Stallard Ian.

Ian was really proud to have passed his eleven plus and to have been given his first choice of Riley Technical High School. 

Being only the second person in his family to pass the relatively new scholarship, Ian's dad Frank was also very pleased, as it

was Franks own brother George, who had previously attended Kingston High.  Sadly Ian lost his Father in a road traffic accident

only a few months after starting at Riley, so it was down to his mum Carrie, to try to guide him along a straight and sometimes

rather narrow path to success.  Ian left Riley just after his 16th Birthday with 5 GCE passes at 'O' Level and took up an aeronautical

apprenticeship with Hawker Siddeley Aviation at Brough where both his Father and Grandfather had worked. 
 

Following his apprenticeship and then redundancy in 1971 during the South African arms embargo by the Government,

he worked as a lab technician at the Hull College of Technology, firstly in the Aero department and later in the Fabrication and

Welding department.  It was here that the Principal asked if he would be interested in doing some part time teaching, the taste

of which led eventually to him attending Technical Teacher Training College in Huddersfield in 1975 for a one year course prior

to landing his first teaching post in Southport.  Here, in 1980 he met Christine who was Catering manageress at the College and they married in 1986, which probably accounts for his ever expanding waistline!

Always interested in things mechanical and having built bicycles and small motorcycles when still at school he built his first Mini in

1970, which he still has today and is registered with the DVLA as a 'Stallard' Mini.  Since then he has always had a project or two

on the go. (Christine: Only two?  I don't think so!)  After 20 years of teaching first year 'Off the Job' apprentices Ian was seconded to the Spinal Injuries Centre in Southport to help set up a Rehabilitation Technology Unit for patients with traumatic spinal cord injury. This was supposed to be for a period of 3 years but he stayed a total of 12 due to the retirement of his Professor!

Ian and Christine retired to the beautiful Orkney Isles in 2006 due in no small part to having done Land's End to John O'Groats using

a recumbent pedal tricycle in 2004; this was bought for the use of the Patients but pressed into service for further fund raising for the

Spinal Unit.

 



Ian still has a well equipped workshop at home with fantastic views over the Atlantic Ocean to cause a distraction and frequently gets

requests like 'Can you just?......'   Having been Chairman of the 300 strong Orkney Vintage Club for the last 2 years, these requests

seem to have become more and more frequent!  Jaguar cars have also figured highly in Ian's life since his early thirties but his pride

and joy is now a Supercharged Daimler saloon (and of course, the Mini)

Strangely Ian had always thought of himself as the weedy runt of the gang at school but at the recent reunion in Hull, was a good few

inches taller than all of the others!

Still enjoying travel, especially to Germany and Austria where he and Christine enjoyed motorcycling holidays for many years; it just

shows how useful those German lessons at Riley were and might be connected with the fact that he got a grade 1 in German but failed his English! Still motorcycling too at 66 but Christine now prefers travelling abroad in the car, not sure if it's because her leathers have shrunk more than his (ouch!) or just that there is more room in a car for wine on the return trips!

 

ianstallard 'at' hotmail 'dot' com

 

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