About Me — John Welford

Some of the truth—only lightly varnished!

Chilly me! (In a tent in North Yorkshire)

Hello! My name is John Welford, although I had a different one when I started out.

A Short(-ish) Autobiography

I was born as Derek Clayton in August 1952 in Falkirk, Scotland. However, my birth was far from intended, with my natural father not being my mother’s husband, so it was a case of “either the sprog goes or you do” when the husband came back from military service overseas.

So I was adopted by the Welfords of Poole, on the south coast of England, which is where I spent my entire growing-up period. I was educated at Poole Grammar School (A-Levels in English, History and Geography), failed twice to get into Oxford University, and went instead to what is now Bangor University in North Wales to study English and Philosophy.

I had little idea of what I wanted to do for a career until right at the end of my 3-year degree course when an option came up to spend a year as a “Student Assistant Librarian” at the central library of London University (the Senate House Library).

This appealed to me as a career choice, so I applied for a 1-year diploma course at the College of Librarianship Wales, Aberystwyth. This gave me a professional qualification, to be followed by Chartered Librarian status…