When I arrived at Heathrow on my way to work in Libya, I was introduced to another chap, also on his first trip abroad. He was Gerry Hassett, son of the boxer.
I knew Gerry the elder when he was working as a bouncer in the Queen's Court in Bangor in the 1960s, and the younger Gerry and I became friends during our time abroad.
Incidently, I bumped into Gerry the boxer, still "bouncing" in a hotel in Belfast in 1992.