While
we might live in a world where advances in military technology
seem ever more to encroach upon the realm of pure science fiction, my
personal interests remain firmly directed towards the human dimension
of conflict. Having been born into the bleakness and hardship of an
immediate post-war United Kingdom missing so many thousands of
husbands, brothers, uncles and sons, I am particularly curious about
the social and intellectual consequences of the involuntary
transformation, in times of war, of a family-oriented, civilian
population, into combatants whose actions and very existence
become, at a stroke, the property of the State.
With regard to
Operation CHARIOT, I have, by delving deep within the structure of
this one, particular, military event, sought to illustrate the
unconscionable waste of energy, gift and youth that is the inevitable
consequence of our inability to live together in peace. Thanks to
this raid alone Britain lost some of her very brightest and best
young men - a loss from which can be extrapolated the overwhelming
folly of war in general as a solution to conflicts. Surely our
societies are not so overburdened with talent that we can afford to
squander our most precious resource in enterprises whose only certain
products are death and destruction.
On a more personal note, I
am Irish-Canadian, though currently resident in England. Born in
Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1946, I graduated from Trinity College,
Dublin, before marrying Sandie and moving to the London area, in 1968.
Having always been interested in aircraft, I worked for several
years on the civilian side of the industry - initially at the old
Vickers works, built within the confines of the Brooklands racing oval,
and ultimately on the Concorde project at the one-time US air base, RAF
Fairford. In 1974 we moved to Canada - to Alberta initially, and then
to Victoria, British Columbia where, while working as an illustrator/graphic designer, I began the research that would
eventually lead me to CHARIOT and to more than a decade of personal
involvement with some of the most outstanding human beings I shall ever
be privileged to meet.
