An only child, born in Belfast just after the end of the Second World War, brought up at 50 Church Road, Helen's Bay, Co Down, in a comfortable household with parents (Winston and Muriel) and maternal grandparents, where for his first thirteen years much of Jack's time was dominated by books, woods, country walks, the shore and boats. Jack attended Crawfordsburn Primary School, where he was constantly in some sort of trouble. Passed his "Eleven Plus" against expectation since he did little or no work. He then attended Bangor Grammar School for two years with some academic success under maternal supervision. He moved, with his parents, to Belfast in 1959; first to 106 Upper Newtownards Road, and then to Mountpottinger House, 3 The Mount; and was sent to Methodist College Belfast as a border to "knock the corners off him" and make him more gregarious. However well intentioned, a boys' boarding school is no place to send a loner to make him more gregarious, he just gets beaten up and bullied. In the shadow of his father, the consummate sportsman (1st fifteen and 1st eleven), Jack had no interest in any ball games. It took him two miserable years to get into the rowing club, and to physically beat his way through the immediate group of bullies, the hard way, one at a time. If a failure at male bonding and ball games, he finally discovered, with the aid of the Girls Boarding Department, that he had the makings of a "ladies man". His academic record suffered badly from lack of supervision, and he developed his own technique of dealing with school work: minimum prep. minimal notes, no revision, but always listening in class. While an avid reader, of both history and science, it was seldom anything that applied to the school curriculum. The technique worked to a limited extent, a modest showing in "Junior" after which he dropped three of his favourite subjects (history, geography and art) in favour of science, aiming at a career in Chiropractic. He eventually scraped through "Senior" (O levels, now known as GCSE) after which he dropped his next best subject (maths). This technique failed to get him through physics, chemistry and biology in "Advanced Senior" (A levels) in one year. 1965 to 1968 took Jack to the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic in Bournemouth where he took three years of the four year course. Despite the distractions of student parties, trying to stalk deer in the New Forest, rock concerts, flower power and loose women; it took a four month student strike and the excuse of one failed exam (others less involved in the strike were allowed to re-sit) to bring an inglorious end to his academic career. Remember the Sixties? The revolting students had some strange idea that they should have some control over the competence of the academic staff whose services they, their parents and the education authorities were paying for. The strike at A.E.C.C. was successful in bringing about major changes in the running and staffing of the college, but only in return for the students who helped bring about that change being sent down. After a lazy summer spent reading and painting, Jack took a succession of jobs working on farms (as a schoolboy he had spent a month every summer farming). 1968 saw a significant group of political "moderates" from across the community come forward to support the then Northern Ireland Prime Minister in the "cross roads election" and Jack found himself campaigning door to door in his own constituency. He worked in two other election campaigns, most notable as acting election agent in South Antrim (the biggest Westminster constituency - 150,000 electors) in the general election; a campaign which featured the only unionist (albeit an independent unionist) ever to personally campaign door to door in Anderstown behind his regimental piper. Jack remained involved in local politics through the formation of the Alliance party, after which his involvement became more marginal as the province's so called "moderate majority" quietly withered into a predictable electoral minority. During this time Jack learnt to glide and fly. He spent a year at Loughry Agricultural College, but the job he expected to return to at the end of the course was no longer available to him. Without a job, and the "troubles" having turned violent, one of the few industries recruiting was the security industry. Jack joined Securicor's Belfast branch in 1971. He took the job as a stopgap, while considering what else to do, but he was promptly spotted and transferred to the night control room. The day staff went home at six o'clock and branch managers, heads of department and even duty officers were notoriously difficult to contact at night. The two controllers on each shift deputised for everyone throughout the Northern Ireland branches, and were expected to solve all the problems that occurred rather than simply hand them on in the morning. Jack was in his element, and stayed. After a time he was made "Regional Night Operations Manager". Within another year he was being used as a trouble shooter, taking over small branches during transitional periods. He eventually applied for and got the post of Belfast Branch Manager. While working successfully with both staff and customers, Jack was not prepared for the cut throat company politics which accompanied management "down sizing", and when offered an insulting amount of redundancy pay he opted to take a post driving a van until he could make better arrangements. This period in Securicor had seen Jack marry Elizabeth Tooke in 1976; move from their flat at 3 The Mount, to their own house at 99; breed, train and show German Shepherd Dogs in beauty, obedience and agility. Jack became chairman of the German Shepherd Dog Club of Northern Ireland, and ran its training class, while Elizabeth became Club Secretary, Show Secretary, and Assistant Magazine Editor. In 1983 their daughter Sarah was born. Elizabeth who worked as a statistician for Gallahers had the sort of salary that would make Jack's move into the private sector possible. The Irish Aunts Agency, run by Jack's ageing maiden aunt, Iris, was contracting and making a derisory amount of money. Iris was paying for advertisements in every publication that had the impudence to telephone her, with no evidence that they were bringing any return. While being actively involved with Iris and her accountants in trying to find a buyer, Jack realised that the sum of the Agency's income, its fruitless advertising, and the partial expenses for a car and heating and lighting a home office, exceeded his current salary before tax, (which by then was also derisory). He offered to take the Agency off Iris's hands and keep it in the family. Iris gifted him the Agency, but this did not stop her from later facetiously asking for payment for it, the sum doubled every time she mentioned it! Jack took four weeks paid holiday owed to him and resigned from Securicor. The Personnel department with whom he had worked closely as Belfast Branch Manager kindly supplied him with recruitment, interview and positive vetting forms to copy and rewrite. The Accounts department supplied him with a selection of specimen letters to aid in the extraction of money from debtors. The Wages department later gave him pointers to dealing with P.A.Y.E. problems. He "sat in" with his Aunt throughout March 1986 in the mornings, while renovating and decorating his new home office at 99 The Mount in the afternoons. By 5th April all the printing was done, the new systems set up. On the day the telephone numbers were switched by the exchange and the transfer went smoothly. Under his management the Agency had a period of significant expansion, levelling out well below it's peak with the recession in 1989; and the Agency has more-or-less held this level of work-in-progress ever since, despite the in-roads made on Jack's time through having to handle his Aunt's affairs from 1993 (she died on 11th December 1996); having to handle his father's affairs through his two year decline with Altzheimer's (he died on 26th July 1996); taking control of his parents investment property; and having to take control of his mothers affairs following her stroke (she died on 21st November 2001). The work done by the Agency has not significantly changed, apart from a reduction, and recently total cessation, of the work done with children to allow a much greater concentration on the elderly. However, the Agency's and Jack's expertise has been recognised in an increasing amount of "Consultancy Work", involving writing reports detailing prices of services that could be supplied to families where the mother has died, and attending court in compensation cases, in support of these reports. This period has also seen Jack's daughter, Sarah, working part time for the Agency as "Wages Clerk" (since her fourteenth birthday); and with her assistance the computerisation of Day Book, Billing, Pay-Roll, Reports, Correspondence and Archive, and the design of this very web site. Jack has acquired a significant library and is making a slow and painful attempt to write a book on the subject of history. Jack, Elizabeth are Sarah and members of British Mensa Ltd.
