After joining RAFA I was soon roped in to help out. The Chairman, who was Chief Flight DC8 Simulator Instructor for the KLM, was happy to have a youngster on his team of helpers and soon found things for me to do - more about that later.

Employment eventually reached a point where 50% of my time was spent on guiding tourists although it was difficult getting established with the top class top tour operators in the beginning. Gradually I was able to demand maximum rates for my service, so much so that on my last day as a guide I earned as much in one day as I did in a whole week when I first started out.

My next big change happened through my membership of the RAFA. The British Consulate General (BCG) at Amsterdam sent a note to RAFA advertising a vacancy for a British Vice-Consul (BVC) and I was prompted to apply, although I didn't give myself a great chance of being selected. Much to my surprise I was invited for an interview, I was short listed and called in for a second interview with two others. Unfortunately some one else was appointed. Asked if I would be interested in other vacancies if they arose, I answered yes. Six months later at a RAFA reception, prior to our Spring Charity Ball, the Consul General (CG) offered me a job - not as BVC but as his driver. My immediate reaction was no, but after some deliberation I took the job, sold the taxi business and ceased working as a tourist guide.

The conditions of service at the BCG were different to anything I'd known. I was exempted from paying all Dutch Taxes and rates except VAT, I didn't have to pay any duty on petrol and I was exempted from paying Dutch and British Social Security. The CG at that time was a bit eccentric who loved his drink. On some of the journeys he would take several cans of ale, which he would consume before arriving at an engagement, he would have some drinks there and fall asleep on the journey home. Sometimes he would sit in the back with a map on his leg telling me where to drive and on one journey he told me to turn off onto a dirt track and ordered me to stop. He them swapped places with me and did some off road driving in the staff car. We didn't change back before reaching our destination, it was the opening of the new terminal at Eindhoven airport, so when we stopped at the entrance I told the policeman we were from the BCG and he told me to tell my driver, my boss the CG, where to park the car. The job sometimes entailed very long hours and work at weekends, but it paid well.

He left soon after and was succeeded by another man who liked his drink. The new CG decided not to use a driver so I moved into the office and became a passport writer, with a big drop in income, because I no longer worked overtime. Within a year I was promoted to Registrar/Assistant Management Officer and I became responsible for all accommodation and the running the officer - it was a job I enjoyed doing. I must have made a good impression because not long after when the vacancy came up for the BVC's job (the person chosen when I first applied retired), I applied and was chosen from several candidates.

Meanwhile within the RAFA Branch I was co-opted on to the committee and soon became heavily involved. The various functions I had over the years have been Welfare Officer, Membership Secretary, Treasurer and Chairman. I also became involved with the European Area Council and have served as Vice-Chairman, Vice-President and I am at present Chairman for the third two-year term. Within RAFA I have had dealings with some really fantastic people and these include HRH Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Leonard Cheshire VC, MRAF Sir Thomas Pike, several D CinC's AFCENT (now AFNORTH), various CinC's of the Royal Netherlands Air Force and Dame Vera Lynn, whom I have been involved with for more than 30 years.

As BVC I was Head of the Consular Section, responsible for passports, nationality, birth and death registrations, notary, shipping and protection of British Nationals. Nationality laws were extremely complicated and it could sometimes be a nightmare attempting to work out whether a person had a claim to British nationality (now called British citizenship (BC)). Passport issues could also be quite complicated because of an applicant's connection to the old British Empire. We issued 9,000 passports a year but often caught out applicants (mainly Pakistanis and Nigerians) using fraudulent or stolen documents. Notary work was fairly straightforward and consisted of taking oaths, witnessing signatures, attesting documents or serving summonses. I was once innocently involved in a swindle by an organisation named 'The Antioch Church'. I was asked to legalise (witness) the signature on a deed of sale of a (tiny) piece of land, which conferred a title on the buyer. However, it turned out to be a big scam whereby the buyer paid a hefty sum of money for a worthless document. Eventually the Passport Office questioned the right to such a title when an applicant produced such a document when he applied for a new passport bearing his (purchased) title. I was quoted as having approved the title because it carried my signature and wax seal, which really wasn't the case since I'd only witnessed the signature. Eventually the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) issued instructions not to legalise any more documents for this organisation.

