Ian was born in Ireland and spent his formative years in North London.
Educated in Ireland he went to Trinity College, Dublin where he spent much of his time acting with the Dublin University Players and rowing for the University Boat Club.
He did a post-graduate course in Hospital Management at The King’s Fund in London and subsequently began his career at University College Hospital.
After a further reorganisation of the NHS, he decided it was best to change direction and became a schoolmaster at Sussex House School in Chelsea where he taught history and English.
From there he moved to a senior boys’ boarding school near Henley-on-Thames where he continued to teach and where he greatly enjoyed coaching rowing.
Fourteen years later, he returned to Sussex House as Deputy Headmaster.
In retirement, he began a new series of careers, firstly as a guide at the Government Code & Cypher School at Bletchley Park and later at Reading Abbey and Christ Church, Oxford.
He served on the Council of the Betjeman Society and was a member of the Society’s Oxford committee.
He was a front of house manager at the Kenton Theatre in Henley-on-Thames and a churchwarden at St. Margaret’s Church in Mapledurham.
He also began to give a series of talks on an eclectic range of subjects ranging from the life and execution of Archbishop William Laud to the Irishness of Oscar Wilde, women of the Special Operations Executive and the history of the teddy bear. The list continues to grow.
He served for many years as a reserve soldier in the Intelligence Corps and is now the Royal British Legion poppy appeal organiser for the parish of Mapledurham.
He and his wife have two married sons and four grandchildren.