A Bunch of Sticks

I came head first into this world on 29th December 1941 to join five brothers and four sisters all living in Cranes Farm Road, Nevendon, Essex, England. By 1945, another boy and a girl had followed my lead making a nice round dozen for my mother Jesse May Bentley and father Reginald Hugh Hamber to care for. This part of Essex was then a rural farming community and we took the farm near where we lived to be our own, never realizing it would end.

By the age of six, the Labour Government banished us from our very small home, pointing the finger towards Wickford and an encampment called 'an estates', enticed by hot and cold running water and inside toilets. No sooner had we got the Essex clay settled and started to grow vegetables when the order came for us to move!

Our new home was in Hickstars Lane Billericay and of course 14 pairs of hands and feet, soon cleared yet another muddy back garden.

My education was achieved at the secondary modern school which I left with a "Tries hard but can do better' diploma at 15 years of age. With the diploma tucked under my arm, I applied for the job where I felt it would be appreciated, obvious - Headmaster Billericay Secondary School. Rejected for that job, I took a position as Sawyers Mater with Wernick & Sons in the same town, where I built muscle, avoided saw blades and built up a resistance to fine wood dust storms and smart Aleck remarks.

By 17 I found myself at sea crossing the Atlantic towards America (which I might add took 11 days). By 19 years of age I was heading back, aboard the Queen Mary, which took considerably less time.

On my arrival back in Essex I discovered Britain was all Guitars and Buddy Holly (though he was dead by then), so it was only natural to start singing for a living. The Star Club Hamburg, Wimbledon Palais and, The Mecca Ballroom Basildon all heard us banging away. Our manager at the time was Stewart Morris, who not only had more keys than a locksmith, but could open doors where none existed. We toured with Rolf Harris, Joe Brown, Kathy Kirby, etc! Stewart was a nice man although many feared him in the business; I can honestly say, I never did.

In 1968, three of my brothers and I purchased the Schooner 'Jylland' - re-rigged her to original design and hit the road! In 1972 we filmed 'The light at the edge of the world', in Spain, with Samantha Egger and Kirk Douglas, from there went, in 1972, to the Caribbean for charter work. 1975 saw us on the M.A.P.P. expedition, searching for Sir Francis Drake's coffin in Panama. We saw more sharks in the music business than in the Ocean. We were in the Caribbean for 8 years, until the Jylland was lost at sea in 1980.

I then settled in Cornwall for 16 years before moving to Ohio USA. I have four children, Helen 31 and William 37, from my first marriage and Matthew 22 and Jonathan 18 from my second to. Both were wonderful wives to put with me.