A former soldier who used to help defuse bombs for a living has taken up a tamer occupation. Previously, Andy Whitley did one of the most important jobs in the bomb disposal team.

He was the man trusted to ensure equipment was maintained and ready for the explosives expert — immortalised in film in The Hurt Locker — to disarm improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

During a seven-month tour of Northern Ireland in 1996, the 43-year-old, who was a staff sergeant in the Royal Logistic Corps, also operated the robot that searched buildings and areas for bombs and defused them remotely.

Mr Whitley, who also fought in the first Gulf war in Iraq, said: “The number two is the guy who prepares, maintains and operates equipment before the operator goes up to the bomb.

“My job was also to defuse bombs remotely. I would operate the robot and camera and I would have to find a device.

“In Northern Ireland we were an emergency service. Quite often found ourselves in the hands of mobs who had brought us to an area to set upon us.”

During more than two decades’ service he work across the globe in places such as Germany, Cyprus, Kosovo, Northern Ireland and the Falkland Islands.

Mr Whitley left the Army several years ago and decided to retrain as a tile and kitchen fitter, after a number of successful do-it-yourself projects. Since then he has not looked back and now he has realised a long-held dream and set up his own business.

Mr Whitley and wife Nicky, 42, have opened Alchester Tiles, in Telford Road, Bicester, and he said the job could not be further from his days in the armed forces.

He said: “It’s nice to look back on those days and memories, and it’s my experiences then that allowed me to set this business up, because it put me in the right frame of mind and gave me the right attitude.”

The business was christened after Alchester, the Roman settlement two miles south of Bicester, in the north-west corner of the civil parish of Wendlebury.

Mr Whitley added: “The obvious names using Bicester, ceramics, porcelain and tiling seemed to lack a point of view.

“Our research found Alchester, which was entirely appropriate, and we are delighted with the new name.”

o Contact: Alchester Tiles, 01869 240201.