He attended King Edward VII School (photo) and left with an RAF Scholarship to undertake an Aeronautical Engineering degree at Imperial College London from 1971 to 1974.
His first posting was to RAF Kinloss as Officer Commanding Armament Servicing Flight supporting the 3 Nimrod Squadrons.
He left on promotion a year later to command the Armament Engineering Squadron at RAF Coningsby and was the project officer for the introduction to service of the Tornado F2.
He then attended the Advanced Staff Course at Bracknell before his posting to RAF Bruggen as Officer Commanding Engineering and Supply Wing.
He served 4 years in post before moving to the Ordnance Board as the Air Strike Division Leader in December 1999.