Goldsmiths.

50 years ago today I arrived at Goldsmiths College in New Cross London. The first in my family to go to University. Mam and Dad had driven me down from Leicester on a sunny Sunday afternoon and left me at Raymont Hall to settle in with all the other newcomers.

My journey had started a few years earlier. I attended a secondary modern school in Leicester even though I had passed the 11plus in Derby. I was regarded as being bright and usually finished the year at the top of my form. I had no ambition to go University. People from my class and from my estate rarely did. By my 5th year the school had started O levels and I was one of the few allowed to take them. I passed in 8 subjects much to my and the school’s surprise. Instead of leaving school immediately with most of my friends I transferred to the 6th form of a local grammar school . I hated every minute of it except the football and cricket. I left at the end of the first term to work in a factory. One of the many bad decisions I have made in my life. If the grammar school was bad the factory was worse.

It was 1968. So much was happening in the world. Yet I felt my life had come to an end and I was doomed to follow in the footsteps of the rest of my family into a dead end job. I endured this for nearly two years. Until one night in a pub I was sitting with two of my oldest friends and we discussed what more we could do with our lives. We decided then and there that we would try and go to University even though we had no idea how. Within a few months we had all enrolled in an FE College to do A levels.

The course began in September 1970 and lasted two years. During that period my life blossomed. I became President of the student’s union. And eventually met my wife. Though I didn’t know it at the time. In my second year I applied to University to study for a degree in history. Though I was still not being encouraged to do so. Even FE Colleges had limited ambitions for their students. I was accepted at Reading and I held Goldsmiths as a reserve. It was lucky I did. I failed to achieve the grades required for Reading but Goldsmiths accepted me.

And so on that sunny October afternoon in 1972 I began another stage in my life. Leaving my home to which I would never permanently return. Starting a course that would change my life. Meeting friends who have shared so much with me over the years. And marrying the woman I had met but didn’t go out with at FE college. It’s a cliche I know but it really was a life changing experience.

Tonight I will be celebrating those 50 years with my wife Vishva and friends I met on that day