A TAVISTOCK man who turns 90 today (Thursday) has recalled his years in the property business, which began half a century ago when he sold his first house in Tavistock — a Duke of Bedford cottage — for just £400.
Charles Procter came to Tavistock at the start of the 1950s and started the firm Procters Auctioneers in Brook Street, selling many premises around the town until retiring in 1979.
Mr Procter was born in 1912, in Lancashire, and moved to Ilford in Essex in 1928, where he began working for export merchants in London.
He joined the territorial army in 1938, and served in the RA anti-aircraft brigade and later in Europe until the end of the war.
Mr Procter married Winnie in 1943 and returned to his original firm in London at the end of the war. After some years, he left to establish a firm of auctioneers and estate agents in Launceston, and then moved onto Tavistock.
Mr Procter was a secretary of the Methodist Church Trust, trustee and chairman of the Watts charity and president of the Rotary Club and a founder member of the Probus Club.
He was also a skilled amateur artist.
Mr Procter was planning to celebrate his 90th birthday in Tavistock with friends and family.