead of them in English and Arithmetic but he used the wrong methods in arithmetic. Adventures came aplenty during this period, particularly during the long summer holiday that he spent exploring the wild moorland including the army firing ranges. When Hitler, having conquered the whole of Europe except Britain attacked Russia, air raids on Manchester ceased, they returned home. After finding a piece of iron pyrites crystal that could be used to make crystal radio sets in a lump of coal he was breaking up, Roger became fascinated with radio and electrics, making crystal sets, microphones, telephones and electric motors from bits and pieces of tin cans and bell wire. When he was eleven, having passed the City Scholarship examination he suffered six years of classical education that he did not want at two grammar schools to meet his Mother's ambitions for his future he passed the School Certificate Examination in nine subjects and Matriculated. During these years he found challenges and adventures with the Boy Scout becoming the first ever scout in the troop ever to achieve the First Class Scout Badge. The Scout Master immediately promoted him to Troop Leader then took advantage of his new deputy leaving him in charge frequently including the troops week's holiday camping in the Lake District. Still seeking adventures he took up Youth Hostelling both alone and with friends. One adventure found him lost alone in a blizzard in the Welsh Mountains where he spent a night in a shepherd's makeshift shelter. His future had been planned by his parents but he wanted to be involved in radio and electronics and have adventure in his life. Having read all the Biggles Books' he also hoped to find adventure in flying. Immediately he became seventeen and a half and could join any of the Armed Services without Parental Consent, despite family opposition he volunteered to fly in the Royal Air Force as an Air Signaller for the training in Radio Theory as well as Operating; these coincided with his hopes for his future, passed the selection procedure and was accepted. This action was the equivalent to the earlier practice of young men running away to sea. The next volume chronicles his life while serving as an Air Signaller in the Royal Air Force.
About the Author: After volunteering to become an Air Signaller within less than a year he qualified for his wing, joined Coastal Command, had many adventure, some frightening and one leaving him hospitalised and needing many months of rehabilitation. During this period, he intensively studied Electronics and Radio Engineering. During this service he met his wife to be, married and had the first two of their four children. After completing eight years aircrew service, he joined the Research Laboratory of Joseph Lucas (Electrical) Ltd, a Car Component Manufacturer. Through success in research projects, electronic circuit designs that included the first portable cardiac pacemaker, inventions and patents he rose to a senior position and became responsible for a wide range of automotive products. In 1968, invited by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers he presented a paper in the Carnage Hall, New York on the Future of Hybrid Integrated Circuits in Electronics in the Automotive Industry to an audience of 2500 scientists and engineers. An invitation followed to visit Japan where for a month I toured electronic equipment manufacturer's plants. In 1969 while in the United States on another business trip, at the urgent request of the Chairman of the Company that employed him, he represented the Company at the State Funeral of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In recognition of the advances in the developments in car charging systems for which he had been responsible, Lucas Industries was awarded the Queen's Award for Technical Innovation. The industrial turmoil in the British Car Industry forecast its collapse. Before this happened, Roger took very early retirement. Adventure featured in this new phase of his life for in preparation for it he had become a Mountain Walking Leader in Britain and across Europe, specialising in France where he later became a guide for Site Seeing Holidays in Paris and designed an extensive holiday program to the Loire Valley. When he reached 75 he hung up his walking boots. His interest in radio and electronics continues through his lifelong hobby, Amateur Radio in which he has achieved the ultimate award by reaching the top of the "American Radio Relay League Honor Roll. Married with four children and has survived major heart surgery and cancer. Now at the instigation of his children. he is writing his autobiography of which this is the first volume with other to come covering different phases of his life.