User:Geoffhl
About me
[edit]Hi, I’m Geoff Lawrence, born in Christchurch NZ in the late 1940s. Most of childhood at the foot of the South Downs in Sussex UK where parents ran the village shop and post office. Failed my 11+ (unlike my twin), went to a rural Secondary Modern to O levels, then local Grammar School for A levels. Then to Bristol Polytechnic (which later became the University of the West of England).
Much of my working life was with South West Water, both before and after privatisation. Now retired.
Wikipedia interests
[edit]WW2 aviation
[edit]I got into Wikipedia around 2011 when I found the shortish article on Dad, which had a few errors. At the time I honestly and genuinely didn't know that I should not edit his page due to what would be seen as conflict of interest. But because I’m proud of what he did and what he went through, I enlarged the article, helped by the fact he literally had a whole bookcase of aviation books – it became an enjoyable project from which I learned more about what he did, which he never spoke about when we were growing up. Obviously it had to be written from an entirely neutral standpoint, which I’m confident I achieved. Keith Lawrence (RAF officer).
The campaign of dive-bombing of the V2 rocket-launching sites in Holland towards the end of the war is little known and was unmentioned in Wikipedia. I thought it would be of interest, so also expanded the article on No. 124 Squadron RAF and its modus operandi to include it .
There was no article anywhere on the Central Gunnery School, which has where Fighter Command trained experienced pilots to become gunnery instructors, and Bomber Command trained rear-gunners. The CGS spent more time at RAF Sutton Bridge than anywhere else, so I bought a book on RAF Sutton Bridge (Combat Ready! Highly recommended to anyone interested in pre-war aviation, a real eye-opener on RAF training and the accepted accident rates at the time)… and included the section on the CGS in that article.
I was going to add to the article on No. 421 (Reconnaissance) Flight RAF, but ran out of steam when parents became poorly in their late 90s, and didn’t get back to it. I have two sources that can provide the missing provenance for some of the statements in it, but sorry to say at present that’s still in the pending tray.
The UAP phenomenon; UAP disclosure; and the 'cosmology of life'
I got hooked into the UAP phenomenon (and following the campaign for disclosure after 70+ years of government coverup) around autumn 2021. For anyone with an open mind who’s actually willing to look at the evidence, it represents one of the many clear indications that there’s a greater reality beyond materialism which is truly fascinating. The evidence for this ‘greater reality’ is at last coming into scientific acceptance, despite the peer pressure and conformism amongst the scientific and academic communities. At the heart of this greater reality are the interconnections of consciousness, appearing in countless ways with evidence for anyone open to it.
Incidentally – looking at evidence contrary to established beliefs is something I did with crop circles in 2024. For over two decades I believed their precision and complexity meant they were impossible to make in the dark by blokes with scaffold planks and garden rollers. Therefore, a mystery/an unexplained phenomenon. Also, there’s massive evidence for anomalous events happening in their creation and when visiting them. But about 3 months ago I was persuaded to look at contrary evidence, outside my confirmation bias, and now believe the majority are man-made – even though the guys actually making them themselves confirm ‘paranormal’ events around their creation, just as those visiting them have reported anomalous experiences. Life is truly more complex than materialism allows.
Other interests
[edit]After retiring, I’ve taken up gliding once a week at the Devon and Somerset Gliding Club - sometimes really great, sometimes very frustrating! (Put it on your bucket list, everyone should have a flight at least once). Also the club has a Condor gliding-flight-simulator group, doing online long-distance tasks/races as a group – VR makes it incredibly realistic. And I’m a Samaritans volunteer.