IN THE BEGINNING...

THE BIRTH OF AN ENVIRONMENTALIST 

PETE PERRY was

 born in Benfleet,

Essex UK on 30th

June 1937 in the

middle of the

depression.

Pete hung on in the womb for ten

months before being born, and who

could blame him?

Earlier, in December 1936, there was a

constitutional crisis,

when King Edward Vlll abdicated for the love

of his life. His brother, King George Vl

succeeded him, his coronation taking

place on 12th May 1937.

Pete then decided things were safe enough in

the world to be born, - but then, on 1st

September 1939, when Pete was 2 years old,

war between The UK and Germany was

declared! 

Pete's dad Frank was serving in The Seaforth

Highlanders and was stationed at Fort George,

in the Highlands of Scotland, so as soon as war

broke out, Pete, his mum and two sisters were

sent to Fort George, where they lived in

Married Quarters in the fort ityself.

Here, Pete learned

to love the wildlife

that abounded in the

Highlands, and

would spend hours

on 'The Golden

Common'watching wild hares, deer and even

wildcats.

Nothing happened in the first few months of the

war, - they called it 'The Phoney War', so Pete

was sent back to Walthamstow London.

Unfortunately, he arrived just as the London

'Blitz' started, so experienced the horrors of

bombs, air raids and doodlebugs, having a few

'near misses', with a flying bomb landing on

houses just up the road from him.

He was

promptly sent

back to Scotland,

to live in Old Mills

Cottage in Elgin,

where he helped

on a farm. He returned to London to find bomb

sites everywhere.

Noticing how plants soon colonised these

bombsites, he realised that, whatever Mankind

did to the world around him, nature would

always recover.

At the age of Eight years old, Pete became one

of the first environmentalists, vowing to protect

the Earth from Mankind's greed and

destruction.

Pete had started drawing and writing stories at

a very young age, and by the time he was 11

years old, he was producing a weekly comic,

KOMIC KAPERS WEEKLY, known

affectionately as the KK, for his mates at

Chapel End Secondary Modern School in

Walthamstow. E17. Pete even ran a story of

Ossy & Willie, in the future,

taking refuge from a

CO2 Laden atmosphere!

Since then, he has gone

on to write illustrated

articles for magazines

on The Environment, Horticulture and Social

Justice, and writing childrens' and adult books.

Above is Pete at 11, when he began The KK...

His friends called him 'The Professor' because of

his seemingly outragous views on the environment.

Very often, his friends would groan and say,

'Oh no, here comes another Perry Theory!'

Below is an original KK comic from the early

fifties.  
Not only did the pupils

enjoy reading this comic,

- it was also popular with

the teachers, as Pete found

out one day when he

had to report to the staff

room to find the teachers

having a good laugh over it...

He also often argued about nature & The

environment with his biology and science teachers.

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