Alex was born in rural Devon to a mixed heritage family. He worked as a labourer, then as a musician, before studying history & politics at Oxford, then law as a scholar of the Inner Temple, alongside a brief spell in the Territorial Army. He has worked broadly in charities and policy, including as executive chair of a homelessness project and as chief of staff of an historic London charity. He is a Justice of the Peace and was formerly chair of governors of a Devon school.
I love Devon because it sounds simple, but, like the night sky, the longer you look at it, the more there is to see. My wife and I spent time living in Oxford and Westminster only to find the real adventure lay back where we started: across the rivers and woodlands and moorlands of this vast, unknowable shire county.