Mervyn Finch MBE was born in Wolverhampton, England in the year 1951. One of fourteen siblings born to Fred and Mercia Finch. Merv demonstrated a keen interest and a natural ability in artwork from an early age. He received no formal art training or education apart from seeing and interpreting life through his own eyes.
Merv ’plodded’ through primary and secondary school education until he finally left the gates of Wobaston Secondary Modern School, Fordhouses, at the age of fifteen to find work. He spent two and a half years as a Apprentice/Trainee Carpenter. In addition to this he had a stint at being a tool maker in a factory and a short bout of pop delivery lad for Corona. On his 18th birthday he set off to Wolverhampton town centre and entered the doors of the Queen Street Army Recruiting office and did what he’d always wanted to do (apart from being an artist), and that was sign up for service in the British Army’s – Royal Corps of Signals.
He spent twenty two years serving in the colours; initially as a Telegraph Operator and then later becoming a Yeoman of Signals. He had a successful army career, where he attained the rank of Warrant Officer Class One, and was awarded the prestigious “Member of the British Empire” (MBE) medal by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1988 for his hard work and dedication to duty while serving as a Permanent Staff Instructor with The Honourable Artillery Company, of London.
In the early years of his army career he took up painting again as an hobby. It was during this period that he received his first paying art commission. Word soon got around and before long his work was in demand. He was commissioned to do paintings and murals by paying customers. In particular, his murals were sought after by Regimental Mess’s for seasonal functions. Since retiring from the army he has done mural paintings and fine artwork for Corporate institutions and private clients.
Merv retired from the colours at the beginning of 1992 and secured a job with Newbridge Networks as a technical trainer/instructor. It was while there that he was recruited by the company’s Canada based headquarters. Along with his family, they emigrated to Canada in 1997 and within four years became Canadian citizens. After the dot com collapse he became self employed working as an Instructional Designer and course developer and ran his own company; Course We Can Limited where, along with the help of a very good software developer friend, created the Learning Content Management System (LCMS) application; CourseBuilder (coursebuilder.net) which is an excellent content management and publishing tool for instructor-led courseware using PowerPoint(R) and/or Word(R) .
Merv has also dabbled in writing, having already completed his two part autobiography. In addition to this, he’s also written two fictional thrillers. For more information on his storytelling skills, see the “Books” page of this web site.
Merv is also the illustrator for the Children’s author; Lesley Anne Airth. Who wrote a Canadian best seller, “What We Remember”, which is an illustrated, educational book for children about remembrance and how conflict affected children during the two World Wars. See the “Books” page for more details.