Peter

In the words of his family:

"In 1980 Peter was Headmaster in Sheringham at a residential school for boys who were under-achieving. 

He was happy in his job, having worked up from class teacher to Deputy Head then to Headmaster. However, the previous year government inspectors had said that the boys needed more outside space. Peter and his wife Margaret had spent time looking around Norfolk at potential new locations for the school but at Christmas that year the school owners told them that they had found a place in Lincolnshire. Peter and Margaret went to look at the new location but knew immediately that it wasn't for them. They didn't want to move their family all to another county and start all over again. 

Peter was 38 at that point and, having joined the police force aged 20 and gone into teaching aged 28, he’d already had two career changes and was wondering what lay ahead. Early in 1981 he handed in his notice and had to work at the school for 6 more months. During this time he was offered a job in life insurance, but he went home saying ‘I’m not meant to be doing this’ and turned the offer down. His son Mark remembers going into Peter’s office at home to get an Encyclopaedia Britannica for his schoolwork and hearing Dad say that he wouldn’t take the job. Little did any of the family know what a huge turning point this time would be in their lives and Peter’s career. 

Peter was clear that he didn't want to go back into mainstream education, as his heart was always for those young people who were struggling. He had concerns about the level of substance abuse that he was seeing and recognised that Norfolk, as a very rural county, with high levels of social and geographical isolation had very specific issues.  

He also didn't feel it would be right for him to continue in a residential school setting. He had a young family of 3 children 12, 11 & 8, it was clear that something was needed, and fast. And then one night in June 1981, as Margaret recalls, the concept of the Matthew Project came to Peter in a dream. The aim would be to tackle the growing issue of drug and alcohol addiction. Solutions would come through counselling, rehabilitation, workshops and education. He spent 3 hours writing everything down.  

As Peter thought about his idea, he realised it would bring together everything he’d ever done, his time in the police force, his time working with boys with challenging behaviour, his faith and passion for helping those in need, and he felt very much that he was being called by God to do this work. The name Matthew means Gift of God and Peter truly believed that the Matthew Project was a Gift of God. He always felt the project needed to be based in Norwich, which meant selling the family home in Sheringham and looking for somewhere in the city. 

By late summer Peter had worked his notice at the school and his last wages had come in. The house had been sold but the buyers weren't ready to complete, so on September 1st he went to the job centre to sign on the dole. The next day however, he felt he could not take a job offer as he was too busy trying to start the project so he phoned the job centre and told them that he wouldn't be coming back. Margaret remembers that the only income they had that month was a gift of £10 left in offering at church for the family. Peter and Margaret kept their faith and tried to keep their anxieties away from their children as they all started the new school year in Sheringham. 

By early 1982 the family found a house in Norwich, but Margaret was dismayed that they could only afford a terraced one again as she had been looking forward to having a drive and a garage as she was fed up with always having to search for a parking space. Much of the money they’d set aside for moving was gone and she reluctantly agreed to the purchase. It was not until a few months later when Peter had once again brought home a desperate young couple to stay with them, that God spoke to her about the house and pointed out to her that they did actually have the room for people to stay with them, but the house was not large or commodious or posh. She was washing up after their shared meal when she felt God say to her ‘now this is why you are living in this sort of house so that when you have people in need come to stay, they feel comfortable and are not overwhelmed. 

One of the first things Peter did after forming the charity with a group of Trustees, was to get together a group of people from different walks of life with different expertise so that the project would benefit from their knowledge. He called the group the Advisory Committee, and they were extremely helpful to him with their constant and varied support, often with very generous regular giving to the charity. His original concept was to build bridges within the Norfolk community for young people, to work with schools, the police force, the churches and policy makers. 

