I taught French at Colston’s School from September 1968 until July 2007.

At various times in my career at Colston’s I was head of modern languages, housemaster of Dolphin House, master i/c rugby, master i/c cricket, master i/c squash, a hockey coach, an officer in the CCF (Army and RAF), and a member of the school’s senior management team as Senior Tutor.

I trained as a teacher at Leeds Carnegie College where, as well as studying French, I was an enthusiastic sportsman and was particularly honoured to chair the Sports Council of a major PE college.

I also studied at the Institute de Touraine and received a Diplôme d’Etudes Françaises from the Université de Poitiers. In the Loire Valley I continued my love of rugby by playing for RFC Tours and, during many a “troisieme mi- temps”, developed an interest in wine.

The sporting life at Colston’s was very important to me and, as well as organising language courses in France, I particularly enjoyed organising trips for skiing and sports tours all round the world.

I retired from teaching in July 2007 but continued at the school as coordinator for the school’s information management system (SIMS), as school photographer and webmaster for the school website until April 2015. I also set up the Colston’s Connected website to develop the alumni database and maintain links between former pupils and the school.

I played for the Old Colstonians Rugby and Cricket Clubs through the late sixties, seventies and early eighties. I have taken part in Old Colstonian Society Golf meetings on and off over a long period of time. I became an Honorary Old Colstonian after 25 years of teaching at the school.

In March 2012 I became vice president of the Old Colstonian Society. In March 2013 I took on the role of Membership Secretary of the Society and edited the Society’s magazine “Cribsheet” for a number of years.

I was very proud to be elected President of the Old Colstonian Society and served from 2014 to 2016. I have enjoyed being able to keep in touch with former pupils of the school and I continue my association with the school and former pupils as a committee member of the Society and as a trustee of the Old Colstonian Charitable Trust.

On retirement in 2015 I was able to continue with my love of foreign travel and my wife and I have enjoyed trips to India, Bhutan, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, France, Spain and Portugal. I have continued to play golf (badly) and in recent years I have developed an interest in birdwatching, in particular bird photography. I regularly publish my photographs of birds, and nature in general, in a blog martinsbirdblog.com.