Run by Owners for Owners – that’s the model that Bob Bessell established in 1983 and it would be hard to count the number of people over the years, who have put themselves forward to give their time in support of their Courts.

One such person is Ala­­n Archer, Chairman of the Board at Emmbrook Court. Alan was elected to the Board in 2001 and has been re-elected every year since. Alan has given us a snapshot of his life, from education to a career in engineering, his passion for country dancing and family life and his eventual move to Emmbrook Court with his wife, Heather.

The story of my life

I was born in 1936, in Farnborough Hospital, then in NW Kent, now in the London Borough of Bromley. My father was a bank teller/accountant, and my mother was a civil service stenographer.

My father went to TA camp in July 1939, and was demobilised in September 1945. I was evacuated to Canada with my mother in September 1940, on one of the last evacuee ships before the City of Benares was torpedoed. We returned from Canada, some 5 days short of qualifying for Canadian citizenship, in September 1945.

After a short time in a private school in Orpington, NW Kent, I passed the 11-plus exam to Eltham College, the School for the Sons of Missionaries. My O and A levels gained me acceptance to King’s College, Cambridge, to read Mechanical Sciences. Graduating after a four-year course, I joined Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, Consulting Engineers, in Westminster in September 1959.

My early career

Initially I worked on the design of reinforced concrete buildings for Lea Hall Colliery, near Rugeley. Then similar work for Thorpe Marsh Power Station and Bombay Naval Dockyard, prior to site experience as a junior engineer at Tilbury B Power Station, on the Thames opposite Gravesend. After qualifying as a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, I remained with Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners for the whole of my working life. Jobs included ancillary works for the Latiyan and Lar Dams in Iran, structures for irrigation canals in Syria, and underground hydro-electric power stations at Kariba and on the Orange River in South Africa. My longest work was on the structures and the operating manuals for the Great Man-Made River in Libya, which was designed to provide two million cubic meters of water per day to supply Benghazi, Tripoli and agriculture along the Mediterranean littoral. I retired from Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners in 2001.

Discovering a love of country dancing

I started country dancing during the square dance boom in 1952, after Princess Elizabeth and her husband were seen square dancing on a visit to Canada. This interest has continued, introducing me to my wife, Heather, who accompanied me to Syria (with son Robert) and South Africa (with Susan also) when I was working on those jobs. I still dance regularly, and occasionally call for some of the local clubs. I try to arrange for some dancers to come one evening in summer to dance on the lawn at Emmbrook nearly every year.

Moving to Emmbrook Court and being elected to the Board

While I was working in South Africa, Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners moved from Westminster to Reading. When I returned to the UK it was necessary to move from NW Kent, to a house in Earley, in April 1976. The children attended the local primary and secondary schools, and Heather was a supply teacher for the primary school until diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1981. Initially she was mobile, but difficulty increased. One of her friends at the local branch of the Parkinson’s Disease Society moved to Emmbrook Court shortly after it opened in 1990. Some days after we first visited Thelma here, it occurred to us that a four-bedroom house with large garden was getting too much for us to manage, so why not talk to Larry Klein, the then manager at Emmbrook. Larry was able to persuade Reading Borough Council that Heather would benefit from being here, while I was allowed to continue to work with Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, so we moved into Number 42 in December 1992. Heather enjoyed being at Emmbrook, with helpful and caring staff and making many friends, until she passed away in 2003.

When I retired, I was elected to the Board of Emmbrook Court Ltd, becoming Chairman until the present time. I cannot think of anywhere else to be living better.