And so the Tackle Shop – a drop-in space for young people to go for confidential advice and support, particularly around substance misuse and mental health, was born. This was accompanied by an additional out-of-hours phoneline called the Tackle Line. Peter also introduced the Tackle Express, a mobile caravan built to travel around the county, visiting schools and providing outreach support to at-risk young people. Little did he realise what an innovative idea this was, and he soon had calls from people across the country. Work expanded into police stations across Norfolk. 

Mark was in his teens at that time and pretty much wrapped up in school and football - both playing and watching Norwich of course - as well as working in Chris’s newsagents, delivering papers in all weathers. He remembers Peter arriving home in the family’s Citroen BX with the Tackle Express Caravan on the back – it was a big vehicle to bring down Buxton Road just a stone’s throw from where the Matthew Project is today. 

For a long time, Margaret worked as the lone administrator, but by the time she retired, there was a team of 9 running the administration and she remembers their joy and commitment, and knows they couldn’t have done it without them. During these years, Peter began work at a national and international level and visited many different countries to speak at conferences and to help those trying to find ways to support people dealing with addiction.  

Bex, their youngest daughter,  remembers that Peter came to speak to the assembly at her high school. She was then 14 and didn’t tell anyone he was her dad as she felt a bit embarrassed. He’d read a passage from a book and spoken about his work. Afterwards everyone said “wow, that guy was really cool” and she was able to proudly say “He’s my dad “.  

An experience that Peter had always felt very proud to have been invited to take part in, was to appear on a “live” Songs of Praise from Norwich cathedral on Easter Sunday in 1993.  The BBC had approached someone in Norwich, maybe in the Church, we don’t actually know, for recommendations of people they could interview for the programme.  The Matthew Project and Peters name were put forward. He was interviewed by Sally Magnusson walking through the streets of Norwich and they then talked on the top of the Castle with a view of the city and Peter took an active part in the service. It was something he was thrilled by and felt it gave a great push for the Matthew Project. 

Peter would go and give talks to anyone interested and this included many church groups.  At one stage the project faced a lot of criticism from a particular group as they felt we were encouraging people to “sin safely” because the project was giving out clean needles to addicts. Peter approached the then Bishop of Norwich, Graham James, about this and was invited to go to see him with our then Chair of Trustees, the Rev. Tony Ward. He came away greatly encouraged, as after listening to Peter’s reasoning, the Bishop said to him “You are doing the work that the church should be doing”. 

In his years with the Project Peter travelled extensively, speaking and supporting others in places as far away as Kenya, Latvia, Portugal, Russia and South Africa.  By 2000 the landscape for charities was changing and he began to feel that he didn’t have the skills needed to take the charity forward into the “contract culture” that was emerging. He told Margaret that the skills he had when he started he project were not the ones needed for going forward, and so he felt he should begin to look for someone who could lead the Matthew Project into the new millennium. At that time Trevor Galpin who was working for the project, told Peter about a friend in London who he felt had the right skillset and might be interested and so he invited Julian Bryant to come and visit whilst on a Staff away day. 

I am sure all those who were with the project then will have strong memories of that day as it was September 11th 2000: 9/11 and our day was severely disrupted. In spite of all the disruption, the outcome of that day was positive that Julian decided to join the project and guide it forward. Later, Peter was truly honoured when he was asked to be a Patron. He would go home from the meetings very fired up about the Matthew Project’s work and full of enthusiasm and “pride” that the charity continued with the same ethos with which he started it. It brought him so much joy to be able to help so many people and it brings his family great comfort and pride that his legacy lives on through the work that the charity continues to do. 

His personal favourite saying, that he strove to live by was from the Book Of Micah: 

‘He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’ and on reflection, we mortals have come a long way in 40 years.  

Caroline, his eldest daughter, was aged 18 in 1980 and recalls that most of us young folk then didn’t have the tools then to recognise our trauma and certainly didn’t have the language to express it, let alone the concept that anyone would listen.  

We really have come a long way since then and so it really is wonderful to acknowledge that the Matthew Project continues to achieve and that Dad’s vision to support young people in need really does live on."