Page 35 - David Masters

also earning street cred with my friends as he did the victory roll over our
house in Cheshire after a day’s flying, Magic.

In 1961 he retired from Test flying and we moved to Berkshire, where he was
appointed Special Contracts representative for Derritron Electronics whom he
left in 1965 to become Technical Press Officer for the Hawker Siddeley Group
just off Piccadilly in London. My parents were then living in Warlingham,
Surrey, and I was living and working in the West End and we would often
lunch together at the wonderful Chinese restaurant the Auguste Moon in Soho
– the best chicken and sweetcorn soup ever – where he would loudly ask the
mini skirted trendy teenager sitting opposite him if she took sugar in her coffee
‘Miss Masters’ – much head turning – and much embarrassed blushing and
kicking under the table from me!

I have many memories of fun and laughter at home, along with learning to
appreciate wonderful music. The first LP I ever bought at the age of 12 was
Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto No 1 – I still have it – and my love for anything
classical has never diminished. There is nothing better than to turn a
favourite piece to top volume and conduct wildly. Daddy also spent hours
teaching me the waltz and quick step round the living room – both parents
being wonderful ballroom dances. I was also given a glass of beer at home at
around 15 years old and told to drink it and like it, as when I started to go out
with boys my popularity would hugely increase if I asked for half a bitter rather
than an expensive G&T or vodka and lime. Actually it worked, but whether or
not the boys actually liked ME was incidental.
He was an extremely loving and proud father, but I know at times I tested his
patience as he was a highly intelligent man and I often struggled to match his
brain power -continuing throughout my life! He sent this to me at boarding
school when the dreaded ‘0’ levels were looming frighteningly:

As to be expected it didn’t have the desired effect and my convent school and
I agreed that I should either become a nun or earn a living – of course the
secretarial course won hands down. Even so, Daddy unquestioningly
supported and encouraged me in every decision I made in my life, that
unconditional love enabling me to believe that everything is achievable,
nothing is impossible, and that in times of crisis huge support is always there
– a knowledge I hope I have been able to give my girls.
We enjoyed wonderful holidays for many years on the island of Alderney
where daddy and I would spend hours in the freezing water snorkelling
around the stunning rocks in what he always referred to as ‘gin clear’ sea.
The first time we went we travelled down from Cheshire to Eastleigh Airport at
Southampton – hours in those days - to find no flights leaving due to heavy
sea mist. Daddy spied an old flying colleague who was now a commercial
pilot striding through the departure lounge and within no time we were
whisked through the waiting hundreds into a Rapide and he and his friend
piloted us off into the clouds to break into clear blue skies over the sea. It was
definitely a case of who you know!

He left Hawker Siddeley to join Gordon Bell and Partners, Management
Training Consultants, until, in 1972 he set up his own Independent