I was born Geoffrey Lewin Blaxall, 13th September 1927 in the City of London Maternity Hospital, junction of City Road & Old Street, a few hundred yards (metres) outside the boundary of the ancient City of London, England.
So, although having been born within the sound of Bow Bells and thus a Cockney, I cannot avail myself of the privileges of a born Freeman of the City, which include attending the Lord Mayor of London's annual Banquet in the Guildhall and parking my car (or my horse even !) without restriction anywhere within the square mile of the City boundaries !!
I was raised in Welling, Kent and currently live in the dormitory village of Hextable (population 3,000), in the Civil Parish of Swanley, County of Kent, South-east England, some 60 miles (96 kilometres) north-west of the White Cliffs of Dover, about 2.5 miles (4 kilometres) south-west of the Queen Elizabeth II bridge over the river Thames at Dartford and 18 miles (29 kilometres) south-east of central London.
I have been a telecommunications engineer all my working life (1945-1986) and I served in the British Army (Royal Signals) 1947-1949.
After training at Catterick, Yorkshire, as a Radio Mechanic (RM), I was posted overseas to BETFOR (British Element Trieste Force) with responsibility for the maintenance and operation of a radio-teletype link carrying traffic between the Allied Military Government (AMG) in Trieste and War Office, London.
For this heavy responsibility I was rewarded with promotion to the dizzy heights of Lance Corporal !
In his famous speech at Fulton, Missouri entitled, "The Sinews of War", Winston Churchill said, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has come down across Europe ..." and he went on to say, "the very existence of Italy is at stake".
We were thus a joint American/British peace-keeping force making sure that World War III didn't break out. More about this on a later page.
Shortly after my return to "Civvy Street", I transferred from the
City of London local telephone area to the Long Distance division
and in 1955 I transferred to the U.K. International Telecomm Service where
I remained until retirement in 1986.
My Family
On the 10th September I had the honour to be married in St Martin's
Church, Barnehurst, Kent to Lola Jeanette Woodford SRN (NDN Cert.) who
sadly died 5th June 1994 from asthma.
Lola presented me with four gorgeous daughters;
Kathryn Jane,
Carol Anne,
Heather Mary,
Ruth Alison.
As they are all now literally located around the World, they persuaded me to get on the Net and so we are able to easily keep in touch by e-mail.
Between them they have blessed me with 9 grandchildren and the possibility
of another in the not too distant future !
My Interests
Apart from "silver-surfing", my interests include :-
Family History
I am currently in touch via e-mail with 18 others around the globe
all with an interest in Blax... Family History.
Come & join us by subscribing to BLAXALL-L- request@rootsweb.com with nothing in the title and only the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) in the subject box and the text.
I am also a member (No 3593) of the Dartford branch of the NorthWest Kent Family History Society where we use the mailing list ENG-NWKFHS-L-request@rootsweb.com, again with the word subscribe in the subject box and the text.
My distant cousins, Angela Ward, Dave Martin and Carlton Blaxill have all done a tremendous amount of work on Blax... family history, some of which has been published on the Net. Their websites may be accessed from the "Blaxall Genealogy" page on the Menu.
My contribution is the transcription from Domesday Book.
Local History & Local
Archaeology
I am a member of the Dartford and District Archaeology Group(DDAG) and
I have the honour to be President of the Hextable Heritage Society.
Amateur Radio
My callsign is G7LIT.
Earth Mysteries
Leylines, Megaliths, Zodiacs, etc.
Ancient
Civilisations
Mayan and Aztec peoples and their "links"
with the old world, etc..
Food & Wine
I confess to being a 'glugger' ( provided it is red and full-bodied
!).
Local Government
I have been a local Councillor (Councilman) serving on Swanley
Town Council continuously since September 1969 and
on Sevenoaks District
Council continuously since May 1976.
I have always stood as an Independent as I don't believe there is any place in Local Government for Party Politics!
I am honoured that my fellow Councillors have seen fit to elect me as Mayor of Swanley for three separate terms of office :-
May 1978 - May 1979, May
1986 - May 1987, May 1997 - May 1998
In my spare time I drive little 7¼ inch gauge trains in the local park as a member of the Swanley New Barn Railway ( SNBR) Society.
Click Here & scroll down for a photo of the Fat Controller, Good Friday 2001.
Click Here for "Marc's mini-trains"
I also maintain a 10 line Strowger Uniselector telephone exchange serving the SNBR, which is a lot less onerous than having responsibility for the efficient maintenance of all international voice-band private circuits terminating in, or transitting the United Kingdom which was my last responsibility with British Telecomm !