Robert McAlpin was in St Martins House from 1971 to 1976, he went onto study Furniture Production and Management at High Wycombe College, which became Buckinghamshire New University where he obtained a 2.2.

Robert then went on to join a family run furniture retail business called John Perring’s, from their moving into sales with a number of business, before joining Norton Abrasives in the late 1990’s before they where acquired by Saint Gobain Abrasives, holding a number of middle and senior management roles before taking early retirement in 2019,

In 2019 Robert was elected President of the Old Dovorian Club, before being elected Chairman of the Old Dovorian Club in 2022 after his term of President had been completed