As a child growing up in the late 1970’s, Brian like many, spent many hours outside in the woodlands and wild places around his village. At the time, den building, making camp fires and watching wildlife wasn’t considered bushcraft, they were just normal activities. For Brian, these childhood adventures sparked a life-long passion for nature.
This passion was further reinforced by an early introduction to the Tarzan stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Willard Price’s Adventure series for young people. With an active imagination Brian didn’t just read these books he lived them. Classic survival books like Anthony Greenbank’s ”Survival for young people” and Lofty Wiseman’s ”The SAS Survival Handbook” were read cover to cover many times.
Around 2008, Brian decided to actively pursue more in-depth bushcraft studies and started taking a variety of bushcraft courses with multiple suppliers including a 2 year intensive bushcraft course which he completed in 2018. At the completion of this course of study, Brian joined an apprentice instructor scheme and has been teaching people ever since.
Brian has been fortunate to travel and explore many parts of the world including Sweden, Israel, South Africa and Australia. This has afforded Brian opportunities to learn from the people he has met and the cultures of these countries.
A chartered mechanical engineer by profession, Brian enjoys finding the synergies between bushcraft and engineering with particular interests in knife making, camp crafts and the mechanisms used in traps and snares. Brian finds joy in helping people achieve their goals especially those that show an enthusiasm for a topic.
The inevitable middle-aged spread, brought on by long hours commuting and sat at a desk, has resulted in Brian making a life change to teaching bushcraft full time with a resolution to use bushcraft and an outdoors lifestyle as a medium for self-improvement and fitness.
Brian is currently in the process of starting his own business aimed at helping people overcome the challenges to getting outside and enjoying nature, through the medium of bushcraft and the confidence it builds.
Brian is the Facilities and Volunteer Coordinator for the 2022 Global Bushcraft Symposium. In this role Brian has responsibility to coordinate with the venue with respect to the resources being made available by the venue, including their staff who are on hand to help with the event. Brian also has overall responsibility for General Volunteers who will be helping around the venue.
See other members of the GBS 2022 Organising Team