I started work shortly after leaving school as a clerk with a firm of solicitors in Ipswich and stayed with them for about 4 years, when I left to join the Legal & General Ass. Soc. I was with this company for quite a number of years ending up as Manager of a branch office in Wisbech, Cambs.
In the meantime, whilst still in Ipswich, I met Pat and we were married at Rushmere Parish Church on 13 September 1969, so we have recently celebrated our Golden Wedding.
After Wisbech, Pat and I moved back to civilisation in Yorkshire! We bought a business in Wath-upon-Dearne, South Yorkshire which we ran for some 20-odd years. During that time, I took myself off to Leeds University and after 4 years I graduated with a B. Ed. in English and Music. As things turned out I never taught in a school. I and three friends started a company delivering training to people who were facing redundancy, and things got somewhat hectic during the miners’ strike. When that little shindig calmed down, we went on to deliver to staff all over the UK, which left Pat and her staff running the business in Wath. In 1979 our daughter Victoria was born, and she is now married and has a 5-year-old daughter, Edith. They live in Stockport.
The three friends with whom I worked at this time were all Freemasons and in 1994 I too became a member. I am still “on the Square” and am now a Past Master of my Lodge. My schooling taught me many facets about human nature and the need to care for my fellow man so Freemasonry was a natural progression with its guiding principles of brotherly love, relief and truth.
In 2000, Pat and I sold the business in Wath and moved to our present home in Cudworth, Barnsley. We retired some 11 or 12 years ago and now enjoy a quiet life, visiting family and going to places in the UK which we never got around to seeing in previous years. We are both 75 this year so peace and quiet are very much the order of the day. If anyone of our members should remember me, or was a contemporary at KEGS, I would be delighted to hear from them.
Kindest wishes to all, Richard Field.
© Old Burians' Association 2025