Born 13 June 1939, in Merseyside. Colin discovered a love for sailing when he joined the West Kirby Sea Cadets as a boy. This led to a lifelong love of the oceans. He joined the Merchant Navy in 1955 and, age 16, went away to sea. For the next 10 years Colin’s time was divided between being away at sea and studying for his maritime qualifications. He eventually rose to the rank of Captain. He met Norma, who was working as the ship’s Nanny, while sailing between Liverpool and West Africa and they married in 1965. Bruce was born in 1968 and Lawrence in 1970. He joined Westminster Dredging in 1970 and remained there until his retirement in 2001.Norma and Colin looked forward to a retirement with plenty of holidays and spending time with their grandchildren. Sadly, Norma passed away in 2005 after a long illness. Since then, Colin spent his time with his family, trying to play golf (Q. “how was golf today?” A. “an absolute disaster”) and visiting his two brothers; Malcolm in South Africa and Roy near Hereford. While visiting Malcolm and his family, Colin took part in a number of hair raising activities including white water rafting, canyon jumping and diving with great white sharks. Visits to Roy were more sedate but he enjoyed them equally. In later life Colin rediscovered a love of painting. He experimented with different painting styles, his favourite subject being battle ships from the Napoleonic era. Many of his paintings are hanging on the walls of family and friends houses.