History
I was born in West Cheshire Hospital, Chester on 15th September 1984 to Alec and Margaret Ralph. Coincidentally, this was the same day as Prince Harry (the younger of The Prince of Wales’ two children), which led to my mum getting a large amount of free stuff from a variety of sources. I lived in Chester with my mother and later my younger brother, David for a few years before we upped and left for New Zealand to stay with family out there.
We returned to the UK for school and moved to Blackpool to be nearer my grandparents. I attended Norbreck County Primary School for three years before moving to Anchorsholme County Primary School to finish my primary education. I was considered a bright pupil at this age and achieved the best SATs levels in Lancashire’s history.
It was for this academic reason I applied to attend one of the local public schools, Kirkham Grammar. Due to our financial background, it was necessary to excel in the entrance examinations in order to be awarded with a Government Assisted Place. In actual fact, not only did I receive this award but was also selected to receive a scholarship towards expenses.
KGS was the focal point of the next seven years of my life. I played rugby, cricket, chess and debated for the school at all levels. I was also the senior non-commisioned officer in the school’s Combined Cadet Force RAF Section. For the most part this did not detract from my academic studies and performed well throughout my school life, achieving nine GCSEs at grades A*-B and four good A-Levels.
Having decided not to attend university straight from school, I joined API Foils Ltd. They are a manufacturing firm that specialises in hot stamping foil (like the holograms on bank notes and shiny bits on toothpaste packaging). I was part of their Market Support Group and as Technical Support I was responsible for handling after sales queries from clients, product testing and research and development. As part of my job I was the primary engineer on a project to produce a hard wearing, alkali resistant foil for use on toothpaste tubes in the US.
Nine months of this job ignited an enthusiasm for materials and the processes required to engineer them. With this on my mind I applied to attend the University of Leeds to study a course in Materials Science and Engineering. My first year was spent studying a variety of concepts and I found myself totally immersed in the subject.
Unfortunately, illness led me to suspend my studies and I had to take a year out from university. On resuming my course I found that I was struggling to enjoy the facets of the course that had changed during my absence. I was no longer inspired.
This led me to the conclusion that I either failed the degree course or changed to another subject. I chose the latter and intend to finish my studies with a degree in Joint Honours - Computing and Management.
In the meantime I have worked a number of jobs in variety of sectors, including the jewellery trade, the banking industry, law, debt recovery, the steel industry and most recently I have tried my hand at catering. I am highly adaptive and unfortunately a jack of all trades and seemingly master at none. My current role with the telecommunciations company O2, that of a Technical Customer Support Advisor, sees me work part time assisting O2’s broadband customers get the most out of their connections. This is hopefully a stepping stone to me arriving at my latest ambition, running a network infrastructure company. I have also recently been awarded my first software development opportunity, designign and implementing a user interface system for a university research group.
My extra curricular activities of late have focussed around my involvement in the Leeds University Union Atheist Society, of which I served as Secretary for eighteen months before being elected President for the 2008-2009 acadmeic year. I believe whole heartedly in secularism and rationalism and feel that the students of Leeds, and the wider community as a whole, deserve a forum and body to represent them.