Fifty percent of my time was spent on the protection of BC's. This would involve trying to help people with problems related to: serious accidents (air, sea, and road), lack of funds, victims of crimes, repatriations, arrests, prisons, marriages, drugs, murders, medical and football. In Holland we have a resident British population of some 70,000 souls and each year there would be at least two million British tourists. As you can imagine there was a regular flow of BC's turning up asking for help; the worst group being the louts who thought the BCG should pay for their repatriation - this seldom happened. Some of the fatal accidents I remember being involved with was the 'Spirit of Free Enterprise' at Zeebrugge, the Martinair air crash at Faro, the City Hopper Crash at Schiphol Airport, a train crash at Hoofddorp and many road traffic accidents, including a 99 year old driver. Then there were the murders, often drug related and the suicides, which could be pretty nasty. The favourite means of committing suicide was to jump in front of a train and we would relay the sad news to the next of kin, mostly with the help of the FCO and the UK police.

One of the (drug related) murder cases where I assisted next of kin resulted in the Parliament Ombudsman investigating my handling of the case. Without going into details I can tell you that I was exonerated from any blame, which must have upset the MP who lodged the complaint against me.

On average I would visit one prisoner a week. These could be drug barons, murderers, sex offenders, thieves and by far the most, drug smugglers. Most visits were to remand centres where conditions were reasonable and the detainees were allowed to hire TV's, refrigerators and various other comfort items in their individual cells. When once a person was sentenced and transferred to a proper prison life changed completely and Dutch prisoners were often allowed to go home for the weekend. One prison I visited had tennis courts, an excellent gym and a swimming pool (which no one used because those who couldn't swim used to urinate in it to spite those who could). On the corridor to the interview rooms was a condom dispenser. Inquisitively I asked the guard if this was to propagate sex between the inmates. It wasn't but he showed me a room with a double bed en-suite facilities where the partners of prisoners who were not allowed home, were permitted to use the room for a couple of hour's during conjugal visits. Why didn't they think of something like that at Halton?

Another aspect of my work was dealing with the problems related to football hooligans. I built up over the years, an excellent relationship with the police, the immigration services and the major football clubs. When the Netherlands organised Euro 2000 I was taken off my normal work for six months and devoted all my time to football liaison. I trained staff, wrote manuals, and managed to obtain full police accreditation for our Consular team. It was an anti climax when I had to stand my team down after England was knocked out by Portugal. The procedures I set up then were taken on board as best practice by the FCO and are still being used as templates.

At a Leeds v PSV match the Dutch arrested 125 fans at Eindhoven. They were held for a night at a barracks and deported the next day on a chartered aircraft. I phoned to warn the police at the East Midlands airport where they were flown to, telling them that most of the fans were very angry and could cause trouble. The police chief phoned me two days after and thanked me; he told me they had arrested twenty wanted persons. However, my pleasure later turned to utter amazement when the same police chief sent me a bill for the hire of several buses and the overtime for his officers, claiming I had told him to organise these. Needless to say we refused. At a match at Breda the police rounded up some 70 fans and held them in a large holding cell, without food, water or toilet facilities. The fans were very angry indeed and I had the unenviable task of going into the cell to try to calm them down - it worked and we managed to get them released so that they could return home on a charter flight.

Another aspect of my work, which was pleasurable, was representation. I attended quite a few receptions, visited navy ships, drove a tank on a visit to the military, was invited to shoot on a range (it was difficult with only one eye), took part in seminars, and gave talks. I was also invited to become a member of the elitist Consular Corps that I declined.
I loved working at the Consulate and I retired in 2003 but in 2006 I was asked to go back and sort out my old section, my successor who suffered ill health had let things slip. I managed that and then helped to introduce the new biometric passports. The original intention was to go back for two months but I ended up working seven months.
After retiring I did voluntary work at a 'Victim Support' unit in 2004 for a year before moving home. Nowadays, apart from my RAFA and being SSAFA representative for the Netherlands, I help out at an Aviation Museum at Lelystad Airport.