Although I am the oldest with the biggest moustache, my brothers are progressively taller; I put it down to the extra potatoes they were able to eat after I left home.

I passed the 11-plus and went up to the senior school, where my two older sisters had already gone. I was in the 'A' stream, but in the third year, they asked me to give up Latin; no one had ever got 7 per cent before.

I was still a serving officer when I competed in 'Scrapheap Challenge,' initially as a major and then a lieutenant-colonel when I was joined by my brothers in a team called 'Brothers in Arms.'

Dick Strawbridge Quotes