Lunch ladies hear about Bernard's love of animals

Born in London, but now living in Lincolnshire, Bernard gave a talk entitled Never Workd With Animals.

He told members that as a child he had had a vast array of usual and unusual pets including Siamese fighting fish and an alligator.

He wanted to work at London Zoo when he left school at 15, but there were no vacancies, so he turned to journalism and joined the Daily Express.

His love of animals remained though, and in his spare time he would help behind the scenes at circuses and zoos.

It was at one of these zoos that he was reunited with his childhood pet alligator (much larger than it was before).

Bernard then obtained a licence to work with and train animals and one of his first ventures was as a presenter at the London Dolphinarium where he was involved with training six dolphins, two sea lions and two penguins.

His audience were enthralled with a plethora of anecdotes that were all fascinating and interesting.