Alan Potter, born in 1949 in Romford, contracted acute polio at the age of two. Permanently thereafter he would have to wear ankle-to-thigh length callipers in order to walk. He has two children, Paul and Alison, from his 1982 marriage with Sue, a midwife working in London, but originally from Bethlehem, adjacent to Jerusalem! Alan became a Stock Broker and after a successful career looking after client funds, he retired in 2012 to pursue his fondness for history.