Ken left school aged 13.5 as the Second World War had just started and so had to get a job. His first job was as an office boy filling ink wells, delivering invoices, taking the post to the post office etc.. He never wanted to work in the office and preferred using his hands. He liked the idea of being a projectionist and when an apprenticeship came up in a local cinema he wrote for an interview, not expecting to hear anything, as they said they were looking for some one with a grammar school education. To his surprise he was called for an interview and was offered the job and rose to become Chief Projectionist. It was during this job that he met Barbara, who was 14 and they started courting.

Later on he applied to join the RAF, passing all the exams, but was then called up for the army. He started his training in Ayrshire, then Catterick and finally Hampshire. Ken was part of the 6th June 1944 'D' day landings into Normandy. Later on while driving a half track, he noticed a gun taking aim at him, so turned the half track straight through a hedge to get out the way and ended up driving straight into an empty swimming pool, which he was able to drive out off. Eventually he ended upworking in the engineer stores. When he was demobilised he endedup working for XXXX and after 16 years was made redundant. He then secured a job in an electrical company called Smith & Nephew and with this company became a buyer of electrical components. Ken retired from this company after working for themfor 35 years.280