Mike was born in 1936. He grew up in Croydon, going to Whitgift School. He was at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst in 1955/56 where he won the Infantry Sword and six other prizes. He was commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). Over the next five years he served with the 1st Battalion in Dover, Kenya, Bahrain, Sharjah and Malta, and as Adjutant of the Regimental Depot in H.M. Tower of London. Then came two years in the Trucial Oman Scouts; three years in West Germany with 1st Battalion; the Staff College course; and posting to the Ministry of Defence. In 1970-72, he served as a company commander with 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (2 RRF) in West Berlin and on an operational tour of four months in Belfast (1971-72).

He married Jan in 1969 and his son David was born in West Berlin. He then had another staff appointment, during which son Jonathan was born, before leaving the Regular Army in 1974. Before doing so, he had qualified as a Chartered Secretary & Administrator. He and Jan moved to West Dulwich, where they remain today.

Mike then joined the Civil Service. Apart from two jobs in the Property Services Agency, he spent all his Civic Service career in the Department of Transport. His last appointment was as UK delegate to the European Union’s Transport Research Committee, followed by two years in Brussels as a temporary member of the European Commission. He was appointed OBE for services to the Department in 1995. He retired in December 1996. Between 2000 and 2006 he worked in an unpaid basis, as the project officer for the redevelopment of his parish church – All Saints’, West Dulwich – a Grade I listed Victorian Gothic building (Church of England) which was badly damaged by fire in June 2000.

Between 1974 and 1989 Mike served in the Territorial Army in The Queen’s Regiment. He commanded the 6th/7th Battalion; served as TA Colonel at Headquarters London District; and finally as Territorial Adviser to the Director of Infantry. He was an Aide de Camp to H.M. The Queen, 1984-87. He was awarded the Territorial Decoration,

He joined the Worshipful Company of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in 1982 and was elected Master for 2000/01. He served as the paid Clerk of the Company between July 2002 and January 2012. He was appointed Representative Deputy Lieutenant for the London Borough of Newham in 1993, and stood down in September 2012. He was made an Honorary Freeman of the Borough on 12 October 2000 and remains a member of its Mayors’ Association.

He was a Trustee of Marshall’s Charity from 1982 until 2012, and was Chairman of the Trustees between 1997 and 2002. The Charity gives some £650,000 in grants each year for the improvement of parsonage houses of the Church of England (and in Wales), and for the repairs to churches in Kent, Lincolnshire and Surrey (as defined in 1855).

In early 2017 he published a book – “Challenge in Chitral”, about a campaign in 1895 in what is now Northern Pakistan.