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| 22 May1955 |
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 I was born on Sunday the 22 May 1955 at Watford General Hospital, (Maternity Wing), King Street, Watford, Hertfordshire (WD18 0BW), the son of Esme Vivian Hughes (nee Chase) and Henry Hughes, he was a coalman (Birth Certificate). At birth I was given the name Victor Maurice Hughes and my parents lived at 10 The Bungalows, Aldenham Road, Bushey.
From what I have learnt the last few weeks, my sister was sick, and this may be te reason that I was put up for adoption. I don't really know, but that may be why.
I was the 5th child of Esme Hughes, in 1945 she had twins (Birth Info)but they must have died (Death Info) shortly after. My older sisters are called Veronica and Vivian and as far as I know they live in Great Yarmouth and Petersborough. (Family Tree). |
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| 3 June 1957 |
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 On the third of June 1957 I was officially adopted my Edward Reginald Cavell Thompson and Alexandra Rose Thompson (Nee Squires) in the Hertfordshire county courts (Adoption document). I do not know when I came to Hatfield, but from the photographs I have it must have been when I was about a year old, not really sure as it was not a thing we ever talked about. |
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| September 1960 |
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 Started as a pupil at Howe Dell Primary School, Old Rectory Drive, Hatfield. My teacher for most of my time was Miss Greenwood who became Mrs Morris when she married a lecturer from The Hatfield Technical College (Later Polytechnic, now University of Hertfordshire) |
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| September 1965 |
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 Started as a pupil at Onslow Secondary Modern, also on Old Rectory Drive, Hatfield. Had a lot of teachers when I was there, my class teachers were: B.D. Webb (Sept 1965 – July 1966), H. P. Rule (Sept 1966 – Dec 1967), R. K. Latham (Sept 1967 – July 1969), J Scofield (Sept – Dec 1969) and J Frust (Jan – July 1970). As a pupil I think I was mediocre, usually in the bottom 15 of our class of about 30, but my last term before leaving I was top of the class! The most commonly written phrase in my report book was “Could do better”. For the whole of my time at Onslow the headmaster was L. G. Giles.
Those teachers I remember best are Mr Scofield, the chemistry teacher, he was a RSM before teaching, and I know there were rumours he was together with the deputy head and librarian Miss Gee who lived on Hillcrest. Mr Latham, who we called “Larry” was a nice teacher and looked after all of his pupils. Mr Bromley the P.E. teacher was popular, and not forgetting “Grolly” Mr Warrington the social studies teacher who lived in Haseldine Meadows. He was a member of some religious group, they had no TV at home and I know that he came home to us once and pestered my parents about something (Not to do with school).
I can’t remember many people from school as I cannot say I had many friends, but one friend I did have was Michael Davies, who lived on The Ryde Estate, so he was a bit of an outcast coming from the posh estate. About the only class kids I remember are Tim Hopkins and Paul Maynard, Tim a brother in the same class, but I can’t remember his name |
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| July 1970 |
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Started work at Simmons The Bakers as an apprentice baker in the pastry department with Barry, Vera, Gwen and Richard. Started work at normal working hours (08.00 – 17.00) making pies pasties and all other sorts of pastry based goodies. During the summer when it was warm and the wasps were around it was a sport to play “rounder” trying to hit wasps into the insect killer. On Saturdays we had nothing to do so we worked in other departments, and I ended up in the fresh cream department on Saturdays. |
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I was at Simmons almost a year when I had a disagreement with someone else on a Saturday shift, I threw a can of fruit at him, and was sacked when I came to work on Monday. Tuesdays were college days, so I went to college even if I had been fired, told the teachers what had happened and they offered me a place full time the following term. |
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| July – Sept 1971 |
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Spent this time at The Lone Star Toy Company at Welham Green, working in the warehouse. Paid a lot more(£40 a week) than Simmons(£7.50 a week) which was lucky as it cost a bit to get all the gear for college (Clothing, knives etc.) |
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| July 1973-july 1974 |
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After finishing college, we became exchange students and it was off to Mainz am Rhein, Germany. Spent a year there at Volker Gögeleins Bakery at Fosterstrasse 10 in Mainz. |
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| July 1974 – Sept 1978 |
