interview
Island Life - June/July 2010
bought it with a friend – who has since
it was the tragic death of his father
Christopher. “Ryde has no water at
died – when the Isle of Wight Gliding
that brought him and his mother back,
low tide – so you couldn’t get a boat in
Club was getting rid of its Tiger Moths
in the middle of the U-Boat battles, in
there anyway. If Queen Victoria had had
and nobody else came along with
1943. “It seemed very unjust, given
a Hovercraft they would not have built
£250,” he says, matter-of-factly. “It
he’d served in the first War.” Aged
Ryde Pier in 1865!” The Hovercraft now
gets flown around 30 times a year.”
seven, he went to school at Sandroyd,
takes about 800,000 people a year.
Having pulled it out of the hangar for
and then to Clayesmore. National
the photo Christopher is loath to put it
Service was in 1955. His choice of
Hovertravel, which in 1976 took
back. The fortnight of glorious sunshine
regiment, even then, reflected his
over the British Rail Hovercraft
over Easter has dried out his airfield
interest in ‘tinkering’. “I chose the
Southampton-Cowes service. However,
and he is noticeably bitten by the desire
Royal Engineers: but I was ordered
the firm came up against Red Funnel
to fly.
to report to the depot of the Gordon
in Cowes. “They won the day because
Highlanders in Aberdeen!”
they were better situated. We finally
As for the ‘James Bond’ Aston
Martin, a 1964 DB5, the beauty
of its curvaceous lines is timeless.
“Mechanically they’re ideal, from the
golden age, the 1960s.” He raises
the bonnet to reveal the immaculate
engine, but, with a twinkle in his eye,
refutes any suggestion that its full
With a twinkle in his eye he
refutes any suggestion that the
Aston Martin is limited by the
Island roads: ‘It’s a perfectly
practical car for two people and
two children with no legs’
potential might be limited by the Island
However, he was eventually
Christopher became MD of
closed down the service, Solent
Seaspeed, on Christmas eve 1980.”
In 1985 Christopher crossed the floor
to become a director of Red Funnel. “It
was an interesting time, during which
all the present fleet was built.” It was
then that he was sought for other,
public, roles: he was on the Prisons
roads: “As far as I’m concerned it’s a
commissioned as a Second Lieutenant
Board, was Chairman of the Health
perfectly practical car for two people
of No 1 Railway Group in the Royal
Authority, and was made High Sheriff in
and two children with no legs,” he
Engineers, “where I spent the rest of
1988: “I really couldn’t have done any
smiles.
my National Service playing with railway
of that without the great support from
trains.”
my colleagues at Hovertravel,” he says.
He is an inveterate tinkerer with
things mechanical, he says, so his job,
After National Service he served an
Keeping all the balls in the air
with Hovertravel, was as much a hobby
apprenticeship by Rolls Royce in Crewe.
suggests he needs to be frightfully
as work. “I was just very lucky to be
“I was sent to the Isle of Wight, where
disciplined. “No, I’m probably a
employed to do something that was
I endeavoured, successfully, to persuade
bit ‘broadbrush’,” he says, rather
my forte. A colleague once said to me:
Britten Norman in Bembridge to buy
surprisingly. “I’m a great believer in not
‘The reason we’re all here is we’re all
Rolls Royce engines for their CC2
interfering if people know what they’re
hovercraft nuts’ – which is absolutely
Hovercraft.” In return, Britten Norman
doing.”
true. Not anoraks, no – but definitely
persuaded Christopher to come and
nuts!”
work for them. That was in 1962, and
Christopher Bland was born and
brought up in Walton-on-Thames, but
He downplays the High Sheriff
now on the then-generous wage of £29
a week, he married Judith.
school was interrupted by the outbreak
In July 1965 Britten Norman, with
of war. He was evacuated to America
others, started Hovertravel: it was
and has the dubious distinction of
the first truly commercial Hovercraft
having crossed the Atlantic twice
service. “Eight hundred people crossed
during World War II: dubious because
the Solent on that first day,” explains
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