but, within months realised that he wasn't cut out to work in such a disciplined 9 to 5 job and longing for more adventure and moved into Sales. After various sales jobs he went back to Engineering in 1989 and took up a post as UK Sales Manager in the field of industrial Cryogenic Pumps and Turbo Machinery for a BOC Group company that was based in Switzerland. He moved from Sales Management to Business Management, responsible for North Europe, Scandinavia and India. He changed companies in 2004, but remained within the same cryogenic field. Earlier this year (2016) he retired from his position as LNG Marine Applications Manager for a Californian based company.
Steve has lived in various parts of the country both during his Royal Air Force career and his private sector career and has travelled a good proportion of the world on business. Steve has always had an interest in fountain pens and mechanical pencils. His interest was re-
Apart from fountain pens, He still enjoys flying aircraft and riding and tinkering with his various motorbikes, reading non fiction and like Gerald Harrison, he has an interest in Military History....both modern and slightly older!
My introduction to writing instruments came about whilst watching a TV antiques programme, in which Rick Wakeman talked about his collection of fountain pens. A chance remark by my wife, that she would like a nice pen for school, resulted in me searching local antiques shops and fairs for a pen as a present for her. The bug had bitten and I was now hooked on finding antiques writing equipment.
Now I had a new problem, I had lots of non working pens and no skills to repair them. So I signed up to do Arthur Twyddle's pen repair course, and arranged it to tag on to a pen show in York. It was at this show that I first became aware of The Writing Equipment Society and decided to join.
After attending many local WES events, I decided that I would like to join the Council and became the Webmaster. I was also involved in the organisation and running of the London Pen Show when it was run by WES for several years before being taken over by UK Pen Shows. When it was decided by the council that WES should run pen repair courses, I was asked to run the London courses.
Born in Hertfordshire, I finally, and briefly, escaped the Home Counties when I attended The University of Aston in Birmingham.
I spent 20 years working in the Aerospace industry before moving to Kent and working in local government.
Steve Hinchliffe grew up in South Yorkshire. After leaving school in 1969 at the age of 18 he studied Mechanical Engineering. He worked for a short while in an Engineering Design office before joining the Royal Air Force in 1973. On leaving the Royal Air Force, he returned to Engineering Design,