Arrivals: Michael Haughton
Michael travelled from the Caribbean to the UK aged seven years and six months, the youngest of the participants of this exhibition.
Flying on a BOAC flight from Jamaica as an unaccompanied young person, Michael left his grandparents behind to be reunited with his mother in February 1970. He recalls the cold on arriving in Manchester and feeling sick from the long flight.
He was amazed by the chimneys billowing smoke from the coal fires, a sight unknown to many travellers from the Caribbean at the time. Michael was also mesmerised by snow and remembers asking his mother “what tree does that (snow) fall from?”
He attended Balby Junior School before moving on to Balby High School.
In April 1978 Michael completed his schooling aged 15 and started his first job, working on the markets in and around Doncaster before joining the Army aged 16. His time in the Parachute Regiment and Royal Artillery saw him on active service in Northern Ireland (1981) and during the Falklands conflict (1982).
After his discharge from the Army in 1983, Michael moved into work in retail as a manager in London and the South.
In 1990, he returned to the North and in 1991 returned to full time education to study for a degree in Social and Urban Studies. After successfully completing his degree Michael worked in local Government and the voluntary and community sector. As well as being a Chief Executive for an architecture centre and development trust, Michael is also a co-founder and director of a counselling and training company. Today Michael is a senior engagement adviser for Central Government on a national infrastructure project.
