About Me!

Me & My Family

Me in 1953

In My Apprentice Days

My name is Dave Collier;

I am single and live in a small cottage in the town of Faringdon in Oxfordshire, England. I have lived in Faringdon since December 1986.

I was born in the RAF hospital at Ely in Cambridgeshire in 1952. I have an elder brother and sister, my sister lives in Seaton, South Australia with her family, and my brother lives in Chichester, West Sussex.

My father was a Photographer in the RAF until he was 'demobed' in 1971, and he continued to work for the MOD as a civil servant until he retired. My mother was born and brought up in Norfolk, and met my father during the Second World War when she was lodging with his mother when she worked for Handley Page building Halifax Bombers for the war effort. Sadly my mother passed away in 2002 and my father passed away in 2004, they used to live in Harefield, Middlesex. You can see a photo of my fathers medals that he was awarded during his service with the RAF by following this link.

This is me
after spending too much time surfing the net!

Faringdon & Home

Faringdon has some unusual features including one of the last follies built in the United Kingdom, the last being the Millennium Dome! For the Millennium there was a beacon, on top of the Folly that resembled a light house, this was in place and operating for about three months and was a very distinctive land mark that was visible from many counties in the south of England.

I live in a small, or is it compact and bijou, “one up - one down” cottage at the end of a short terrace of three similar properties. There is no direct road access to my home, and the only way to gain access to my home is along a narrow alley, and then across my neighbour’s properties. The building on the right was once the toilets and coal sheds for all three houses in the terrace.
 
The cottage has a large garden that at one time would have been the main source of food for whoever lived there. The garden is where I do most of my entertaining, with Bar-Be-Cue’s etc.

My home

Education

As my father was in the RAF we spent some time overseas and as a result went to school in such wonderful places as Singapore and Germany. The most unusual place for education was in the UK at Freckleton, where the school was in an old army camp, near Kirkham, that was being used as an open prison. Other schools that I went to were in Norfolk and at Uxbridge in Middlesex. I was not the world’s greatest scholar and left with a few CSE’s in the usual subjects, and getting a grade one in art and Technical Drawing.

Career

I am currently working in the IT industry as a Project Planner, and have had contracts with several major companies since I left the Royal Air Force in 1992 after a 22 year career as an Aircraft Technician. I joined the RAF as an apprentice in 1968 and expected to see the world. After my training I had a grand total of four postings and spent nearly all of my service at just two of them in the UK. I did manage to spend a couple of years in Germany in the early 1970’s and had a short visit to Sardinia whilst based there. The aircraft types that I worked on while in the RAF included the Lightning Mk 1a, T4 & 2a, Canbera Mk T4 & PR7, Vulcan, Slingsby T21, Kirby Cadet and VC10. I also spent some time in a refurbishment facility inspecting items from the Jaguar and Phantom aircraft. The most satisfying work for me in that time was replacing the VC10 undercarriage system and the least satisfying was servicing the interior trim of the VC10.Whilst I worked on the Lightning types I was posted to flying squadrons, 65 and 19, the rest of my service was spent at maintenance facilities doing major servicing repairs and overhaul of aircraft and components. The most unusual work that I did in the RAF was that of a Project Planner, which has led to my current career path.

A Lightning F Mk 6

Travels

As I come from an Air Force family I am much travelled.
 
By the time I was 2 years old we were living in Gibraltar, something I have a few vague memories of. After a short return to England we moved to Singapore when I was five. It was here that my interest in photography was started.
 
I have also lived and worked in Germany, and spent time in Malta and Sardinia.
 
Most of the travelling was done before I joined the RAF, with just one tour in Germany for my 22 years service. I now concentrate on seeing as much of the United Kingdom as possible as I have seen relatively little of it. Most of my travels these days are by car, but there was a time when I could be seen out and about on a Motto Guzzi V50 or a BSA A65 motorcycle.

My parents, brother and sister outside our home in Singapore

My parents, brother, sister and myself in the middle

Interests

A Slingsby Sedburgh glider that I learnt to fly in

My interests have been many and varied over the years, including Swimming, Rowing, Badminton, Climbing, Amateur Dramatics, and Gliding (see photo), but the one that has stayed the distance has been Photography.
 
I have now combined this with home computing and the Internet and have now virtually abandoned the conventional darkroom for the electronic version.