Island Life Magazine Ltd April / May 2016 | Page 18

INTERVIEW
pivotal move in his life, and one that set
his course in more ways than one.
Firstly, he discovered under the tutelage
of the late Reg Cooley that the legal
profession was far from boring – and after
Mr Cooley suffered a dramatic collapse
that kept him off work for months, it was
the young Terence, aged 20, who had to
quickly step up to the mark.
“After just a year I had to take over his
conveyancing and probate department,
under supervision and further training,
but that meant that I quickly went from
£450 a year as a clerk to £1,000 a year.
I was on a high and wanted to buy the
town up!” he says.
The other fateful aspect of that job was
when an attractive young woman was
taken on as a receptionist at the company.
“She was very pretty but I was too
afraid to approach her myself so I sent a
message with the tea lady, asking her out
to dinner”.
The young lady – who said yes to
dinner - was Alison, who he went on to
marry in 1971.
By this time, Terence was already a busy
senior fee earner in the Practice and so
had to drop the whole business of being
fully Admitted as a solicitor. Then, 18
months later, the couple were on the
move to the Isle of Wight for Terence’s
new job and a new life in Ryde on the
Island.

Career Ladder
Terence progressed from Gray Merrill,
(the forerunner to Walter Gray in Ryde),

The Lord Chancellors Council in 1986

before being headhunted by the oldestablished firm James Eldridge and
Sons also in Ryde.
He remained there for 13 years until the
senior partner retired, and then moved
to Paul Wilks, where he says, “my life
changed”.
That was when MP Austin Mitchell’s
Parliamentary Bill squashed the solicitors’
monopoly on property conveyancing and
Margaret Thatcher’s Government carried
it forth into legislation by Statute. The
‘Green Paper’ had described the legal
profession for the first time in its history
as ‘Specialist Property Lawyers’ entering
the field of legal services, by qualification,
to be known as Licensed Conveyancers.
This proved to be Terence’s opportunity
to qualify, compete with solicitors – and

ultimately, to set up in business on his
own.
As it turned out, he was one of the
first in the Country to qualify and get
a Licence to Practice under the new
system.
This was followed by a surprise
invitation and formal Court Appointment
by The Lord Chancellor in 1987 to join
the first Shadow Council of Licensed
Conveyancers, meeting regularly in
London to drive forward the new system.
“I suddenly found myself in a Council
of fantastically qualified people and
top lawyers” recalls Terence. Aged
just 40 at the time, he was one of the
youngest members of the prestigious
and influential committee and served as
Chairman of its’ education and Training

“She was very pretty
but I was too afraid
to approach her
myself so I sent a
message with the tea
lady, asking her out
to dinner.”

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