Derek Lyon 2012

Derek attended BBGS from 1942-1949.

Compared to most of my illustrious predecessors my C.V. is one of surpassing mediocrity, however it interests me, so, exercising the President’s privilege, here goes. 

On leaving school I took articles with Roger Rose, the Town Clerk of Morecambe and Heysham and set off on the now outmoded trail to qualify which meant 5 years, unpaid articles whilst taking the Law Society’s exams by correspondence courses, rounding off with 6 months at Gibson & Weldon’s crammer course at Guildford.

Of course all of this was paid for by poor Dad whilst in theory I learnt the ways and means of the legal practices of local government.

In practice it meant driving the Town Clerk’s Humber Hawk to Lancaster to enable his wife to shop in that city, being taught by two hardened ex-servicemen how to play poker and liar dice and dealing with all the requisitions for Searches in the Local Land Charges Register – by return of post.

I frequently point out to modern practitioners, all for 5/- for the search and 15/- for replies to the Additional Questions. How much do they cost now ? 

I had been deferred until I qualified but the moment I did, Her Majesty required my attendance at 2 Trg Bn REME.  After training there and at Barton Stacey I was posted, to my initial regret, to that far flung corner of the British Empire, Taunton.

On demob I obtained a post as the lowest of four assistant solicitors in the Town Clerk’s Dept in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, a post commensurate with my knowledge and experience, i.e. nil.  I learned a lot very quickly and did a lot of conveyancing as Stoke were buying and clearing whole swathes of the inner city for redevelopment.

Plenty of court work and planning inquiries removed my schoolboy inhibitions about speaking in public. We started a two team NALGO  football club in local leagues, I got my first new car and three years passed in no time.                                                                                   

Unfortunately my Dad died at the early age of 59 and I perceived a need to get nearer to Barrow and as it happened by chance a job came vacant in the Town Hall here with Barrow County Borough Council.

I could rhapsodise about county boroughs as being the apogee of LOCAL government where a council was responsible for a relatively compact, identifiable area and all the services therein, from education, water, sewerage and sewage, highways, social housing, fire and ambulance services, consumer protection, public health, public transport to policing.

The latter loomed large because one of my jobs was Prosecuting Solicitor which meant that I did all the court work for the serious crimes that were on their way to Quarter Sessions or Assizes (Crown Court in modern terms). Yes I did reacquaint myself with one or two ex- schoolmates!                             

There seemed no chance of promotion so I departed for the job of Solicitor and Deputy Clerk to the Cumberland River Authority at Carlisle and Vi and I lived at Morton.

It was a very different job with its remit of water resources, pollution, fisheries protection, land drainage etc but still plenty of prosecuting. It’s a very brave and resourceful salmon which makes its way up the rivers as it avoids netting, snigging, poisoning, gaffing by a population which seemed reluctant anyway to pay for the necessary licences.

In the days of virtually every village having its own Magistrates Court, there aren’t many in the whole of Cumberland in which I haven’t appeared. 

Local Government reorganisation intruded into my peaceful life and in 1974 I was fortunate to obtain the post as deputy in the Secretarial and  Legal Services Dept (always know as sex and legs) in South Lakeland Council at Kendal. Thus I avoided having to go to North West Water HQ at Warrington.

I hesitate to claim so and ruin my reputation but I think I worked hard at Kendal as we had the major task of pulling together what had been one Borough Council, 3 Urban District Councils, 4 Rural District Councils, matters in three different County Councils and two National Parks.          

In 1979 I successfully applied for the job of Deputy Town Clerk in this Golden City of the North and 6 months of me was enough to see the Town Clerk, Bill Robinson retire on health grounds. I then managed to beat off rival claimants and was appointed Town Clerk. What a joy to get the top job in your home town, a town I had never wanted to leave from school days.

HOWEVER and WHATEVER, I do not live to work but work to live and real life has always begun outside the office and it has involved the outdoors.

This year is my 44^th year as a Lake District National Park Voluntary Ranger, (formerly and preferably ’Voluntary Warden’).

It's an all absorbing hobby involving, inter alia, leading guided walks, work parties, boat patrols, fell patrols and in my case for several years, Chairman of the Vol Wardens Committee and co-option as a member of one of the National Park Authority’s committees. 

Age has caught up with me and I now only do my boat patrol duties on Coniston Water. Vi and I spent very many holidays camping in Scotland, a couple of backpacking trips in Greenland and had a hostel based holiday in the Faroes.

We’ve skied in the Cairngorms. (I first went there on an army ski course long before the Aviemore development). In Austria, Vi, (NOT ME) did some serious climbing in the Alps. I think we have visited a lot of the high ground in the UK. 

Probably due to nosiness I have kept up my interest in local bodies and especially as Chairman of the Governors of the Sixth Form College in Rating Lane. This is a unique position, as it is the only such college in Cumbria. On the latter body I enjoy the companionship of fellow Old Barrovians, John Barker and John Calvert, and the latter as well on the Barrow Community Trust.  

One membership which tests the old army rule of ‘never volunteer for anything’, is as a public governor for Barrow and Copeland on the Council of the Morecambe Bay Hospitals Trust. I just nicely picked up the name and title badge and the free parking permit for FGH, Westmorland GH and Lancaster R.I. when all hell broke loose with the widely publicised problems. It has meant lots of meetings but I think we are getting there.

Richard Scott and I try to help the workings of the Duddon Estuary Partnership but I listen in awe to his expositions on environmental matters. The inherent problems in dealing with the output from the off-shore wind turbines AND any new nuclear station exercise us greatly.

Like many of you, I support, mainly in my case by simple membership, several bodies reflecting my interests but, practically, as a member of the geriatric groundstaff at Barrow Cricket Club.

I am a drinking member of the Royal British Legion, and I was President for 25 years of the RBL. In recognition they made me life Vice-President and gave me a gold badge, not bad for a L/Cpl (Ret’d).

Regret ? yes, that I cannot think of a sure fire way of revitalising the Old Barrovians Association. There are lots of our contemporaries out there who we should be persuading to attend our events. Let’s try.