Duncan Bannatyne_ Anyone can do it

'In many ways my dad was just an ordinary man, but in other ways he was utterly remarkable. The  main thing Iinherited from him was his unswerving determination. When I'm determined to do something, like him, I usually do it.

When I started school, it was immediately obvious that I was going to find it tough. There were 600 children at that school, and on the day I started 598 of them had a school uniform. I was one of the other two. Uniforms were expensive and my mother told me to tell the teachers that I would have my proper uniform for the second week of term, but in that first week the damage was done: everybody knew I was poor and they either teased me about it or shied away from me.

So I don't know why I was the kind of kid that got off his backside and didn't take no for an answer. perhaps it was a sense of injustice that drove me to prove I was as good as them? I don't know where that desire came from and why I wasn't willing to accept my lot, but I didn't have my father's attitude that we are working class and we should be proud of that and that we shouldn't have ideas above our station. All I wanted was adventure. I knew I didn't have too many options and that the armed services offered good prospects for a boy like me. I didn't have many ambitions at that age, but I was determined to travel. 

In the navy

one night, when we were anchored off Lossiemouth in Morayshire, Lt Hall caught my eye and saw an opportunity to show his girlfriend what a big man he was. He walked over to where and I were standing and poked me in the stomach with his torch.

'Move back,' he said

'Please don't poke me...'

'Move back,' he ordered and poked me again.

'Please don't do that again, sir.'

'Move back,' he repeated angrily.

So I took a step back and he walked into the party, leaving me fuming. I turned around my friend and said somethink like, 'If he tries that again I'll...'

''You'll do that?'

'I'll bloody throw him overboard.'

'I bet you bloody won't.'

'I bloody will.'

'I bet you 5 pounds you won't.'

That very second I knew that he was going over the rail. In those days, when someone dared me, I found it very hard not to rise to the bait. So when he came out of then party, I didn't think twice. I ran over to him, picked him up by the knees, lifted him into the air and hoisted him over the rail before anyone could stop me. Luckily there were a couple of people onboard who realised what was going on they pulled me back and grabbed hold of him while he was still holding on to the rail.

As he was hauled back on deck, he looked at me in a fury. That expression on his face was worth all the punishment I had coming to me: I felt fantastic, even though it was clear I was going to pay...

I was taken straight down to the cells and was left were to await my fate.

9 months later...

Having not told my parents about the court martial while I was on remand, I decided to continue writting to them as if nothing had happened throughout my sentence to spare them any unnecessary worry. when I was told I had a visitor, I told the officer he must have made a mistake, when I was finally led through to the visitor'area, I got the shock of my life when I saw my mother and Auntie Margaret staring back at me. 

Of course my mother refused to believe that I'd done anything wrong and insisted that the navy had to be at fault. Auntie Margaret was slightly more sceptical...

TO BE CONTINUED...