Thanks for that Jason
After playing with this a bit it seems that it's only Google Chrome that displays the validation messages on page load - IE11 seems OK (for once!) and Firefox also is OK.
Chrome has had no settings changed from installation - is this an issue you have come across before and if so is there an answer?
Also am I right in thinking that Spry used to have a confirm password validation?
If so is there any reason that h5validate hasn't or are there plans to introduce one?
Thanks again