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Nice topic Kev! Well some of you probably already know a bit about me from some of the posts, but here goes anyway

I just turned 41 last week , live on the Welsh border near Shrewsbury, i'm happily married, no kids, but a dog and cat that act like surrogate children and drive us just as crazy. I work as a development control archaeologist giving advice to local planning authorities and developers if construction impacts on archaeological remains.

What started me off on researching the Flowers? It was my stepfather recounting his time as an asdic leading seaman on HMS Campion during the war from 1942-45 (see the Campion pics on the forum) when I was a teenager. Like all teenagers I didn't pay much attention back then, but interests in miltary history and archaeology in general, particularly WWII naval and aviation, eventually triggered me to find more out about Campion. That led to the realisation that we really knew very little about the "little ships" and their crews during the war and I started collecting photographs of the Flower Class online and at postcard fairs as well as any other information I could find. Amassing this information is all very well, but not of much use unless you share it with other researchers so I decided to set up the Flower Class Forums in Jan 2004 so that anyone interested in the Flowers could get in touch and exchange infomation.

Naval interests include other WWII ships too, particularly the Castle Class Corvettes and the Black Swan Class Sloops and I have a few hundred collected photos which include pretty much every class of RN WWII ship except the smaller LSTs and MTBs etc.

Also interested in warfare in the age of sail 1650 -1850, ancient warfare, electronic music (a small studio based around my PC), digital photography, building custom PCs ( a bit geeky I know) and generally relaxing a lot by the sea, or at home, as often as I can.

I am currently working on integrating the forums into a much bigger website on the Flower Class which will eventually be located at www.flowerclasscorvette.net (don't bother checking yet, nothing is up, and I have a long way to go on construction, but I will announce on the forums when it is live). I am also writing a synposis for a title in the Osprey Military History series of books in their New Vanguard series which will look specifically at the RN corvettes as there are already loads of books on the Canadians. The book will include previously unseen photos and colour camouflage profiles of the corvettes and possibly some cutaways if we can find an artist.

Well that's me - lets hear from the rest of you!
Mark

You are never too old to take up an archaeological career! It is probably one of the few careers that still accepts people who have retrained later in life. I have met many people in their 30s + who are fully fledged archaeologists earning a decent wage after completing a degree as a mature student. Don't know if it pays as well as a paramedic though ? Pity you missed out on Fishbourne, it is a great site to get some training on. Being a paramedic must be tough, I did my First Aid at work course with St. John Ambulance last month and while it is useful stuff to know it also makes you very aware of the fragility of life and some of the crazy unexpected things that can happen to you. Don't know if I could deal with that on a daily basis so all credit to you for sticking with it and doing one of the most useful and necessary jobs out there.