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I suggested in my report for the clubs AGM that it would be nice if some
members could do a profile of their life for the DLN. I will start with mine
which I did for another club in 2001.

MARK JAME BALLAMY

(Profile this is as it was in 2001)

I was born in Brixton, South London on the 14 th
March 1932, one of a family of six having been
burdened with five sisters. I continued to live in
the Brixton area until 1974 when I move to
Sanderstead and then to Warlingham in 1995.

Education, not a lot due to remaining in London
for the duration of the war, between 1939 and
1945 I attended five different schools some of
them for only a few hours a week. In 1945 I
started a three-year course at the Borough Beaufoy Technical Institute as
it was then called at Kennington.

On leaving school I joined the London Electricity Board, as an electricians
mate my employment there lasted from 1948 to 1959 with two breaks one
for two years national service and the other when in 1957 I decided (or rather
my then girl friend decided for me), I emigrated to Canada but only stayed
for one year. In 1953 just before my 21 st birthday I wrote to the head of my
department at the LEB stating that I felt confident and competent that I
could carry out the work of an electrician (having spent less than three years
as a mate), three weeks later I was promoted to the position of electrician,
much to the annoyance of other who had been waiting over 2 years to be
made up after completing their five years training.

1959 I decided to leave the LEB and start my own electrical contracting
business, 1973 I joined with Jack Bridge a friend in taking over the building
contractors Woodward & Co (Finsbury) Ltd where Jack was then working.

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