Francis Quin shares a laugh with fellow Culture and Leisure board member Gloria Dudley-Owen. (0591761)

FRANCIS QUIN – Frannie to some, Quinny to others – assesses his 68 years on the planet and says: ‘I’ve had a good life.’

And he’s still having a good one too, remaining busy with political responsibilities that are growing by the year.

You will now find him as deputy Home minister, a member of the Culture and Leisure board and on the Sports Commission.

At 68, he shows few signs of slowing up and why should he?

‘Stay busy, stay young’ could be the motto of the third and youngest child of policeman William Quin and his wife, Wilhelmina, nee Barrett.

Francis’s life has taken him around the globe and for any of today’s youngsters worrying about what they might do with their own, they might be well advised to follow his approach of ‘don’t worry, something will crop up’.

It invariably did for this man of St Martin’s who, despite his travels, says he wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in Guernsey.

But let’s go right back to the start and his mainly happy childhood – mainly, because his toddler days were spent in German wartime camp Biberach along with his mother.

Having no memories of the time there, he remains unharmed and unscarred by the experience.

He does remember attending St Martin’s Junior School in the late 1940s and doing what most island children did at that time – making his own fun.

For Francis this meant being on the beach all summer long and going rabbiting with his dad during the long winter months.

‘We lived behind Queen’s Hotel and so much of the summer was spent on Moulin Huet or Saint’s. Dad had a shotgun, we had ferrets and dogs and shooting was just one of those things to me.’

When they went off in the Occupation, dad greased his gun, wrapped it up in some sacking and buried it under the shed.

‘After the Occupation he dug it up and started using it again – so we always had a gun in the house.’

All of which explains why shooting has always been a big part of his life, both in terms of competitive sport – where four Commonwealth Games appearances have been the highlight – and as a pastime.

‘Dad used to pick me up from St Martin’s Junior School on a Thursday afternoon and we’d go down to Bon Air in Sausmarez Road for pigeons and rabbits.’

Francis got his first gun [an airgun] around the age of 12 or 13 and his first shotgun at 16. He would often go shooting with Rex Trott, father of the island’s chief minister.

Francis described his shooting career in one word: ‘unbelievable’.

‘When you think about it, four Commonwealths and God knows how many Island Games.

‘I was never any good at football, but always good at shooting.’

The memories of his first Commonwealth in Edmonton, Canada, remain clear, not least because of the man next to him on the aircraft travelling out to the event.

‘I sat next to an unknown bloke and it happened to be Daley Thompson.’

That was the first major international competition Francis had been to and it was while coming back that he and fellow shooters Steve Brehaut, Bob Brouard and John Jackson talked of how they needed better facilities in Guernsey if the local sport was to progress.

It ended up being the inspiration for the excellent purpose-built clay target range seen at Portinfer today.

Wilhelmina Barrett, Francis’ mother. (0652360)

‘Doc Best was the driving force in getting it off the ground at Portinfer, which was an old quarry and a waste dump for toxic paint tins.’

Four years later Francis was again donning the island’s Commonwealth uniform, this time for the long flight out to Australia for the Brisbane Games.

But he never got to shoot – in fact he never got to see anything of the event other than on TV while in hospital.

He slipped on the aircraft steps at Singapore, jarred his back and on arrival in Queensland was in agony.

It turned out that he had popped a disc and spent the whole two weeks in bed.

In fact, he didn’t work for a year because of it.

Half a lifetime’s competitive shooting has provided him with friends across the globe.

‘Shooting is like a big family and it was touching when at John Jackson’s recent funeral, Gibraltar sent a representative.’

Francis is passionate about all sport and at a time when the island has 10 representatives in Pune, India, at the Commonwealth Youth Games, he said the influence of international competitions can never be under-estimated.

‘For example, the Island Games is the most important thing that has happened to Guernsey sport. It’s the single biggest influence.

‘It has lifted standards across the board.’

Francis has put a lot back into sport – his administration responsibilities include two four-year terms as president of the Guernsey Sports Council and the presidency of the Guernsey Squash Rackets Association and the Guernsey Clay Target Shooting Club.

‘We have made unbelievable progress in sport,’ says the man who now has a  seat on the Sports Commission.

Educationally, his qualifications added up to very little as he was not particularly interested in school.

He failed the 11-plus exam, was sent to Vauvert and left at 14.

His first job was in the Markets as an apprentice butcher.

After a couple of years with Chilcott’s, he became a labourer at Walter Mallett’s Fort George farm.

Then, before his 21st birthday, he had a spell laying the airport runway and today laughs at the pictures that prove it.

One of them shows him operating the roller with a Dakota taking off overhead. ‘It could never happen with today’s health and safety,’ he smiles.

It was while working on that job with some English lads that he was encouraged to try his luck in London and for several years spent his winters in the capital while running his own deckchair and whoopie-float business here during the summers.

It was a golden period for the local tourist industry, prompted largely by the dirt-cheap British Rail fares that were on offer to all the firm’s UK staff.

‘There were guest houses open everywhere and I had 400 deckchairs on Vazon and, with Max Crouchley, 200 at Petit Bot and 20-odd whoopie-floats there.

‘Tourism was king – the place was packed.

‘People were queuing up for deckchairs and often they could all be gone by 10 in the morning.’

He was still in his 20s when the chance came up to go to sea, where his elder brother – Ave, a former publican – was already enjoying life on Cunard liners.

First came a spell on the Queen Mary operating between Southampton, New York and Cherbourg. West Indies cruises followed – ‘there was no air conditioning and it was bloody awful’ – and with the help of his brother he was transferred to the Caronia, which offered world cruises.

‘My official title was assistant steward and then I was promoted to deck buffet steward. Basically my job was to set up all the cold serve and of a night time I would serve canapes on the two deck bars.’

But it was the mid-60s and the  seamen’s major strike of the period that were to bring his life at sea to an end. Cunard fell into difficulties and sold all its big liners.

Back in Guernsey, he continued to operate his deckchair business for a while and then became involved in the then legal and thriving trade of diving for ormers, scallops and crays.

He also helped in laying the sewage outfall at Belle Greve.

When the diving ban came in, he worked for Kenitex, a texture-coated- spraying company, before starting his own business.

General maintenance followed until he got involved in politics back in 2000.

‘In my 20s I would not have been able to name one island politician.

‘But I got into politics through the Sports Council, through which I had an automatic seat on the Outside Areas Committee.

‘I was then invited to join the St Martin’s Douzaine, enjoyed it very much and the rest is history. I topped the [deputies’] poll first time around.’

For years Francis has lived at Rue Cotelle and when the politicking is off the day’s agenda, you might find him walking his beloved dogs.

He still shoots and is a tournament grade squash referee.

His friends are numerous – and there is clearly plenty of life in this old dog yet.