During 21 years' service as an Officer in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, I travelled all over the world and became equally at home in the steamy jungles of Borneo, the arid deserts of the middle east, the wild vastness of the Antarctic and South Atlantic Oceans, the rugged mountains of Scotland and the Alps or the frozen Arctic splendours of Northern Norway in winter.
After leaving the Armed Forces I worked in the financial sector in the City of London . Then two years working in Portugal were followed by another 6 years in London, where I ran my own business in the energy management industry. In 1997 I emigrated to France where I took a Post Graduate Diploma in French studies at the Universite Catholique de l'Ouest in Angers gaining the equivalent of a First. I stayed on at "La Catho" as a Lecturer in the Modern Languages Faculty and worked at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry as a Trainer and Coach in English for Business.
In 2003, with my late wife, I founded the first residential English Immersion Training Centre in France for business people, which I ran for 18 years. We began in a magnificent Manoir built in the 11th Century compete with ramparts and a moat.
As the business grew we moved to a much bigger Chateau where we operated for 7 years.
The financial crisis of the late 2000s hit us very hard and we had to downsize. A chance remark led me to an almost derelict 18th Century Presbytere with an 11th Century Chapel which I had restored by a team of local craftsmen.
It was there that I started my beekeeping journey and quickly became closely acquainted with the Asian Hornet.
After living in France for 23 years I relocated to England when I married Penny Melville-Brown OBE DUniv www.pennymelvillebrown.com
I am now a full-time beekeeper based on the south coast of Hampshire in England, where I manage about 15 colonies of gentle honey bees in 3 apiaries, and breed my own queens. I enjoy helping other beekeepers to develop their confidence in handling their bees and improve the quality of their beekeeping.
Passionate about the craft of beekeeping, I am undertaking a 7-year programme to become a Master Beekeeper and have completed all 7 of the exams required for the Advanced Theory Certificate as well as the General Husbandry Assessment. I have been accepted as a student on the Master Beekeeper Program at Cornell University in the USA beginning in January 2025.
I'm very interested in the fight against the Asian Hornet, particularly in strategic planning for the national response to the threat. Currently serving as a Trustee of Hampshire Beekeeping Association, I am the Asian Hornet Coordinator for Hampshire, as well as a coopted member of the British Beekeepers Association Asian Hornet Sub Committee.
I write blogs and give talks, presentations and seminars on Beekeeping, the Asian Hornet, the Wines of the Loire Valley and the Falklands War.
My book Fit2Fight with practical help for beekeepers in managing the Asian Hornet is available from https://www.northernbeebooks.co.uk/products/fit2fight-baxter/