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After returning from Germany I started working at Cadena Bakery in the town centre in Hatfield. During this period, I also worked as an agency baker and worked at lot of different places including, Selfridges in Paddington, Harrington’s in St Albans, A few Jewish bakeries in North London. When there was not agency work I did anything, so I worked at SLD Oldings on pump maintenance, De Havilland refilling vending machines, once again at Lone Star, but this time in Hatfield, and once again at Simmons as a bread baker (early mornings). I even worked as a life guard at Hatfield Swimming pool… |
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Apart from the bakery jobs I even worked in a lot of pubs, in Hatfield it was The Hilltop, The Cavendish Arms, The Comet (Short order chef), The Stonehouse, The Fiddle, The Hopfields, The Hatfield Arms, and the Horse and Groom. In St Albans I Worked at The Camp, The Pineapple The Adelaide Wine Bar (DJ) and The Blacksmiths Arms. In Welwyn Garden City I worked at the Cherry Tree (D.J.) the Peartree and another pub I cannot remember the name of. |
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| Sept 1978 – Oct 1978 |
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After working as a helper at Bridges in Hatfield helping kids get support from the DHSS I was offered a chance to try my talents with older people as I had become a bit of an expert with the DHSS and usually got what I/the client wanted from them. So it was off to London to The Cyrenians, was at an interview one day offered a place in Cardiff, Wales the day after and was there within a few days. |
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Well I found my niche here and spent a lot of time at the DHSS fixing cash and clothing for the homeless, very satisfying. |
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Then, one day I was asked to pick up a new volunteer, and it was the I met Maria. |
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After a period, we decided to go picking fruit in Spain, and we took our belongings and left for France via Hatfield and Watford. Hatfield to see my parents and Watford to loan a tent from the college I went to. Then it was off to Dover. |
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Spent the night in the tent on a hill overlooking Dover harbour, and woke up in the morning halfway outside the tent, the slope was steeper than we thought. Down to the harbour and the first boat to France (Calais). |
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In Calais we spent a little bit of time, I earned a few bob selling Swan vista matches on the beach. All matches in France are safety matches, Swan Vistas can be lit on more or less anything. Then it was out of town and hitch hiking to our Next stop, Paris. Got a lift from an Irish lorry driver, didn’t understand a word he said, but luckily Maria had just been in Ireland and got the jest of what he was saying. |
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Spent the night camping close to The Boulogne woods in Central Paris then it was supposed to be off to southern France or Spain to pick fruit, but before leaving Maria phoned her parents and found out her grandmother was dying, so instead of south we went north, to Sweden. |
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Unfortunately, we didn’t make it in time and Maria’s grandmother had already passed away. And that is how I ended up in Sweden. |
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| November 1978 |
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After arriving in Stockholm, Sweden we moved into Maria's flat that was a cellar flat in a private house. Then after a month or so we moved into Maria's nan's flat in Edsberg, Sollentuna.(Map Sollentuna location). While living here we also got engaged. |
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| December 1978 |
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December was an eventful month! It began with our wedding at Kummelby Kyrka(Map) on the 9th of December. Then after Christmas we decided to move back to England, so just before new year we took a flight to the UK and moved in with my parents in Hatfield(Map) |
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| January 1979 |
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After arriving in the UK and moving in with mum & dad, I got a job at the Comet as a short order chef and Maria got a job in St Albans in an old peoples home on Grosvenor Road in St Albans. |
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| March 1979 |
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In March we moved back to Sweden. Maria got a job an an old peoples home in Bergshamra, Solna, a northern suburb to Stockholm. We lived at Strandvägen 2 which was owned by Thomas Mannheimer. After a few months we moved to Maria's nan's flat in Edsberg(Kruthornsvägen). After a few months we moved to our first own flat in Sollentuna centre (Malmvägen 22 )(Location). |
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| 1979 - 1981 |
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After we arrived in Sweden I was not allowed to work or do anything, spent a lot of time at the police who asked immigration questions, eventually I got a residents permit and was the allowed to study Swedish for Immigrants (SFI)), which i did from 13th August 1979 until January 1980. After that it was just to look for work.
