Chapter Seven

About the Book

The purpose of this book is to put into autobiographical context, the account of my after death experience (ADE) from prolonged cardiac arrest, a pivotal chapter in my 92 year long life, which entailed three months in hospital in 1983.

I refer to it as being "after death" rather than the usual "near death experience" (NDE), for I was in effect classified as dead, and treated accordingly.

By recounting my life prior to the occurrence, including 37 years RAF service (1934-1971), will let the reader know to whom it happened.

Then to summarize subsequent years of my retirement in Farnborough, Hampshire, leading up to the cataphatic consequence of the ADE in the concluding chapter.

About the Author

Born into a Catholic family in London 1916, he finished schooling at the NW Polytechnic prior to enlisting in the RAF aged 18. He served on the aircraft carrier HMS Furious and with 111(F) Squadron Northolt at the outbreak of the war. He married in 1941 and was commissioned the following year. After the birth of a daughter in 1943, served in India until 1945. A spell in Coastal Command included 2 years in Gibraltar accompanied by wife and daughter. On promotion to Squadron Leader he attended Staff College in 1952. His wife suffered the onset of multiple sclerosis from which she died aged 47. Ten years as Wing Commander included Ministry HQ appointments, the Command Armament Officer post at HQ Fighter Command, and Guided Weapons R & D at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. Prior to retirement in 1971 he again married living on a large property site he owned adjoining Farnborough College of Technology. In 1982 a college extension was proposed which the purchase of his properties would facilitate. With this on his mind he was admitted to the Military Hospital in Aldershot where a near record-breaking cardiac arrest experience formed a pivotal juncture in his life and the basis of his book. After selling the site he purchased a house nearby and another which he donated to Mencap where his daughter is living with four other residents. His wife died in 2003 from a sudden stroke and in 2006, aged 90, he moved into a retirement home to compile and publish his autobiography.