John Palmer, born in November 1928, was educated at the Heath Grammar School, Halifax, and the Queen’s College, Oxford where he read Greats.  In 1952 he was successful in the written competition for what was then the Administrative Class of the Civil Service, gaining exceptionally high marks in what the Civil Service Commissioners called Metaphysics, and Present Day, and in translating Latin unseen into good English.

He served in the Ministry of Housing and Local Government - and later for BR  dealing with various litigation about the Channel Tunnel, and aspects of rail privatisation.