Dr Glyn Walters moved to Burwash in 1957 from Belsize Square in London and has been a resident and supporter of the local community since.  He set up his GP dispensing practice on arrival and worked tirelessly to keep his patients fit and well, until his retirement in 1996. 

Dr Glyn recognises, and is keen to embrace, the huge technological advances that have been made since he first started working, many of which weren’t available until well after he retired.  Although latterly there were 2 computers in his GP practice, the functionality was significantly less than is available to people nowadays and didn’t particularly add great value to his work.

When the Burwash Community Internet Café was first set-up and ran in The Bear in Burwash, he was one of the first members of the community to go along to update his skills and learn new ones.

Dr Glyn told the ESCC Broadband Team that initially he needed a lot of help to learn new ICT skills, but being a quick learner, it has all become second nature to him now.  He greatly values the support given to him at the centre, which he finds helpful and relevant to his needs.

He attends the Internet Café, now in its own premises, 3 times a week.  Dr Glyn said that he has been able to set-up an e-mail account and this has opened up a new world to him.  In fact, he feels he is in touch with the world, through contact with family in Wiltshire, friends and old colleagues who live in various countries as well as the UK.  Dr Glyn was quick to explain that he prefers to use computers both to keep in touch and also to carry our research on topics that interest him, including history and art – rather than for buying and selling which isn’t relevant to him.

An area he has been recently researching relates to Algorithms and Pixels – this arose as a result of printing a picture sent to him by his daughter.  Dr Glyn commented that the quality wasn’t good and it set a train of thought in process that led him to wanting to find out why, and how this could be improved.

Dr Glyn’s scientific and ordered mind comes to the fore before his visits to the Internet café.  He decides in advance what it is he wants to find out, makes a list, and thereby makes best use of his time working in the centre. He said he’s always able to print information off, which is a service he finds very useful.

Dr Glyn feels we’re never too old to learn. At the age of 89, learning to use modern computers with access to different programmes and the internet, has opened up a new world of interest to him which keeps him well occupied.