INTERVIEW
By the Dart INTERVIEW
PETER CONISBEE
Interview by Phil Scoble ACTIVE IN LOCAL
COMMUNITY LIFE “M
Y o LeVeL ResuLTs WERE A BIT OF A DIsAsTeR,” PeTeR
CoNIsBee TeLLs Me, “AND I goT A BIT oF A WAKe uP CALL WHeN I LeFT sCHooL! IT TAugHT Me THAT IF I WANTED TO MAKE A SUCCESS oF MY LIFe, IT WAs ToTALLY DoWN TO ME – AND THAT HAS BEEN A LessoN I HAVe useD RePeATeDLY THRougHouT MY LIFe.” He certainly has been no slouch in taking on new challenges since he joined the Dartmouth community: Peter has become, since moving to the town in 2007, a trustee of The Dartmouth Trust, a trustee of The Flavel and now a Director of the town’s Business Improvement District. “My wife Ruth and I were looking for a home on the South Devon coast and instantly felt at home here,” he tells me. “We went to see a house which looked over the river from south Town and instantly fell in love with it. even now, every time I look out of the window at the spectacular view, I have to pinch myself. I’ve always had a dream to live by the sea and I can’t believe how lucky I am to have achieved it. Dartmouth is a stunning location but really the thing that I love more than anything is the strength of the community here and the friendliness we’ve encountered at every turn.” Born in surrey in 1947, Peter loved
sport and life, but didn’t really get on in school. “I went to a minor public school and
frankly didn’t enjoy it very much,” he said. “Then when I was 14 and 15 and like lots of teenage boys, I discovered “other interests”. I never could
understand the need to learn latin and algebra but suddenly I had many more interesting priorities and I left school with only one O-level . I was having so much fun outside school that I had not realised how many doors would be closed to me if I didn’t take school seriously. It was a real shock to find myself out in the real world with no idea what I wanted to do and so many doors closed to me.” But a break was just around the
corner. “somehow I talked my way into a job at an advertising agency in the West end,” he said. “It was 1965, I was 18 and I had a fantastic time! The
“The Flavel is the most
remarkable organisation. If Dartmouth is the jewel in the South Hams crown, then The Flavel must surely be the jewel in Dartmouth’s crown!”
West end was the place to be, I went to lots of events, parties and clubs – the Whiskey A Go Go, The Marquee, the 100 Club. It was an astonishing time to be part of the revolution in music that happened in the 1960s. Nobody expected any of the bands to last more than a few months or a couple of years at most but 50 years later many of the musicians are legends and I am still going to see some of those bands &
listening to their music. “ Peter did well in his job and ended up being a media planner/buyer for the agency, planning campaigns and booking adverts on TV and in the national newspapers for international brands. Five years later a change in circumstances resulted in a changed of direction.
“The media buying was a fun job but
I felt it was time to settle down and change direction, so I took a role at an insurance brokerage in oxford, which led to me launching my own brokerage at the age of 28.
The company was
successful, growing from a standing start with just two partners, to a board of five directors and 20 full time staff in the course of a few years”. “Along the way, I began investing in both residential and commercial property and also became involved in property development. Running the insurance brokerage became more serious and less fun as it got larger, so in 1991 I decided on another change of direction, sold my shares in the insurance brokerage and started my own property management company in oxford. I was back in the position of starting another business from scratch, which was a great challenge ” he said. “We started with just one residential property but within a few years this had grown to over 200 properties and by then the business had its own momentum”
Looking to find the perfect place
for himself and his wife Ruth who he married in 2003, brought Peter to Dartmouth. His involvement in the local community started with The Dart- mouth Trust.
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