I was born on the 20th July 1945 at Sally Oak Hospital in Birmingham, a biological boy John Stanley Halford. For the first few months, I was brought up by my Mother, as my father had not been discharged from the Army after the war. We lived in a small flat over some shops in West Heath. Once my father was home we moved to a house in The Fordrough.
I don’t remember much of my early years, however at the age of five we immigrated to Australia. We lived in a small seaside town in Queensland called Sandgate which was situated just a few miles south of Brisbane on what is now called the Gold Coast.