User:Bournefamily/John Kingsley Bourne (Badgeman)

John Kingsley Bourne, born on September 29th, 1939 in Hanley, Stoke-on Trent, England. The only child of the late Nora Bourne (Wainright) and Clarence Bourne.

This report has many errors which I will slowly try to put right. It was compiled by my daughter Lydia and she has been guessing too much.

He left home and school at age 15 to work on a local farm Where he fell in love with boss's sister Mabel who was 38 there being an acute shortage of young girls in the vinicity. At age 17 he bought a transatlantic ticket on the tss.New York, Greek line, and left from Southhampton to Quebec. He travelled across Canada for several days on the Canadian Pacific railway, cost £20.and landed in Vancouver where he stayed at the YMCA on Burrard st. where he at that time landed a job on a farm at Fort Langley about 40 miles away. This proved to be a poor place with long hours and a low rate of pay, so he went back to the Y where he met Derek from Stockport UK. They decided to Hitch to calgary as the prospects for work in Vancouver were not good.before taking a further voyage to the Fijian Islands stopping in Suva. Following that he continued in to New Zealand and Austrailia.

In the early 60's, while traveling through eastern Europe, he was arrested in Turkey for not paying custom charges on gold watches he'd bought in Switzerland to fund his travelling expedition from the UK to India. He spent 11 months in the Ankara prison with other petty criminals, where he spent his time learning the language and becoming a young entrepreneur. John showed his skills by buying and selling items from the prison shop and also when purchasing a large tin container, which he used to make and sell soup to other prisoners.

After his release he returned to London, England where he started his business as a street trader. He first sold toy owls made from scraps of fur bought on Petticoat Lane and scrap foam bought from Pentonville Road. He then went on to be one of the first street traders to sell brightly coloured bead necklaces to the hippies in the flower power era of the 60's. The beads were made from dried peas which were painted and sewn into necklaces. They became so popular that he employed a number of students from the local fashion university to help produce them. He also expanded into making skinny ties with the help of the students, using scrap material thrown out from the material shops in east London.

In 1969 he bought his first motorbike and, with it, received a leather jacket with several enamel badges (pins) on it. He decided to sell these on his stall and they sold immediately. This in turn gave him the idea to sell badges, patches, back patches and flags. He did this for almost 30 years, ending the last 25 years in Preston, England.

In between this, he took a break from trading and designed and bought a small sailing boat with no engine at the London Boat Show exhibition, and with two friends, Frank and Richard, spent the next several months sailing down to Africa and then over to the West Indies. He sold his boat there and that paid for his first house on Windsor Road, Walton-le-Dale, Preston, England.

In 1979, after a trip through India and Sri Lanka, he met and married his first wife Carrol, who moved to Preston from Sri Lanka with her daughter Michelle. John and Carrol had three children together: Sapphira, Lydia and Dan. They were married for 8 years before they divorced. He later married his second wife Janaki, also from Sri Lanka, and had one more child called Zipporah.

In 1993 John moved from his suburban estate to live in the countryside just outside of the small village of Longton near Preston. Here he has a small-holding that is almost self sufficient with meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables. John is enjoying his retirement with his hobbies of gardening, cooking and his new interest of online share dealing.

John also has three other daughters from his past girlfriends, Andrea, Jeanette and Vicki, and one granddaughter called Jillian.