Owen Spencer-Thomas

(2016) Early Life from 1940 Owen Spencer-Thomas was born into a farming family on 3 March 1940 in Braughing, Hertfordshire, England. After attending Christ Church Cathedral Choir School, Oxford, from the age of eight, he continued his education as a teenager at Ardingly College, Sussex. He studied at the Royal Agricultural College, 1958-1960, in Cirencester and spent several years working on his father's farm in Hertfordshire. His father, Ivor Spencer-Thomas, farmer and famous inventor, held the feudal barony of Buquhollie and Freswick in Caithness, Scotland. His mother was Alice Rosabel. He married Margaret Ely in 1976. They have two sons and a daughter. Both are members of the high IQ society, British Mensa.[ (2016)Higher Education from 1963 He graduated in sociology at the Polytechnic, Regent Street, where he campaigned to establish its students' union and became its first elected president, a sabbatical post, in 1966. The fledgling union caught the public eye in 1967 when Spencer-Thomas invited the notorious British criminal and escapee, Alfie Hinds, to take part in a college debate to give his controversial views on the flaws in the English legal system and speak about his daring jail breaks from three high security prisons. After the debate Hinds was confronted by another attempt to deprive him of his liberty. During a drink in a nearby pub, he was kidnapped by six students as part of a rag week stunt and frogmarched along a couple of streets to a basement room in the college. Hinds yet again foiled his captors after securing a bunch of keys and turning the lock on them. The ensuing publicity generated considerable interest, trebling the charitable revenue from the rag week activities. During Spencer-Thomas's time in office, the Students' Union staged many high profile musical events at The Polytechnic's Portland Hall in Little Titchfield Street. Among the performers were The Animals, Howlin' Wolf and Pink Floyd, some of whom were students at The Polytechnic. Fleetwood Mac recorded their Masters: London Live '68 album there, and Cream invited Jimi Hendrix on stage in the Portland Hall to jam with them in 1966 - Hendrix's first UK performance.