ROBERT LONGHURST 681076 AIRFRAME FITTER

Posted from Halton to 70 Squadron Nicosia - September 1958. In 1961 to Colerne, again on Hastings. Although Cyprus was very enjoyable I had already decided that the RAF was not the career for me.My application for discharge was refused and so I decided simply to get on with it and thoroughly enjoyed the remains of my time at Colerne and then later at Changi.

After two years at Changi and some five years after the application for discharge, new manning levels caused the RAF to invite me to leave if I wanted to (at my expense of course). I agreed, bought a briefcase in Changi village and, totally unprepared for civilian life, headed home. The briefcase was in line with my decision that I would work with my head and not my hands.

The first job in civilian life was as a sludge gulper driver operator for the Wolverton Urban District Council. A strange career move! Then, despite intending to turn my back on aeroplanes found myself at Hawker Sidley, Chadderton, Manchester making AVRO 748s. I hated it and moved to Bath (my last UK posting being Colerne) where I had some contacts and worked as a decorator, then a petrol pump attendant (they had them then) and then as a publican.

A friend was studying to be a solicitor and mentioned a job in his office. I interviewed, got the job and started as a Clerk, apprenticed to a senior managing clerk. After 6 months he was sacked for misbehaviour with a female client and I found myself running the litigation department of a busy branch office with no supervision. At first I tiptoed through the daily post and had just learned enough to manage the simple tasks, expanding my knowledge by leaps and bounds on a daily basis.

I then began to study law formally, taking the various exams under the Institute of Legal Executives. In 1970 my wife and I moved to Cambridge where I qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives but by this time I was functioning as a senior managing clerk and it simply put a label on what I was already doing but did not allow me to join a solicitors partnership.

In 1975, then aged 35, I decided to bite the bullet and take the Law Society exams, which after a lot of self-help, night school and sweat, produced a pass in part one. Now for part two, which involved leaving the family and heading for the College of Law at Guildford. In June 1979 I qualified as a solicitor of the Supreme Court and went straight into partnership, specialising in litigation matters - especially divorce and personal injury cases. The partnership with two others was known as Lorimer Longhurst & Lees.

I gained admission to the Law Society's specialist panels for child care cases and then came my main specialism when I was admitted to the Law Society's Clinical Negligence Panel.

For over 20 years now I have done nothing but medical accident cases. This involved courses on obstetrics, gynaecology, oncology, orthopaedics etc. It is a difficult discipline because although doctors specialise in one subject, lawyers are expected to cover many medical disciplines with a certain level of expertise. In those 20 odd years I have had some notable successes achieving damages of many millions of pounds for injured clients. Strangely, I have always regarded legal success as very transient and the excitement soon disappears.,/p>

In 2002 I retired from the partnership but continued as a consultant two days a week until December 2004, at which point it is back to my first love of working with my hands in my newly built woodworking shop. Full circle perhaps.

Another case of how an ex-brat can turn his hand to anything: Ed