PERSONA: Walter Crompton

Name: Walter Crompton

Age: 76

Family: Walter married at age of 20 to Norma Abbot, resulting in just a single daughter, Joan. Now 51, Joan lives abroad in Canada and is therefore only able to visit Walter occasionally, although they keep in regular telephone contact. Walter has three grandchildren, all of whom were born and live in Canada.

Unfortunately, Walter’s wife died 8 years and he never re-married. Norma was responsible for most of the household duties such as cooking and cleaning, as a result Walter has been finding it difficult to adjust. He now lives alone and currently resides in a small 2 bedroom bungalow in the town of Bewdley, Worcestershire.

His daughter, Joan, would ideally like to see Walter placed in an elderly care home so she can be assured of his wellbeing, but he stubbornly refuses.

Mobility/Health: Limited mobility after undergoing hip-replacement surgery 6 years ago and now requires a walking stick to move around. Consequently, he finds it difficult to travel long distances and gets quickly out of breath. Hearing and eye-sight are respectable for a man of his age, although he requires glasses for reading and watching TV.

Hobbies: Walter is a keen trivia fan, being a member of a local pub quiz team for a number of years. He often likes to remind his fellow team members that he was a contestant on the 1988 TV quiz final of ’15 to 1’ (although he selectively forgets to mention he was knocked out in the first round).

Likes: Independence, TV Trivia shows, football and gambling.

Dislikes: Being told what to do.

Behaviour patterns: Walter is a proud and stubborn man who dislikes being considered a ‘charity case’. He is likely to become uncooperative and deliberately obstructive if people try force any sort of control on his life.

He is a man of limited patience and will often become frustrated when faced with new challenges.

Average Day in the Life: Having been in retirement now for a number of years, Walter’s day to day life generally revolves around his three favourite activities, TV, football and the pub.

He has no strict routine and on a typical day he will wake between 7 and 9 am. After his normal breakfast of marmite on toast and a pot of tea, he likes to settle in front of the TV where his schedule is dictated by the radio times. Lunch will generally consist of a quick sandwich.

In the afternoon he will often go to the bookies to have a quick flutter on the horses, before heading to his local pub where he will spend the evening.

The highlights of the week are generally Tuesday evenings where he participates in his local pub team quiz. Saturday afternoons are normally spent at his beloved Kidderminster Harriers where he has only missed a handful of games in the last 30 years.

Back story: Walter was born on the 23rd April 1930. He comes from a traditional working class background where money was always tight and he had very little in the way of luxuries. He left school at 15 to go to work in a local factory, employed as an engineer to look after the machinery. He was eventually promoted to foremen and remained there all his working life until being made redundant in 1990.

Although he has no immediate family who live in the area, having lived in Worcestershire all his life, he has built up a close group of friends who he has become increasingly dependent on in his later years.