Example sentences of "he [verb] been a [adj] " in BNC.

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31 When she 'd first qualified in forensic medicine he 'd been a young sergeant .
32 Given that he had half frightened her to death to begin with , he 'd been a gentle lover too , she recalled , a tender smile playing around her mouth .
33 He 'd been a uniformed inspector with the Soho Unit for nearly three years , and was probably due for a move ; no sign of it yet , but there was most likely a memo waiting deep in the machinery , easing its way out at the speed of a splinter .
34 He 'd been a successful amateur boxer before he joined Plummer 's organisation .
35 She had loved him while hating him , had loved him when he 'd been a perfect swine .
36 Strong hints about his IRA sympathies , as if everyone did n't know he 'd been a self-proclaimed Sinn Feinner since he was a youngster .
37 He 'd been a hard man to work for , but he taught Billy everything he knew about that garden and how to take care of it .
38 He was n't getting any younger , after all , and he 'd been a hard worker all his life .
39 He 'd been a social worker , then a deputy director of social services — he 'd been fired after the famous ‘ babyswap ’ scandal , but that was how he came to be taken up by FAMILY .
40 When we were there Stan was with us and he 'd been a few times to Brussels to with the Labour Party and , and he said oh it 's great !
41 He had n't looked after her properly , he 'd been a bad father .
42 He spoke very warmly of his parents , but I felt that he 'd been a lonely child .
43 As to his feelings for Madeleine , nurtured since he 'd been a little boy , even were they to be revived , it seemed unlikely Madeleine would respond to him .
44 If he 'd been a Sikh it might have been different .
45 But from the moment she 'd come downstairs he 'd been a different man .
46 Really sad case , that , because he 'd been a fine man .
47 He 'd been a pharmaceutical salesman , mad keen on amateur dramatics .
48 He had been a young man when she had met him back in 1898 .
49 If he had been a young , attractive gentleman , I would have been too shy to offer help , but as he was not handsome , and even quite rough , I felt I wanted to help him .
50 He had been a young man , quite personable until someone slashed his throat .
51 At that time he had been a practising Catholic for two or three months .
52 Shaw spent most of his time on organization and records ; he was rarely involved directly in inquiries but he had been a first-class man on the ground .
53 Although he had been a sobering and restricting influence in a Germanic way upon the Queen , she took to wearing black immediately after his death and , in a sense , appeared never to cease mourning for him until the day she died .
54 Little wonder Roy Hattersley has now taken to the pages of the London Evening Standard , complaining that the glitz and the glamour hid the message — as though , somehow , he had been a disinterested spectator in the affair .
55 I had a letter about him from the Amalgamated Society of Joiners and Carpenters , of which he had been a prominent member .
56 Dickey had rebelled against his black clothes , until he was told that it would be naughty to mamma not to put them on , when he at once submitted ; and now , though he had heard Nanny say that mamma was in heaven , he had a vague notion that she would come home again tomorrow , and say that he had been a good boy and let him empty her workbox . ’
57 He had been a good friend to her and when she walked out on her parents she had made straight for the bar , looking for him .
58 He had been a good nome in his way , they said .
59 He claimed that he had been a valued ally of the US government but that President Bush had pursued a vendetta against him because he , Noriega , had refused to participate in efforts to overthrow the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua .
60 He had been a successful prize fighter at the time and had the good sense to buy the Blue Boar from the proceeds of the noble art .
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