Peter Mallinson, 79, is the chairman of Walcot Charity Shop and Community Library, heading a small team of volunteers. He responded to people causing disturbances nearby by inviting them to visit. No-one has yet responded but the invitation stands. Peter lives in West Swindon and is married with a son.

WHY extend an olive branch to those who cause problems for a community charity?

“I can see no future in them standing on one side of the square, looking at us, and we standing on the other side of the square, looking at them,” said Peter Mallinson.

“If we can sit down together, or even if they just come over to have a look, a chat and then walk away again, it will be the beginning of something that may carry on in that they start to look at us slightly differently, and maybe we start to look at them slightly differently.

“We’re all living in the community together, we’ve all got to get on, and I just think it’s an embryonic way of starting a bit of reconciliation. You can’t have reconciliation unless you meet, can you?”

Practicality and faith in humanity seem to characterise this former RAF officer, airline worker, market trader, shopkeeper and local councillor.

He was born in Morecambe to a housewife mother and a father who was a watchmaker and refrigeration engineer. The family moved around the region during his wartime boyhood, and his early memories include swapping bomb shrapnel with schoolmates.

He joined the RAF at 16 as an apprentice electrician, inspired by a film called Twelve O’Clock High about a bomber crew. Early training included working on Lancasters and other aircraft left over from World War Two.

By the time he left 21 years later, Peter was a Flight Lieutenant and an air crew instructor and examiner. A posting at Lyneham had led him to Swindon. He then did similar work with BOAC – later to become British Airways – before retiring in 1990.

He’d visited most of the world’s countries and is glad of the insights this gave him.

“I think you get a more balanced view of what the world is really like as opposed to reading about it or seeing it on TV. They have the same aspirations in life, they all want the same things in life, and depending on where you go you see them meeting their aspirations or not.

“At one end of the scale you go to America and you see all the wealth. Then you go to Africa – I did a lot of famine relief – and you see people who are right at the bottom of the food chain and who’ve got absolutely nothing.

“You see both ends of the spectrum and everything in between. It gives you an appreciation of how lucky you are to live in this country.

“When it comes down to it I think that, of all the countries I’ve seen, I’ve not been tempted to go and live anywhere else because I prefer the stability of this place and the feeling you get with it.”

In 1990, retired or not, he had no intention of slowing down.

“I’m not the sort of person who can put his slippers on and watch the TV and go to the pub. I want a bit more out of life than that.”

A friend suggested opening a stall at the old Greenbridge Market. Peter sold car accessories there, and moved with the market to Dorcan and finally Blunsdon. Then came a grocery shop near Cheltenham, which he ran with a friend to whom he sold his share when the daily commute became tiresome.

He was invited to go into local politics as a Conservative, and he agreed but ended up as a Labour councillor in Toothill. Having initially been impressed by Tony Blair, he became disenchanted and returned to the Conservatives. A few years ago, by which time he was a Walcot councillor, he lost his seat.

A couple of years earlier, he’d moved his surgery to the library in a successful bid to keep it open with fellow volunteers.

“All my life I’ve worked in structured societies where honour and duty mean something, and maybe it rubs off. If you have a duty to do something you do it, and if it’s hard so be it – you still do it.

“I just get on with it. I assess something to see if it’s within my capabilities, and if I think it is I’ll get on with it and do it. This was within my capabilities, bearing in mind that I did have a lot of experience in people, diversity and that sort of thing. I also had a lot of experience by this time in the commercial aspect of selling through the market stall, through the grocery shop and dealing with people on a regular basis.

“We originally came over here to save the library, so we have a library. If we weren’t here the library would have been gone six years ago. If things get better it’s still here and can be built on.

“Secondly, I believe that we provide a service within the shop, selling goods at a very low price to local people who need things at a price they can afford. Because none of us are paid in any way we can then afford to fund projects that would never normally be given any funding at all.

“Last but not least, it’s a meeting point for people. People do come in here. They’re always welcome to come in and have a tea or coffee and a chat.”

Walcot Charity Shop and Community Library is open from 9.30am to 1pm on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays, while the library only is open on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. New volunteers are always welcome.