Bob was born in Wallasey UK on January 06, 1925.  The eldest of four children, his childhood was marked by a two-year hospitalization at age 10 owing to a blood disorder. He left school in 1939 and was soon employed by the local government as a timekeeper.  He was active in the neighbourhood fire patrol and the Home Guard prior to enlisting in the RAF in 1943.  He trained as a mechanic and engine fitter in Norfolk and then served in India (Calcutta, Bombay), remaining in South East Asia until he was demobilized in 1947 shortly before partition.

Bob worked as a local government officer after the war and joined the National Union of Public Employees in 1947.  In 1955, he started working full-time for NUPE as Area Officer for North Wales and the Wirral. He moved to Nottingham as Deputy Divisional Officer in 1967 and was promoted to Divisional Officer in 1969. He assumed the role of National Officer (Health Service) based in the London Head Office in 1978, a post that was later transformed into National Secretary, a position he held until his retirement in 1990.  This saw him involved in a number of critical bargaining periods and disputes at the national level. Throughout his career with NUPE, he was an active campaigner and negotiator for the lower paid. 

He met Barbara Bampton in 1947 when she was canvassing for the Labour Party. He joined the Party too, and their work together blossomed into romance. They were married in December 1949 and had one son, Stephen, in 1957. They had a daughter-in-law, Ellen, and two grandchildren Amy and Robin.  Barbara died in 2004.

Bob was also active in many ways in the communities in which he lived. Starting in 1959, he served for many years as a Justice of the Peace in Wallasey and Nottingham, and he was also on the JP Supplemental List for Inner London.  He was very active in the Labour Party and remained a member for more than sixty years. Bob was also a Scout Leader, Vice-Chair of Trent Polytechnic Council and a member of Radio Nottingham Council, and was involved in various further education initiatives at Loughborough University and elsewhere. In his retirement years, he was active with the Community Service Volunteers visiting housebound seniors, worked with Computing for Labour as a tester and consultant, and taught computing for senior citizens at his local library.  It was through this last activity that he met Sylvia Cozier, a partner with whom he shared companionship in the final decade of his life.