Chris Witts

Chris Witts (born 24 July 1944 in Bristol was Sheriff of Gloucester 2006/7

Education
He came to Gloucester at the age of 7 with his parents and brother and sister, first attending Larkhay Road Infants School, then Elmbridge Junior School and finally Central Boys Technical School.

John Harker Ltd
In July 1960 he left school at 16 years of age and began work as a deckhand on one of John Harker Ltd esturial tanker barges. He worked first on the SHELL STEELMAKER, then the WYESDALE H and finally the WINSDALE H. One night he will always remember is the 25 October 1960 on the WYESDALE H bound for Sharpness from Avonmouth on the evening tide. A thick fog rolled off the shoreline into the River Severn and two tanker barges, the ARKENDALE H with a cargo of black oil and the WASTDALE H with a cargo of petrol sudedenly found themselves being taken with the tide up stream past the entrance to Sharpness Docks. Soon they crashed into the Severn Railway Bridge and two spans dropped onto both barges below. An explosionb occurred and five crewmen were lost. This disaster is one of many that has occurred on the River Severn and is always remembered as the Severn Bridge Disaster. Chris remained with John Harker Ltd for a few years and found himself involved with other diasters on the dangerous River Severn.

Fire Service
In 1966 he joined Gloucester City Fire Brigade as a fireman and remained with this career until 1993. During 1973/4 the Brigade almalgamated with Gloucestershire Fire Service, later to be called Gloucestershire Fire & Rescue Service. Chris was promoted first to Leading Fireman on White Watch at Gloucester Fire Station then to a divisional staff Sub Officer with West Division. In 1980 he moved to Cheltenham Fire Station as Sub Officer in charge of White Watch. During his time in the Fire Service he did numerous part-time jobs, window cleaning, HGV driving, auctioneer's assistant, but his favourite was in the 1980s as a freelance press photographer.

The Grain Barges
Soon after leaving the Fire Service Chris was offered a mate's job on the two grain barges working from the flour mill at Tewkesbury to Sharpness. Allied Mills Ltd began working the CHACELEY and TIRLEY in the spring of 1993 following their being laid up for the previous eight years. Each grain barge carried 250 tonnes of grain and were crewed by two men. In 1995 the skipper, Lionel Langford, died and Chris was offered the skipper's job. It was during this time that he began writing his numerous books about the River Severn. In 1998 the two grain barges were laid up again, but Chris found himself other work as skipper of the little mud hoppers which took dredged mud from Gloucester to the discharge plant at Purton. That work finally finished in 2000 and Chris was about to make a completely different career move.

Politics
He was asked to stand as a Councillor for the Liberal Democrats in Gloucester fighting the old ward of Longlevens. In 2002 due to ward boundary changes Chris has to fight another election and chose to stand for the new ward of Elmbridge where he has lived since the age of 10 years old. He won with a comfortable majority and then became a Cabinet Member for Care & Maintenacne, his portfolio covered street cleaning, refuse collections and grounds maintenance. In 2006 he had to stand for re-election and again won with a good majority.

Sheriff of Gloucester
Chris was invited to become the 275th Sheriff of Gloucester. As well as being Sheriff he was also Deputy Mayor of Gloucester, a roll that was to keep him very busy for 12 months. This was to be a very busy year in which he supported the Mayor of Gloucester, Cllr Sue Blakeley, to the many functions, not just in Gloucester, but Gloucestershire and even to our twin town of Trier in Germany. He was invited by the Sheriff of York to join him in that ancient city to help fund raise for their version of "An Assize of Ale". Gloucester also has "An Assize of Ale" for which Chris, with others, dressed in mediveal costume and paraded through Gloucester all day one Saturday, visiting many ale houses and raising money for local charities.

Local Celebrity
As well as being a Councillor for Elmbridge with Gloucester City Council he finds time to travel around giving talks about his favourite river the River Severn as well as the odd appearance on radio and television.

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