In the summer of 1963 I anticipated that I was just approaching the end of my education at Thorpe Grammar School in Norfolk by taking my O-Level examinations. My expectations were not very high, I had sunk to the bottom stream of five in my year and had already had two interviews for jobs that I thought could be suitable for someone with poor examination results - not accepted for an electrical apprentices job and offered a junior position in an architect's office with the "generous" concession that my father would not have to pay them anything, they had mistakenly though I was looking to be an "articled clerk". Also I was not feeling too well at this time suffering from a bit of morning sickness which caused my mother some concern, and confusion, but the doctor's verdict was that it was just "exam nerves".

The school authorities clearly decided that they did not want those in the bottom stream of the 5th Year hanging around the school after the exams with nothing to do, and possibly causing problems, and so a summer camp was arranged for us by Filby Broad. The group of five of us that were going share a bell-tent at the campsite decided that we would cycle there together in the afternoon and then - what would any group of 16-year-old boys do when "set free" - we found the nearest pub! We were all very cautious and none of us drank too much but in the early hours of the following morning I began to be violently sick and didn't stop. A teacher that was supervising us called in a local doctor, who in turn called for an ambulance and I received a free ride back to Norwich, not to home, but to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and by two o'clock in the afternoon I was on the operating table having my appendix removed.

I spent a week in the Norfolk and Norwich and then another week in the Wayland Hospital in Attleborough, by which time the school had broken up for the summer holidays. Back to looking for a job I thought, but my father had other ideas. It had been impressed upon him by the doctors that I should take it easy for a while and he had arranged that during his annual holiday in the first two weeks of August the family would go and stay with my uncle and aunt who had recently moved to London. It was therefore mid-August before I could re-start my job search - the newspapers did not contain much and it only just over a week before the O-Level result were due to come out - so it was worth waiting a bit longer.

I was surprised when I received my O-Level results. Out of the eight I took I had passed six and I immediately recollected from the job advertisement I had been reading that five or more passes at O-Level would open up possibilities of better jobs. But - the adverts always required 5 O-Levels including Maths and English - Maths one of the exams I had passed but the two I failed were English Language and English Literature. My excuse was, having grown up in Norfolk, that English was generally treated as a foreign language in that county!

However, Thorpe Grammar School did offer the opportunity of returning to the "Sixth Form Remove" for one term to retake O-Levels. I persuaded my father to accompany me to an interview with the headmaster to apply for this return. Mr Ball, the headmaster, was very sympathetic to this application but asked if I had any higher ambitions. I mentioned my job interview for a junior position with a firm of architects and had wondered if I might be able to follow this profession, but had dismissed this idea when I found that I would need two A-Levels to be admitted to a seven year course leading to such a qualification. Mr Ball's response surprised me, stating that "You could get two A-Levels". He then persuaded me, and more importantly my father, that I should to return to the Sixth Form for two years to take A-Levels.

I did return. I did pass the A-Levels required, although not immediately. I did get a place in a Polytechnic for a seven year architecture course. I did qualify to be an architect in late 1974. All thanks to the "wake-up call" given to me by my appendix in the summer of 1963 - although I did receive a little help along the way from other sources!