John Rimington

John Rimington was born in Gibraltar from a naval family. He attended Canford Public School in Dorset, and was an exceptional scholar. His family wanted him to enter the Royal Navy, but determined to become a writer he left school at 17 to join a Southampton newspaper.

Having a strong naval background he was, of course, drafted into the Army in World War Two; where he served with the Royal Army Service Corps driving a tank transporter in the Western Desert. Captured by the Germans - though only briefly, he said in the process he lost many of his manuscripts.

After the war, he became a copywriter, copychief and finally Director of Brunning Advertising and Marketing. While pitching for a new account at Plymouth he was taken ill and died in a Naval Hospital. He had been invaluable to the Salamander Oasis Trust in helping to set it up.