Down memory lane into the 1950s. Reconnecting with John Willson and John Bulmer.

Over the last few weeks I have rediscovered and written about my first endoscopy assistants (Sue Wallace and Judy Caddy) at St Thomas’s in London in the late 1960s, and visited and honored my best old friend (Dick McCray) from 1971.

And the fun continues, even further back into the 1950s….

Last weekend I met up in Vancouver with John Willson, a good friend at our “prep” boarding school in England where we were together up to age 13. His Dad managed a tungsten mine in the mountains of Portugal. They became my second family, and I was privileged to spend summers there in my teens. We had a lot to talk about, not having met for about 60 years! He is writing a book about his extraordinary career in mining all over the world in many inhospitable places.

While looking for old photos of those times, I came across some taken by John Bulmer, who had the room two doors down from me at Kings College, Cambridge, in 1958. We shared jazz records and the occasional glass of cheap sherry. The Bulmer family ran the famous cider business in my home county of Herefordshire, and we used to socialize as children. I remember a superb annual party at their house every New Years Eve. Anyway, I asked Mr Google if he know him, and wow, he sure does, and Wikipedia has several pages. John has become one of the worlds most celebrated photographers and documentary makers (www.johnbulmer.co.uk).

I hope that this sudden flood of amazing reunions is a happy coincidence and not a sign of my involution to childhood.

But it is great fun, lucky me!