One of five children (whose parents originated from Fyffes Pen, Brompton in the parish of Saint Elizabeth in Jamaica), of the extensive family, Robert is the only one to be born in the UK. His parents, Carmen Bailey (formerly Blake) and Justin Bailey emigrated to Birmingham, England in the early 1960's.

His mother passed away suddenly at just the young age of 35 when Rob was just 12 years old and in his first year of secondary school. This devastated Rob and he went from being a top student in a top class to leaving secondary school with little qualifications.

Robert, mostly called Robbie by his family members and Rob by his friends, showed a keen interest in electronics at an early age. By the time he was a teenager at just age 14, he designed and built the electronics side of a sound system, known in those days as a pre-amplifier or Pre-Amp for short. He also designed and built sound effects and amplifiers for a number of upcoming sound systems at the time.  He developed a flare for poetry and wrote these in the form of lyrics which he “Toasted” (Rapped) on various sound systems in the late 70’s to early 90's, which were mostly of a social conscious bias.



Rob started his work career as an Electronics Engineer working for the giant electrical company Philips.  After working for the company for several years he was made redundant and decided to change careers taking up one of his hobbies, photography as a career path.

He found employment in a company called Photo Corporation UK Ltd (More commonly known as Pixi Foto) where he excelled as a photographer and won several awards for his work. He stayed with this company for 6 years but then moved on, starting up his own small business as a freelance photographer.



With the demise of film and the rise of digital technologies, the market for photography underwent a transformation seeing many long established companies go under. Companies such as Olan Mills disappeared in a matter of months. Seeing this trend, and being one to never stand still, Rob decided to go into full time education studying Social Science at an adult college which led him to University where he achieved a B.A. with honors in Media, Communication and culture.



His reason for creating this website is twofold. Number one as a university project but also, being the only member of his family to be born outside Jamaica and having visited there only a few times, he is a mix of two cultures. He is first generation Black British but is categorised as Jamaican by many in England yet, while in Jamaica he is known as the 'Englishman'...
This, he says leads to a disconnection where he has questioned his roots and identity leading him to research his family history and origins.

it is hoped that while he blogs, post images, and comments on the history of Jamaica on this site, he will also be able to present these findings from his unique (Radical or Radix) perspective.



Thanks for taking the time to read his bio.