Tony Paul (1970-74)
I was at Orwell from 1970 to 1974 and did not do too well in classes. I was one of those pupils who always had could do better on their reports and I had to give up Latin after being sent to the headmaster for singing in exams. I ran away from school and always felt ‘home sick’ – in my day we were 99% boarders.
When I took Common Entrance, my first choice of St Edwards Oxford rejected me although I did achieve a pass – my Maths was the highest of the year and most of the others were above pass.
Their reason for rejection was my English mark of 21% and French of 13% so I headed to Kings School Ely. By the time I left there, I had high sporting achievements – I rowed no.1 in the first VIII and gained house and school colours in rugby and hockey – but poor A level results. At O level, despite passing most of my exams with Cs and above, it took me 3 attempts to pass English Language (although I passed English Literature first time with a B). My English teacher said my writing looked like “A demented spider had jumped in the ink well and run across the page”. As a result of this, I went to a crammer in Cambridge where my Dyslexia was finally recognised by my Biology teacher who noticed I did well in oral practice but badly in written work, and she sent me off for tests. The upshot was I had a reading age of 13 but an IQ of 140. Once the examiners made allowances for this, I ended up with 5 A levels and 11 O levels.
From here I went to Aston University on a sponsored 4-year mechanical degree with the Army. When I went I was too young to do the Regular Commissions Board (RCB), being a year ahead, so I went at the end of the first year, only for the Army to reject me as being “too cheerful and independent and unlikely to follow orders” so I was switched to the 3-year full time. I did one year on that and was kicked off for “failing too many exams”, but when I asked for an independent marker my papers had disappeared. In that year I had had 2 full blown arguments with the Head of Department – one over the unqualified definition of a bridge…
From here I switched to Agricultural Engineering and went to Caythorp Court in Lincolnshire (part of the Lincolnshire Agricultural College) and left there with a credit higher certificate and the Challenge Trophy for the most promising student in the whole Lincolnshire College.
I drifted along doing my HGV 1 and lorry driving during the winter and harvest jobs in the summer. You see I had got myself caught in a trap – my father would not use me on the farm because, as he put it, “if you work for me all you will learn is what I know”, and when I went for jobs on other farms I got two responses: if it was a farm worker it was “with your qualifications you won’t stay here long; as soon as a better offer comes you will be off” or if I went for a managerial job the reply would be “you don’t have the experience”. Luckily, I landed a job as a Farm Mechanic/Tractor Driver and worked my way up to Farm Foreman.
After a couple of years of this I had a lucky break and due to an inheritance bought a small farm in Essex. I had, however, got mixed up with a lovely but dangerous lady and to cut a long story short lost my driving licence so had to rent the farm out. My idle fingers turned to drugs and I spent the next 8 years in oblivion.
In 2001 I gave up the drugs and made the decision to become teetotal. While I was in treatment, my mother and stepfather sorted out my finances as I was about 2 weeks away from bankruptcy, and when I came out I started with no money in the bank but a clean slate. I survived for the next few weeks on some small income from sheds I had rented out, and as I became more focused the next-door farmer offered me some small driving jobs. As word of mouth got out that I was capable and available, several farmers started offering me jobs until I was almost back in full-time employment. At this point, I invested in a new tractor and became a ‘man with a tractor’ and the jobs got better. Now, I have two mid-range tractors, two 32ft flatbed trailers and two bulker trailers, one 18t the other 9t, and I have contracts with several farms carting grain, onions, dirt and potatoes in the bulkers, and hay, straw, potatoes (in boxes) and assorted miscellaneous other things on the flatbeds. I can travel up into Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, and down to Southend.
Unfortunately, in July this year I suffered a ruptured aorta which means I cannot do anything for the moment. But I will not be defeated. I have survived several setbacks but have overcome them all and I will overcome this one eventually, though I expect it to take a year to be fully back. I have a programme and timescales to follow as recommended by doctors, but with determination all obstacles can be overcome.
