Lee 1951
grandson/sailor/traveller/DJ/adviser/musician
A quiet corner of Sussex opens the door to one of the most wide‑ranging life stories I’ve ever recorded. Sitting with Lee, we begin in 1950s Great Yarmouth, where summers meant guest houses, seaside theatres, and helping his nan run a busy holiday season. His dad worked the beachfront with a camera, and Lee’s first taste of performing came early — a singing competition in 1957 that he won before he even knew what a stage really was. Boarding school followed, and with it a fiercely independent streak that would shape everything that came next.
That independence carried him into the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm, where engineering skills led unexpectedly to diving. Lee talks about the cold, the darkness, the pressure, and the discipline of ship’s diver training — and the extraordinary moment he became one of the early divers on what’s believed to be the Mary Rose, long before the world watched her rise from the Solent.
From there, his story widens again: driving a Bedford truck across Africa with twenty passengers, months on the hippie trail through India and Sri Lanka, and then four surreal, electric years in Montreux as a full‑time DJ. He crossed paths with rock royalty, worked with Queen, and even narrated a film for HR Giger about the making of Alien. Later came the hard lesson of losing his home to soaring interest rates — and the decision to become a financial adviser so others wouldn’t fall through the same cracks. Eventually, he sold his business and spent a decade touring the UK as ‘Robert Plant’ in a Led Zeppelin tribute band.
If you enjoy personal history, Royal Navy stories, Mary Rose diving, overland travel, Montreux nightlife, and the art of reinvention, this one’s for you. Press play, share it with a friend, and tell me which chapter of Lee’s journey you’d have said yes to.
The wreck of the Mary Rose was located in 1971 and was raised on 11 October 1982
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