Stephen P. Foulkes

STEPHEN FOULKES considers that there are four things guaranteed to make a fool of a man - wine, women, sailing boats and horses. Since he has been intimately involved with all four, he reckons that he doesn't actually stand much of a chance. He retired as a sergeant in 1996 after 31 years' service with the police force, 20 years of which were with the Mounted Section in Bristol. In 1998 he published a history of Bristol's police horses to mark the centenary of the unit. He was also a police diver from 1969-1976. To add song to his list of intimates, on his retirement he developed his semi-professional singing career into a full-time occupation. He was subsequently employed as a bass-baritone soloist by choral societies across the country, including a 20-year spell as soloist for Bath Choral Society's annual Christmas performances of Handel's Messiah in Bath Abbey. He was a lay-clerk with Bristol Cathedral Choir from 1976-1986, and vicar-choral with Wells Cathedral Choir from 2002-2009. In a rare fit of lucidity, he joined the Somerset Registration Service as a Ceremony Officer Registrar in 2012.