Father Thames

ark Stanley, born in landlocked Surrey, was always going to be a boatbuilder. The only question, as it so often is, was the route he’d take to get there. Today, as we sit in his comfortable sitting room, with big windows giving onto the Thames at the bottom of the garden, he speaks as a newly retired boatbuilder whose name, though not as well known as that of fellow Thames men Colin Henwood or the Freebody family, is respected by everyone. Mark took an early wrong turn into the world of electrical engineering after leaving school at 16. “I wanted to be a marine service engineer, like an old friend of the family who travelled the world with it. In his