Background
Challis was born in a Welsh family in Birmingham, England, and raised there and in Sydney.
Challis was born in a Welsh family in Birmingham, England, and raised there and in Sydney.
After living for a time in Spain, he arrived in New Zealand in 1953 and worked as a postman in Wellington and studied psychology and social work at Victoria University.
After working as a psychiatric social worker in Porirua Hospital 1961-1962, he joined the new Hastings psychiatric unit as a psychologist. He returned to psychiatric social work in 1973, at Canberra, and retired from it in 1988, at Porirua, and moved to Nelson. Challis now lives in Golden Bay.