MIKE MILLWARD

Mike Millward and his wife Jean moved to Kibworth in 1967. Mike left school at 16 years of age and joined a local company in Derby as a trainee Quantity Surveyor, where he earned the princely sum of £1 a week. Mike's life has always included Jean; their first kiss took place behind the bike sheds at the age of six! Both were born in Chelleston, in Derbyshire, where their families were friends. In fact their mothers knew each other for 57 years. As they grew up they attended the same Sunday School, the same Junior school and the same church. The war years saw a very lucky escape for Mike's family as the house next door but one took a direct hit from a bomb. The village was near a Rolls Royce factory and one evening a German plane was unwittingly guided to the village. The 'village idiot' as Mike describes him went to check onE evening that his cows were OK, he went looking for them in a field holding a hurricane lamp, the light of which the German aircraft homed in on. Most of the windows of the houses in the village were blown out that night. On another occasion an RAF aircraft crashed in front of Mike's house, sadly killing the pilot. Mike and Jean's education was varied to say the least; they maintain that they had a different teacher every week! Was this due to the war or the behaviour of the village children I ask myself?

Mike's National Service was spent, not on some exotic island in the Indian Ocean, but on Salisbury Plain. He was in the Royal Artillery in the Survey section. The protecting hand from above once again saved Mike's bacon. One evening, while camping on the Artillery range he and several other soldiers were sitting in a tent when an artillery shell exploded nearby and shrapnel went straight through the tent and no one was hurt! When not trying to tell the gunners where to place their shells, he found himself doing such useful jobs as dusting coal and cutting grass around the camp with scissors!

In 1956, while still in the army he and Jean decided to get married. They were married in the Methodist church in Chelleston by a minister who was related to Miss Bale, a teacher at Kibworth. Jean was by now working for a building firm and as Mike was still in the army she kept a close eye on the semi-detached house they were having built, asking at least on one occasion whether the correct quality bricks were being used. Mike left the army in 1958 with the heady rank of Lance Bombardier. When not studying to fully qualify as a Quantity Surveyor he played cricket and football and indeed still holds a season ticket for Derby County (so they have at least one supporter!).

He has fond memories of seeing the great Don Bradman play at Derby cricket ground. Both he and Jean were keen tennis players in their home village and when they moved to Kibworth one of the first things they did was to join the tennis club. The move to Kibworth was very much a family one. Jean's parents were not in the best of health so it was decided that they should make the move too. Mike and Jean came to live at 34 Fairway and Jean's parents to a bungalow at 23 Fairway. Kibworth is also home to Mike and Jean's daughter Sue married to Richard eight years ago.

Mike and Jean had their membership of the Methodist Church transferred to Kibworth and were soon fully involved in the life of the church. Mike is not one to let grass grow under his feet. He is the organist, an instrument he has played for 47 years (his mother played for 76 years!). He remembers first playing at the Harvest festival in 1967. He has kept the church on a sound financial footing as Treasurer for the last 28 years and is a Church council member. His judgment and opinion are well respected and ably used as a Circuit Council member in the Methodist Church. He is pleased with the growth of the church in the village. The congregation in 1967 was small but now numbers around 60 at a Sunday morning service. There is an active youth side to the church and a small but vibrant music group.

Apart from his active church life Mike likes to garden, the love of which he says he got from his father who was at one time Head gardener at Alnwick Castle. Mike has left his mark as a Quantity Surveyor both locally and nationally. County Hall Glenfield and the St Marks development in Leicester were his responsibility. At the other end of the social and financial scale, he was responsible for upgrading living accommodation in Belgrave Square in London for some Saudi Arabians! Now that he has retired, he intends to devote a considerable amount of his time to voluntary work. Both he and Jean have a great love for the west coast of Scotland and have spent many a happy holiday there, enjoying the open air with long walks and bird watching as members of the RSPB.

Recently Mike drove the support van for a sponsored bike ride organised by our editor. Mike says he spent 900 miles with an unenviable view of Roger Garratt's rear! In all Mike drove 2,165 miles. He is proud to know the ten people who cycled from John O'Groats to Lands End.

While on the busy A30 road Roger mended no less than five punctures with professional ease. If you want a person who does not panic and gets on with the job Mike's vote would always go to Roger.

Mike's trip did give Jean the opportunity to do one thing, tidy up! Throughout their life together Jean has always been the tidy one and Mike the very untidy one! In fact in many facets of their character they are opposites but just as opposite poles of a magnet attract Mike and Jean have stuck firmly together for well over 40 years. If you have yet to meet Mike and Jean, you have a rare pleasure awaiting you, our community is the richer for their presence.

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