LIFE LESSONS: Born to be the voice for our communities (From Oxford Mail)

LIFE LESSONS: Born to be the voice for our communities

10:00am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Columns

Today we talk to Anthony Church, the town crier of Oxford and several other towns in Oxfordshire WHAT I’M CALLED: Anthony Church BEM.

MY AGE IN YEARS: 59.

WHAT I DO: Town crier to the City of Oxford and Banbury, Chipping Norton, Daventry, Thame and Wallingford.

WHERE I LIVE: Barns Road, Oxford.

WHO I LOVE: My wife Susan and my son Carl. Susan is also my escort when I attend town-crying competitions and she dresses in period costume. Carl has made me proud with what he has achieved in his life. All through his childhood he wanted to be an entertainer and when he was about to leave school he was interviewed by his careers master and was told he was a waste of space and that he would not amount to anything. But Carl rose to be the entertainments manager at a holiday park. So much for careers advice in schools.

HAPPIEST YEAR: Would be 1978 when I was reunited with Susan after a long period of doing other things and her agreeing to become my wife.

DARKEST MOMENT: The passing of my mother in 2010 while I was away at the World Town Crying Championships and not being there to say goodbye and having nowhere to go to pay my respects to her.

PROUDEST BOAST: Becoming a full-time professional town crier in 2009 and then adding the City of Oxford to the list of cities and towns that I proudly represent.

WORST WEAKNESS: Eating too much of the wrong types of food.

LESSON LEARNED: Never judge a book by its cover, we are all individuals with our own talent for something or another.

DULLEST JOB: For me there isn’t one, as I have always had the philosophy that if I woke up one morning and did not want to do a particular job any more, I would pack it in.

GREATEST SHAME: I do not think I have suffered one, but if I thought really hard it would have to be that I did not do enough for my mother in her later years.

LIFELONG HERO: Fred Dibnah, a man ahead of his time. I have learned more about history through his TV programmes than in all the time I spent at school.

OLDEST FRIEND: I have more acquaintances than friends, so that is a difficult one.

WIDEST SMILE: When my son was born in 1983.

FAVOURITE DREAM: To ride in a hot-air balloon and to visit Malta.

BIGGEST REGRET: That I did not take the decision to become self-employed as a town crier earlier in life, as it is clear that I was born to be a town crier.