Jeremy Holt, 59, is a solicitor who co-founded the Museum of Computing, has been a school governor, and is a Trustee of the Friends of Lydiard Park. He claims that life is what you make it. 

SWINDON solicitor Jeremy Holt, 59, has tackled all but four of the town’s marathons and half marathons since 1985. He is married to a GP and the couple have two grown-up children. Jeremy is a partner in business law firm Clark Holt Commercial Solicitors.

“I’m very much a ‘one life’ person,” said Jeremy Holt.

“You only get one life, one body. You should go to bed at night feeling that you’ve tried to have as fulfilling a day as possible.

“On a parallel with that, when you get to the end of your life, or what you think is the end of your life, you should feel it was a life well spent.”

His lifestyle fits his philosophy.

When not taking care of his busy legal practice or running, Jeremy has always had plenty of other things to keep him occupied.

He is a trustee of the Friends of Lydiard Park, for example, lectures on IT law, chairs professional conferences and co-founded the Museum of Computing alongside curator Simon Webb. He has been a governor of Commonweal School and a Duke of Edinburgh Awards official, and teaches survival skills to youth groups.

Jeremy is the author of a book called A Manager’s Guide to IT Law, which is now in its second edition and a recommended text in more than 30 British universities. He spent five years with the TA from 1980, mostly as a member of a special communications unit. His experience of mock interrogations during Cold War escape and interrogation exercises led him to join Amnesty International.

He was among the founders of the Front Garden Action Group about 25 years ago, helping to keep developers at bay for a long time, and even managed a stint on brains-and-brawn gameshow The Krypton Factor in 1986.

Another activity is forging business links between Swindon and China. Jeremy has been on five trade missions so far. He was in China during two of the four Swindon races he’s missed, and injured for the other two.

Running has been a constant passion since his law school days in Guildford.

“I just found it quite a useful way of keeping fit. You don’t need any company, you don’t need any special equipment other than running shoes. I think you’re built to walk and to run, and if you don’t do that you’re not taking the Rolls Royce out of the garage.

“I find it quite fulfilling. I generally tend to go earlier in the day. Breakfast is the reward for having gone and done it. As well as that I still play five-a-side football each week in Cricklade and also swim two or three times a week.

“I’m also very keen on parkour, which is this free running. That’s probably unusual for a 59-year-old solicitor to be doing but I really like it. It pushes you to the edge if you’re running along the top of a wall or if you’re leaping over something.”

Jeremy’s attitude to exercise seems to overlap his attitude to life. “It’s quite simple. You get out what you put in. If you don’t put anything in, you won’t get much out. We only have one life, one body, and I think your own body merits respect.

“There are certain things your body needs – regular exercise is one of them. Plus, you feel better, you look better and your general wellbeing is better. Your propensity not to get colds goes up. It isn’t a magic bullet against having something terrible, but if you do have something terrible your chances of survival will be increased if you’ve put the effort into keeping yourself reasonably fit.”

Jeremy was born in London, the son of a WREN and a Fleet Air Arm fighter pilot who became the service’s top air traffic control expert. He grew up near the naval base at Yeovilton in Somerset and attended a state boarding grammar school before studying law at Oxford.

“I’m very proud to have gone to a grammar school,” he said. “I think in view of recent events with Jeremy Corbyn – an ex-grammar school person called Jeremy who’s keen on running – the sky can only be the limit...”

Today Jeremy voluntarily coaches young people from all backgrounds who hope to study at Oxford or Cambridge. “Often it’s just a question of giving them more confidence. The big thing is the interview. They need to be quite bright to start with, but because they have so many people who’ve got the top grades it’s the interview that really counts.

“You’ve got to be both interested in the subject and interesting to the people who are going to teach you.”

Jeremy spent six or seven years as a commercial lawyer in London before coming to Swindon in 1985 to help set up a law firm’s branch office. His own firm was established a decade later.

He’s seen the town grow in size and in other ways.

“It’s much more international. We’re very lucky that we’ve got the best of a number of foreign countries here, which brings a lot of very good management theory and talent into the town.

“I think the town is better respected now than it was 30 years ago because there are lots of interesting things happening here. Just having the Honda factory here has been a major plus.

“I always describe the town as a 'why not?' kind of place. Whenever I’ve suggested anything – like a computer museum – people’s general response has been: ‘Why not? If you can do it, go and do it.’ In lots of places, if you suggested something people would say: ‘Why do you want to do that?’ There’s a kind of entrepreneurial and accepting attitude here, which I think is attractive and is the foundation of the town’s economic strength.”

The attitude chimes with many of his own, although he’s at pains to say there are more important things than personal prosperity.

“It just seems to me that life is for living, that life is for doing things, and you are what you give to other people. You are rich if you give things to other people.”