At that time Arbetsförmedlingen (The Job Centre) were pro-active and my first job in Sweden was at P.U.B as a baker and confectioner. Unfortunately Swedish bakeries are not like British ones. I even worked a few nights at Schumachers a "Bread Factory" all I did was make sure nothing got stuck on the oven belt. (Boring).
In May I got my first "Proper" job, working as a caretaker for the Swedish Conservative Party (Moderaterna), Interesting job, I was educated in printing so that I could print propaganda, even learned the telephone exchange so I could hop in when the girls were on a break. A normal day was, sort post, go to Parliament with post, back to the office, printing and internal jobs, and then the same thing after lunch. We were 4 - 5 working as caretakers but, first the boss died, Sten, one of the others broke his leg, the third bloke spent more time drinking than working and the only girl became pregnant and was put off sick, so there I was alone...
I fixed a job for a kid that was pissed off with school, his name was Gunnar-Arne (GA), so we did everything in the caretakers dept. GA did all the running around, parliment etc and I looked after everything else. But getting close to the election 1983, and being told that there would be no holidays until after the election (September) I decided to find a new job. |
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| September 1981 |
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Moved to a larger flat in Sollentuna centre (Malmvägen 63c) and started working at Svenska-Internationella Pressbyrån a part of "Industriförbundet" (CBI (Confederation of British Industries in the UK) in Sweden, Worked there as a Printer / Caretaker, work at Moderaterna was mostly caretaker but here it was 80% printing. We were only a few people working there, Myself, 3 women and 2 other men who were management. The job was interesting and I even helped with checking the texts before printing. |
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| August 1983 |
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Started working as a full time caretkaer at Vaxmora School in Sollentuna, unfortunatly the job went from full tiime to part time, so I got myself another job workinging loading and lossing lorries for TNT-IPEC. At the end of December the school job ended and I had to find more work, and started at Skogsarbetaren as a caretaker looking after printed matter for the Swedisg version of the Forestry commision. I kept this up until April 1985 then I got a full time job at Scandomat. |
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| May 1985 |
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Scandomat in Solna, a northern suburb of Stockholm, but also it's own city. I worked near the train station on Pyramidvägen. Scansomat sold vending machine, coffee machines, ice cream machines and other simular machines, I worked lookind at the before delivery and even helped sometimes installining cooling systems for pubs. Was an interesting job, the store room for the machins was accross the road, and my workshop was in a cellar of the main building. |
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On day i picked up a machine from the store (a machine that was 1 x 1 meter and 2 meters high, to get it into my workplace I had to take it down a ramp, and while taking it down the ramp the trolly I was using broke and I got the whole machine over me. I was sent to Karoloinska hospital where i was diagnosed with a broken nose, and nothing else. Work had called Maria and told her I had had a "Little Accident", when i came home I looked like a panda with 2 large black eyes... |
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| January 1986 |
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Started working for a Perstorp company that made analyzing machines for breweries. This job was so close from home I could see it from my kitchen window (Map). This was my first contact with computer since going to Howe Dell School. Interesting work, but got boring very quickly. |
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| July 1988 |
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We decided it was time to buy our own place, but Sollentuna was expensive then... We had a summer house at Rockelstad Castle in Sörmland, so we decide to look around there, and went to the estate agent in Flen. within a week or so we had the chance to look at a few houses. one in Sparreholm, was ok but the owner was part of the deal, she would allowed to remain in the house after the purcase until her death. No Thanks.. |
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| September 1988 |
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I moved down to Sörmland and borrowed a hunting lodge from friends in Sparreholm until I could move into the house. I started working at Elmo AB as a warehouse worker and was able to move into our house on the first of November. |
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| September 1991 |
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After being laid off from ELMO and being hit by a car and breaking my leg I appled to go to Komvux (Adult education) in Flen. Being as I was sick I started school in August 1991 where I studied first Swedish Primary and secondary school and then Swedish "Gymnasie school". When these were don I also went on various computer courses at Komvux and other private schools including a course as a computer teacher (IKG Mälardalen). |
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| January 1999 |
