About the Author

John Button acquired an enthusiasm for history at Poole Grammar School in the 1940’s and went on to study the subject at the University of Southampton, where he became interested in archaeology, participating in regular digs on the Saxon and Medieval levels of the town. After a period of teaching at Chesterton Boys' School, Cambridge, his career branched out dramatically and he found himself in 1960 teaching at Egbado College, a small boarding school in the Yoruba area of south western Nigeria. Combining the duties of games master with those of Head of the English Department, he developed in his spare time a keen interest in bird watching and for a time was Editor of the Bulletin of the Nigerian Ornithologists' Society. Then came a spell working for the Nigerian government in the far north east of the country in the mountains on the Cameroun border, where he attained the rank of Chief Education Officer in 1975, and was Principal of Government Secondary School, Mubi. He returned to England in 1977 but found teaching here insufficiently attractive and left the class room to become an archaeologist working on Roman Carlisle, specialising in the study of pottery finds. Family commitments meant he had to return south in 1984. In 1990 he settled in North Essex and was very soon drawn into the study of local history and ornithology. He is a keen member of a successful quiz team, Walton Mountain Rescue.

Walton-on-the-Naze, a seaside town in the English county of Essex, is located near the international shipping port of Harwich.