From an artistic family, Lez studied art from an early age. He became a reporter & movie reviewer for his Father's publications, in the Birmingham area, also writing stories & poems. After national service as an army medic he joined a bill topping variety & magic  show, appearing at many Empire or Hiperdrome  theatres nationwide. After marrying Audrey Iris Harper on 24-12-1955, Lez tried various "steady" jobs, including P.O. telephones, factory work, salesman, etc... Often his old pal Joe was already working there or  later joined Lez. Always one to put others first, Lez joined the ambulance service, where he delivered over 20 babies between usual duties. Twice he arrived at house fires before the fire brigade and against orders, entered and rescued those inside just in time. His training was useful later too, at two road traffic accidents witnessed when out with wife & son, he gave first aid and the injured recovered, when in Broseley a man on a crashed moped turned out to be our neighbours Dad! Lez became skilled using a lathe at a local factory (his ancestors were wood turners) later becoming sales rep; for the firm who were shocked by his cheek in getting an order from Rolls Royce. Later returning to Birmingham to be the buyer & general manager for a fashion warehouse group. Finally, with son Stephen now a trained hand engraver of metals, Lez was able to become a professional artist painter, with the family moving to Penzance in 1975 to open a studio on the seafront. He was a successful adult art tutor, lecturer and restorer of paintings, with many of his own best works being painted before 1983. After then an old army injury restricted him to small works mostly in watercolours, and had to give up full time work on doctors orders. After Audrey died in 1997, Lez joined Stephen in returning to the midlands, where he enjoyed some years of better fitness which enabled him to return to the (amateur) stage. He appeared in some plays and variety shows, comedy and singing and set up a small group to entertain at care homes. Lez also recorded cover versions of songs, as well as some he wrote. Diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2010, performing soon had to cease, as too did painting after completing a trio of pictures of Hypericum flowers. Following a stroke in 2015, Lez was confined to a wheelchair outdoors and with advancing dementia spent more time sleeping and mostly in bed, cared for by Stephen, where he died peacefully on 16 August 2022 aged 91, after a very full life.

Postscript: Lez worked writing a musical play about the later life of the artist Vincent Van Gogh. Started in 1998, over the years he added to it, (some of the pre; trial versions sung by him, are on this site). Unable to continue with it, around 2017 the existing material was handed to son Stephen to complete & produce an audio version of the concept stage play. A script was completed in 2020, incorporating some of Lez's vintage poems, & reworkings of some of his other songs, to fit the gaps. New versions of various "French" classical tracks were created as mood setting & backing music, in 2023. Missing song parts were written by Stephen and the whole work professionally recorded in 2023, with actor/singers & musicians from UK & other countries. Although he never heard the finished work, he was able to listen in 2020-21, to a rough guide version which he liked. It is hoped that the musical play "V.artist" will be staged later on, meanwhile the audio version is available for downloading, with samples on sites available. A (songs from) version and a (classical music & poems from), also.