A pensioner who “left school with nothing” at 14 is due to graduate from university more than 60 years later.
Bryan Lewis, from Heswall, said he found his experience at university to be “life-saving” after studying for a bachelor's degree in photography and a masters in fine art at the University of Chester.
The 77-year-old said higher education was completely different from his time at school.
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He said: "At the age of four, my older brother died. Soon after, I found myself whisked off to Brazil, as my father was assigned a job there. Education was in Portuguese and difficult, although I ended up translating for my dad.
“My mother and I returned to England after about two years and my education changed again.”
Describing himself as a “square peg in a round hole”, Bryan never felt like he fitted in at school, and left without qualifications at 14.
After leaving school, he began working in a number of fields, with most of them photography-based. From a hospital x-ray department to managing the Zoology Department Photographic Unit at the University of Liverpool, Bryan was never far from a camera.
Following his early retirement in 2000, he began his journey towards higher education with evening classes to pass his A Level and City and Guilds qualifications.
Bryan said: "Initially it was a challenge to be back in education, it hadn’t worked when I was a child so how would it be now as an adult? How would a 70-year-old fit in with young students?”
Bryan quickly came to love being with the other students, teaching them as well as learning from them.
He added: “The learning is in the whole experience and not just in lectures.”
His time at university was “life-saving”, starting just one month after he had been hospitalised with heart issues and then, later, a stroke.
Bryan said: “My world was falling apart. The University of Chester gave me something to look forward to.”
His time at the University was not without challenges however, as Bryan’s health issues persisted, with two heart surgeries totalling 10 hours. Though he managed to avoid missing out on his studies, the arrival of COVID affected his Master’s degree.
He said: “Losing the thread, I found it hard to get back into the swing of the course for the final year. I guess it was sheer determination to finish what I started and hope I would succeed, and the ability to study part-time was a life saver for me, literally."
Bryan credits his tutors, and especially his programme leader Maxine Bristow, for their dedication.
In return, Dr Bristow hailed Bryan as the ideal student, with a passionate sense of engagement and an eagerness to learn.
She said: "His success on the Masters is a remarkable achievement and something in which he should take great pride."
Turning 78 this year, Bryan is hoping to exhibit more of his photographs, but mostly wants to give back to the university that has supported him through his 8 years of part-time education.
He added: “With 40 years of working in the photographic field, I would love to be able to pass on some of that experience to the students.”
In the meantime, he is also a Freeman of the City of Chester, an honorary position in his family that goes back hundreds of years.
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