Individual's Report

My father was born in the war years at the Victoria Maternity House, Victoria Terrace Weymouth. Today this building is one of the many hotels along the esplanade. He was the only son of Albert Ayles and May Reid.

Michael attended the Melcombe Regis School on Westham bridge before moving on to Weymouth Grammar School.

After leaving school, he started work for the Inland Revenue as a Tax officer based in Dorchester.

in 1963 he was holidaying with friends at Butlins in Minehead, When he met my mother, The relationship developed and he decided to transfer to London to be nearer my mother. Those early years in London saw him living in a flat / bedsit very close to West Ham United football ground, a team he came to support throughout his life.

After marrying my mother in March 1966, the couple moved to Balham in south London. In July of 1966 my father was present at Wembley stadium as England beat West Germany to lift the World Cup.

In March 1967 Michael's first child, me, was born followed by my brother in October 1968. At this point the family moved again to Lambeth in South London, and just a stones throw from my grandparents house. Strangely enough my parents bought the house that had been my mothers childhood home.

Their third child arrived in April 1970, born at home. At some point after this Michael transferred again to the Brixton Office.

My mother and father relocated the family to Kent in 1976, and at first my father joined the mass ranks of the daily commuters to London, each morning we would drop him off at the station and then pick him up again in the evenings.

After transferring to Ashford office in the late 1970's my father took on an allotment, which to us city kids was great to see all this fresh food growing. I remember the first day he got the allotment as we all had to go there and help him dig over the soil. It was on the way back from this allotment one summer night that my father had a car accident, his car hit the kerb and he lost control, hitting a roadside fence, one of the fence bars came through the windscreen, and my father said that had he been wearing his seat belt the bar would have hit him full in the chest, fortunately for us, in those days seat belts were not compulsory and he lived to see another day.

Saturdays with my father in the early 80's were spent watching football. He regularly took us along to watch Maidstone United, and we all became ardent fans.

Again in the early 1980's my father transferred to the Maidstone office, and also became very active in his trade union, the IRSF. I remember him coming home from one meeting, saying that he had given a speech at a meeting attended by former Prime Minister James Callaghan, and that he had had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Callaghan afterwards.
In 1981 Michael was an enumerator during the census of that year. He covered the area of Ringlestone in Maidstone, and spent quite a few evenings taking trips there to make sure he had delivered all the forms. It's a pity that I probably won't be around to take a look at his records when they are finally released in 2081!

My father first fell ill around the March of 1986. After several trips to the doctors without success, he underwent an exploratory operation at Maidstone Hospital in August 1986, and was diagnosed with Cancer of the pancreas. This was a devastating blow to all of us.

Michael died in the evening at Maidstone Hospital on the 29th September 1986 and was cremated at Vinters Park crematorium shortly afterwards.