Born and raised in Cornwall, as a child Jay spent most of his time (he’d say “feral”) outdoors, having the freedom of his grandparents farm and moorland, right next to one of the the oldest archaeological villages in Europe, giving him the practical experience of the subtleties of nature through the passing seasons, and a perpetual tangible reminder of the long standing relationship between humans and the land.  

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From the practicalities of day to day farm life and changing seasons, he learned through necessity the skills of foraging, bushcraft skills such as fire lighting, shelter building and improvised or innovative problem solving, but also had time to ponder the ways of our forefathers, the challenges of their day to day existence, how they utilised the  landscapes to maximum efficiency, using skills we have remnant memories of, or that have been lost to time.

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Time indoors was mostly spent in an effort to gain understanding of the subtle relationships of everything, reading book after book on survival skills, natural history, first aid, foraging, ancient local history and spirituality and scrutinising maps for hour after hour, exploring the interdependence of it all, always with so many more questions than answers.

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Jay joined the Army Cadets at 13, giving him more of a framework and structure along with a different perspective with which to view the world.  After leaving as a 3 Star acting CSM, he became an adult instructor, teaching amongst other subjects, fieldcraft, navigation, survival skills, weapons drills and latterly trained a number of successful Dartmoor Ten Tors teams (and learning the hard way how not to search for lost people, why they say “never trust an officer with a map”, and other interesting insights; a story for the fireside).

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Jay then spent over two decades working for Devon and Cornwall Police, responsible for managing enquiries to locate wanted and missing persons and was privileged to become one of the first pair of civilian staff to be trained and appointed as a “Lost Person Search Manager”, under the tutelage of Mike Rose, himself a pioneer of the thorough integration of SAR with the police force and partner entities. 

In parallel to this Jay was an active member of the local, MR and CRO affiliated SAR team, actively involved in all aspects of team operations, underground, overground and inland water, progressing to become an Incident Controller, then Deputy Team Leader Operations and Silver Liaison Officer, working on numerous high-profile missing person searches and major multi-agency incidents in a range of roles.

More recently Jay has studied Conservation and Ecology full time at Cornwall College and University of Plymouth, to gain yet deeper understanding of our natural habitats, ecosystems and anthropogenic factors.  Supporting this study, Jay volunteered at the Cornwall Beaver Project, assisting in the Cornwall Wildlife Trust tours and talks, placing and monitoring camera traps to capture the activity of the beavers and any other new species arriving as the habitat develops.

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As well as leading the training courses for Trackcraft and training his dogs for scent discrimination and trailing, Jay is a keen traditional archer, a climber, caver, photographer and has appeared in several national and international television productions on both sides of the camera.