Smithson Bem, Peter

Peter Smithson was born in Surrey in 1933 but spent his formative years during World War 2 with his grandparents in a miner's cottage in County Durham. His life, with humble beginnings and a childhood of poverty and little education, wends its way through deprivation and anxious times during the war, followed by an austere yet exciting life in the RAF in Malaya, to a gradual progression through the ranks of the Government Car Service, where he enjoyed an exciting and eventful career. Finally he achieved his ambition of becoming the permanent driver for the Foreign Secretary (Sir Geoffrey Howe)...