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In January 1999 I was offered a course and then work, working in a call centre as a support agent for Tele2, at that time there was only dial-up connections at a maximum speed of 14,4mb. At the end of the first week I was called up by a manager at Trio Information Systems asking if I was interested in working for them as a technical writer. So Monday morning I was on my way to Stockholm for an interview for the job. This was the first and only time I was "Headhunted". |
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| February 1999 |
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I was not able to start straight away so I was at home from the day of the interview until 19th February when I started my probation time at Trio. My first weeks were spent learning the systems and "translating" manuals and handbooks from American to English due to the fact that Trio were going to concentrate on the European market and not the american. |
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After my probation time I started working from home some days, proof reading on the train back and forwards to Stockholm and was therefore not in the office more than about 6 hours a day. This was at the height of the IT rush in Sweden. During my first years at Trio Micke who I worked with moved to publicity and marketing and he was replace by a girl, cant remember her name. After 3 years the company laid of some people but I was spared due to the fack that Micke was in Marketing, he was put of. |
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Trio was then taken over by Technology Nexus, and some of thier staff moved into the office and started working amongst other things documentation. He didn't like working with us, weith the product or at the location and spent his time moaning about everything.In the second time of lay-offs I was laid off togeteher with everyone else in the department EXCEPT the guy from Nexus... |
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The bosses drove around central Sweden handing out our final notice papers, I recieved mine at a gardening centre in Bettna. I was still employed by them for 3 months and my contract enden in February 2003 |
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| August 2004 |
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After a year and a half on the dole and just working odd hours at schools in Flen, Nyköping and Eskilstuna I was offered a project employment at Bettna school looking after a Kosova albanien kid called Ennis, he was about 8 years old and had problems due to his experiances in Kosova and that his mum had post natal depression after the birth of thier second kid. |
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After the first year at Bettna school Ennis and his family were moving to Katrineholm and there were discussions that I should apply for a simular job in Katrineholm so I could continue him, but unfortunately he drown during the summer holidays. |
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| May 2006 |
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After 1 years unemployment I got a job working for Proffice, an agency in Sweden, the job was as a technical administrator working at Pfizer Pharmceutical in Strangnäs. We were stocktaking EVERYTHING in the factory every nut, bolt, screw vent etc for the FDA in the USA so that Pfizer could sell medicine in America. I worked here in 2 periods until I got a telephone call from The Tech Guys. |
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| October 2006 |
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Well after a test on the internet and an interview by Kennet from The Tech Guys I was offered a job at thier call centre in Nottingham. So I packed my bags and off I jogged.... I had fixed accomodation in a house share but the first 2 weeks I lived in a hotel close to work. The first month was course and education about Windows and the company's systems. Then we sat parallell with an experience agent, I took my first call on the first day of practical training and sat alone the following day. |
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Everything was going well at work but the woman (Elizabeth)at the house share (Priory Cresecent, Gedling)was a pain so I had to find new accomodation. Moved to another part of Nottingham and rented a room from a nice couple (Arthur Street, Netherfield), I stayed there until it was time to return to Sweden. |
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| November 2008 |
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The call centre was moved back to Sweden and located at the customer service building in Jönköping. So from commuting Hälleforsnäs to Nottingham I only needed to commute about 3 hours by train (if everything worked). The work was the same as in Nottingham but I was on a dedicated Norwegian support line from more or less day one. Most of the older ones from Nottingham moved to Jököping but there was about 8-10 newbys that started when we opened there. |
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While i was in Jönköping I Lived in Råslätt an area about 15 minutes south of Jönköping. |
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2008-10-01 - 2011-06-30 - Elgiganten - Data Support (PC) |
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2011-07-18 - 2011-11-07 - Transcom - Data Support (Mobilbredband) |
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2013-02-02 - 2013-03-14 - Bettna skola (Flenskommun) - Lärare Åk3 (Vik)
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2013-03-16 - 2013-11-06 - Manpower (Transcom) - Data Support (Apple) |
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2013-12-02 - 2014-02-28 - Teleperformance (Microsoft) - Data Support (Microsoft)
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To be continued . . . |
