Island Life Magazine Ltd April / May 2016 | Page 17

INTERVIEW

Half Century

Not out!

As well known for his charity fundraising and epic globetrotting as
he is for his professional role as an Island Specialist Property and
Probate Lawyer, Terence Willey notches up a landmark 50 years in
the legal profession this year.
We caught up with him before he and wife Alison take off on their
latest adventure – a trip to South Africa paid for by the family as a
birthday treat – and asked him to share his highlights of the last
half century.

I

f house prices in Reading, Berkshire hadn’t been
so extortionate in the early 1970s, then Terence
Willey might never have crossed the Solent or
established his business on the Island.
But then Terence says he’s a great believer in
Fate – and he reckons it was certainly at work for
him in 1971 when he and his new wife decided
they’d have to look further afield for a house they
could afford.
“Prices in Reading were horrendous – something
like five or six grand for a tiny flat - so we decided to
look towards the south coast instead where a semidetached was possible for the same money.
They hadn’t even considered going ‘offshore’ until
they took a holiday on the Isle of Wight around that
time – and were smitten with the place.
Terence promptly approached Walter Gray and
Co. in Sandown – a name he just happened to
have seen on the side of a building – and asked if
they had a vacancy: they did, and in no time, he

and Alison had swapped their hometown Reading
for Ryde. The rest, as they say, is history.

Early years
Born in Reading in 1945, Terence was an only
child whose parents both worked as senior
managers for the John Lewis Partnership
department store in Reading, known as Heelas.
“In those days you tended to follow in your
parents’ footsteps” he says, “so I was pretty much
destined to be a retail manager”.
He went to London on a retail management
course, but two years was enough for him to realise
this wasn’t the path for him.
Back in Reading in 1966 and with no clue what to
do next, he was sent by his father Eric to see a lawyer
friend of his who was looking for a trainee clerk.
“My reaction to that was horror” he laughs. “I just
thought ‘Oh no – how boring!’” But that was to be a
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