New Court Assistants

New Court Assistants Frank Clarke

David Williams

I have been involved in the roofing and construction industry from a very early age. In fact I was working with my late father at the age of eight years, sorting and stacking roof tiles for the tilers to nod up, in an era when we used to carry tiles balanced on our heads on top of a soft ring.

At the age of 16 I started working full time and enjoyed learning the trade skills required, with a particular passion for working on churches, oast houses and heritage buildings. This is still very much something I enjoy. When my father retired, both my brother and I decided to form our own company which was, and still is, very successful.

My brother took early retirement and I decided I needed help and two employees became directors. Now both my sons have learnt the trade and are directors for the third generation. The company has since grown in every direction to now include construction, restoration and all roofing disciplines.

I joined the National Federation of Roofing Contractors and have served on the slate and tiling and heritage committee. For many years I have also been serving on the London and southern counties committee including periods as vice chair or chairman.

I enjoy seeing young people train and achieve their tiling and slating skills and have watched as many have picked up national awards.

Currently I really enjoy serving on the Craft Committee as this backs up my enthusiasm for training.

Outside of work I enjoy all sports including skiing, sailing, trekking and golf. I have been a long serving supporter and season ticket holder of Brighton and Hove Albion football club where we attend home matches with my wife, children, and now our grandson. Travel is my greatest passion and I am often found researching trips. I love meeting new people from different cultures and learning about their lives.

I have enjoyed some variety through my working life, with time spent in HM Forces before working in marketing, management and construction. I have an Honours Degree in Mathematics and I am a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

From school I went to Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth with the intention of joining the Fleet Air Arm and then served as a junior officer on a number of ships, specialising in communications. As well as learning to fly in Tigermoths and Cessnas, and qualifying as a Scuba diver, I saw the world, experiencing early live action in the Far East with the Borneo conflict of 1965. Denis Healey’s rapid downsizing of the Navy’s carrier fleet in the late 1960’s effectively put paid to a flying career!

After leaving the Navy I spent ten years marketing photographic processing, then a boom consumer industry, eventually becoming Managing Director of the market leader running four laboratories.

With an interest in building, in the 1980’s I turned my hand to property development, employing a team of mixed trades. By 1985 we were heavily engaged in building contracting as well as exhibition design and construction. In 1996 my wife and I made the joint decision to fully transfer our family home to Singapore for an indeterminate period. It was not quite the mid-career rest in the sun anticipated! On arrival I secured local employment as Executive Director of the British Chamber of Commerce, helping arrivals from UK to set up business, organising the event programme and publishing a quarterly business magazine for British expats. On return to UK some four years later I recommenced improving property, including one I had just inherited in Jersey.

Our son lives in Australia, and we have two daughters here, plus five grandchildren. I was a keen skier and scuba diver but have felt it prudent to give up both on entering my seventies.

In the T&B I have served as Deputy Chair of the Craft Committee, also as a Steward, and as Editor I have assisted the production of our annual Upper Warden’s Newsletter for many years.