Tony Akkermans was born in the Netherlands at the very start of the Second World War and was raised a Roman Catholic. At age 16 he realised that religious faith is essentially a childish attempt at explaining the reality of life on earth. He dropped his faith and turned to humanism. He was educated in the sciences and economics and, after his national service, he spent time in England to learn the language. He then worked in international trade and commerce in three different countries, spending the final years of his career as head of commerce at the Netherlands-British Chamber of Commerce. On his retirement he settled in Shropshire with his headteacher partner Shona and for seven years was chair of the Welsh Marches Humanist Group. In 2014 he published an autobiography 'Happily Godless - Humanism for a Better World'.
I was interested to hear of the unusual case of Kevin Yuill, who wrote recently in this magazine…
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