Born in 1940 in Liverpool and adopted at the age of 9 months, I started at The Liverpool Blue Coat school as a boarder in 1950 and walked each day for two years to Mosspits Lane County Primary School and then, after the 11+ exam I attended the school's 'grammar' stream until leaving in 1957. I wrote a book, with the help of memories from fellow Old Blues, about school life, it is called 'Memories from the Mid-20th Century', the book and its sales income was donated to the school's Brotherly Society, for the school's 300th birthday in 2008. It is available on the society's web site. It narrates about life in a boarding school with memories from the 1920's up through mainly the 1950's and includes a few bits from the 1970's. On leaving school I joined the Merchant Navy as an engineer apprentice with Shell Tankers Ltd. I was sent to Birkenhead Technical college for two years, before serving a further two years at sea on the company's vessels. The apprenticeship was completed with twelve months in Smiths Dock in Middlesbrough with day release at Constantine Technical College in the city centre. After visiting Holland, Malta, Gibraltar, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq (many times) Japan (4 times), Venezuela, Trinidad, Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore, I finally came ashore once my apprenticeship was completed. This was not what one was supposed to do, but whilst at Birkenhead Technical college, I had met the girl that I wanted to marry and we married in 1961, some three months before completion of 'my time': ending that career was therefore inevitable.
After a few 'looking around' sort of jobs I started work at Lever Brothers as a fitter in the 'soapery', before leaving five years later to start a career in the Pharmaceutical Industry as assistant supervisor in the engineering department with E.R Squibb & Sons Limited. After 27 years there, at the age of 55, whilst I was the building services engineer, a take-over by Bristol- Myers occurred, resulting in closure of the factory here in UK. The research laboratory remained open and the new company is called Bristol-Myers Squibb pri. For all of my time there I had been the company's official photographer as well as performing my own duties. Being made redundant for the first time in my life, I was unsure what to do. Eventually I decided to start my own business with two business plans. Frank Irwin Engineering Services (F.I.E.S.) was one and Frank Irwin Photography the other. The photography side of the business was very successful but however, as time went by the engineering consultancy work asked of me began to increase and so I majored on that and the photography had to stay mainly in the background but still operational. I retired 10 years later after having 10 glorious years of freedom to work for whom, where and when I pleased. So that's where I am now, retired.
I have had three operations on my back and one total knee replacement which has stopped all my sporting activities. I have damaged the cruciate ligament in the artificial joint and have developed Pleural Plaques, Bronchiectasis due to asbestos exposure and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, so I must be pretty well knackered now. I am still qualified as a National Table Tennis Coach (E.T.T.A.) and as an earlier athlete enjoyed playing in both the Wirral Table Tennis League as well as the Ellesmere Port Table Tennis League prior to that. I won many trophies for my efforts in that direction. I also played squash at New Brighton Rugby Club, and football and cricket for E.R. Squibb & Sons Limited where I was also the tennis champion whilst their grass courts were in use. I was also a single figure handicap golfer and a member of Leasowe Golf Club, 'a links course' at the north end of the Wirral peninsula. I suppose I miss my sports, but my three score and ten years were up some time ago so I suppose I can expect no more. Having been diagnosed recently with some nasty problems, my hobbies have become severely restricted to just Photography and even that has suffered a decline as a result. Barbara & I celebrated our Golden Wedding in 2011 with a cruise to the Canary Islands and our Diamond Wedding in 2021. We didn't have any special celebrations because we were "locked down" due to my being considered "Extremely Vulnerable." Now my IPF has deteriorated and my lungs are getting a lot worse to the extent that I now have to use oxygen to supplement what I am able to derive from normal breathing. Lockdown has just been cancelled (February 24th 2022) and I am hoping to be able to get out and about, but not on my own unfortunately, but I am determined to get back to my photography despite the oxygen cylinders in a back pack which naturally will restrict me a great deal, as I won't be able to walk far from my car, mind you I am now 81 years of age!
Should you wish to purchase any of the photographs that you see here, there are two sites from which I sell them. Photo4Me for picture framing and as canvas wall art and Alamy for more specific pictorial stuff. Please visit the web sites below by clicking on the pictures and please do have a look whether or not you would like to buy, you will find many more to choose from. I do hope you enjoy looking, thank you. NB to get more detail on a particular picture in Photo4me please click on the price tag. Similarly in Alamy, once you are into the portfolio simply click on any picture about which you wish to know more.