When I was graded 1st Dan by Abbe Sensi, Williams Sensi instructed me to take a good student as an assistant. The assistant I chose was a 17-year old by the name of Derek Eastman, who is now 3rd Dan and Technical Director or our Basingstoke Headquarters. Mr.Eastman is now 48 years of age and still a loyal friend. It proves one old adage: that you canot buy or demand respect, you earn it.

At what point did you go "on the road" to spread the Aikido gospel?

When Mr.Eastman reached 1st Dan, I was 2nd Dan and Williams Sensi advised us to spread the word of Aikido. We both gave up our jobs and travelled all around the U.K. It was so difficult trying to introduce Aikido, because most people had never heard of it. Mr.Eastman and I left home and headed for the Midlands, without money and with little hope. In some areas where Sensi Williams had already introduced Aikido, we would find accommodation with the students and receive a small fee for teaching. We would vist Judo and Karate clubs, sports centres, etc. In the areas where there was no Aikido at all, we would take a job for afew days to feed ourselves. We had many jobs and in one area we worked as assistants to a funeral director. We had to collect the bodies from the mortuary and take them back to the chapel of rest. The boss caught me in the chapel of rest with a young maiden who had no right being there....she being very much alive and well. He was very angry with me, and after many escapades he assured me I was on borrowed time. We got a job as road sweepers, wearing bowler hats, which attracted a great deal of attention from the girls. In the North of England the girls loved to hear a London accent, and this was a great help with invitations for dinner and, if we were lucky, accommodation. It was a struggle to survive.
We also worked in steel factories and carried out many other jobs around the country, but without the worst of all was repairing an old railway line. We called it the "railway of death", the hard work and the foreman were like in the films we had seen on the subject - needless to say, we did'nt stay there for very long. I must add, as look as I look back on my life in Aikido, that this was a really great time. As with all the memories, we tend to forgetthe bad times and remember the good ones. We contributed greatly to the promotion of Aikido and I do not regret one day of it.

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