Rob Lyon sits in his living room and considers the question I’ve just asked: Did you ever expect to be Mayor of Dartmouth?
After what seems like a long pause he replies, “Of course not – but doors open and doors close in life, and this door opened and it seemed the best thing to do; to have a go.
Rob Lyon - Dartmouth Town Mayor
“I always set out to never to go to work in my life, I went out to play. If you aim to have fun doing something you will do your job better and also you’ll enjoy it. That’s my aim as Mayor.”
It’s a pretty unique stance for a Mayor in Dartmouth – but Rob has a twinkle in his eye that seems to show he has always enjoyed life.
Born in Middlesex in 1942, he seems to have had an idyllic childhood. He described his parents, George and Mildred, as being ‘lots of fun’.
“We had a boat on the Thames and would sail a lot at weekends,” he said. “I don’t think it was a coincidence that everyone in our family loved Swallows and Amazons. Many years later I told my mum how wonderful those trips had been and she said she’d found them incredibly stressful – having to get five of us down to the river, plus all the food preparation and the washing that went along with it!”
After school Rob ‘fell into’ a job training to be a building surveyor.
“I was due to join the Merchant Navy as an apprentice officer,” he said. “Chatting to a friend one day, he said he was going for an interview for a training scheme to become a building surveyor, and it sounded like a good job so I went down for the interview too and I got the job!”
A distinguished career followed in and around London – helping with renovations of both 10 and 11 Downing Street, Clarence House, Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace and even working on a new heating system in Windsor Castle.
He has worked both within large companies and for himself over the years, and seems to have had fun in both! He even found enough time to build a house of his own, with a smallholding, where he bred pedigree Hereford cattle and other animals.
All his spare time was spent off-shore racing, quite successfully, on a number of ¼, ½ and ¾ tonne yachts and then cruising the Channel and the Biscay coast of France.
In 1983 Rob met future wife Di. Both had children from a previous marriage, but they all get on famously. “We are a very close family – I have three children and Di has two. We are just one big happy family – very happy in fact.”
Rob and Di had a yacht that they started to keep on the Dart, opposite Noss Marina. After a number of years they were spending so much time in the area holidaying with their family, they decided to buy a house in the town. That was in 1988. The couple already had many friends in the area thanks to their regular visits, but in 1993 they made a decision that changed their lives.
“We saw an advertisement in the Western Morning News offering the Seale Arms for sale. Courage was in the process of selling their less profitable premises. It is a splendid building that needed refurbishment and seemed an exciting project. We invited Di’s brother, Michael, if he’d like to come down to run it with us – he said yes straight away. I asked if he wanted to ask his wife, Sylvia, first and he just said: ‘No – we’re coming!’ And so they did.”
“The four of us ran the pub for five years and started a Thursday night jazz club, a Tuesday night blues club and had a good time making many friends along the way. During these years, we visited the Kinsale Jazz Festival a couple of times and I saw how great it was and how the town has a lot of similarities to Dartmouth: I said ‘We should start a music festival in Dartmouth’.”
Rob went to see Nigel Way of the Royal Castle Hotel to put the idea to him. “He looked at me and just said: ‘What a good idea!’” Rob remembers. They then asked their good friend and Town Councillor, Roger Kempton to come on board and in May 1998 the first Music Festival took place and was a big success. It has now been running for seventeen years.
“I’m so pleased it is still an important part of the Dartmouth calendar. I am proud to be the Festival President and we still help out but have stepped back now – it’s important that festivals change and evolve and new people come in with new ideas, which is exactly what has happened and, indeed, goes from strength to strength.”
Three years ago Rob joined the Town Council.
“I think the Town Council has got to do things – it has not embraced change in the past in the way it should have done. Change is inevitable and the Town Council’s main job is to try and help be part of change and make sure it is the right change for the benefit of the majority in the town.
“Everyone who works for the good of the town wants to give something back whether it is on the Town Council or in one of our many community organizations, festivals or events. It’s why I do it, certainly.”
First published July 2014 By The Dart
