hi, folks! after a long absence due to worldy pressures, im back at the the helm again!
continuing with our talk about ex-EMI engineers, here are some more chaps i recall during my time there:
Roger Warnet
Cyril Heard
Ron Sparks
Alan Swallow
Ted Boucher
Jag (Singh)
John Gilbert
Phil Armstrong
Dave Bhatnagra
Mike Warner
Hugo Pow
Steve Read
all these guys worked on the Searchwater radar system; alan swallow was the much-feared, much-maligned (rightly or wrongly!) manager; ted boucher was another much-maligned director; hugo pow was a relative newcomer, but due to his fast-talking expertise, soon became our senior and tried telling us how radar worked (before EMI, he was a rock singer!!); steve read was a great chap initially, very talkative, but somehow suddenly flipped a few months later and always kept very quiet for the rest of the time he was at EMI (he eventually left EMI and moved up north to work on the scottish oil rigs).
if any of these guys are reading this, please get in touch by leaving a message or comment here...none of the above comments should be taken personally!
Hi there! I was tipped off about this blog by Colin Clements via Facebook. I've just finished the main posts here and it's wonderful to read and hear these names which I've not heard anything of for a very long time. I left Thorn-EMI in May 1989. My final job was in the calibration department of the radar & equipment division based in Dawley 1 building. It's been working for R&E since 1978 after the 1st year off the job training in the training school. I worked with many of the people that are named here and it is a continued hope that I can one day get together with at least some of my former colleagues. Recently, My good friend Andy Hill presented me with a fantastic book called Thorn-EMI 50 years of radar. It's the perfect volume to explain to people about the company that kept me in gainful employment for 12 unforgettable years. I look forward to checking back on this blog!! /Gianni Jarvis
ReplyDeleteHi Gianni! Good to hear from you! I think we chatted awhile thru another channel some time ago, possibly Linkedin? I left EMI in 1986, for a spell working freelance on military equipment for Racal in Reading. Then I left that and changed arenas for commercial electronics, working as Video engineer for Technicolor (luckily I had done a C&G Video Electronics course at Southall College whilst at EMI..I only did it as a "fun" subject, but it ultimately came in handy!). Spent almost 15 yrs at Technicolor, left that and emigrated to Canada, finding work within a record 5 weeks of landing there! That was again in the aviation industry, as QA Auditor. After 5 years in Canada, the kids felt homesick and werent too keen on Canadian life, so we upped sticks yet again and came back to Blighty...a fatal move IMHO, as the England we came back to had changed vastly in that time! So we're still here, but my heart is still set on Canada, once the kids are safely settled down here properly. All 3 of them are professionally qualified now thank God, all graduates....one has a degree in the medical field, another has TWO degrees in Bio-Medicine, a BSc and MSc, while the third one has a degree in Finance.
ReplyDeleteYou mention Andy Hill...I kew him very well, now that you mentioned his name! I think i used to see him at Southall Tech too, together with another Sikh guy who was also an EMI apprentice with you guys...cant recall his name, but I know the Mr Mead, one fo the lecturers at Souhall Tech, used to call him "curtains" because of the patterned turban he used to wear..LOL! Dont know if you recall when the Sound and Vision section of EMI closed down and some of the engineers there accepted jobs with our Radar division? One of them was called Chaggar....tall, thin Sikh guy (damn Sikhs everywhere...!!), friend of Ron Snowball, used to love having a friendly banter with everyone, but nobody could understand a bleeding word he was talking about, on account of his style of chatting! Then there was Bert Rockstro, an elderly engineer, from the old school of Sound and Vision, could only understand triodes, diode and pentodes! Phil Seastrom also came from S & V...I saw him just the once at Sainsburys Hayes! Dave Bhatnagara (another Sikh guy...they mustve bred them at EMI...!) was a great guy, worked in the temperature cycling area at EMI, together with Andy Young a great big bear of a guy, totally uninterested in any radar work but was just biding his time till retirement!
Thats about all I recall, but I'm sure if you guys rekindle my memory banks, I may just remember more! And yes, I bought a copy of that book called Thorn-EMI 50 Years of Radar! Some famous faces in that book, like Dave Page, etc etc!
Just remembered another guy who worked with us on Searchwater...great guy called Bertie Joseph, one of the only black guys there at the time. Worked on the radar receiver unit far as I can recall.
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