Unfortunately, nothing came of this but little did I realise at that time that only 3 years later in completely different circumstances I would become an employee, this time at Malmesbury.
In October 1939, I approached the EKCO Radio Service repair centre in Bristol and met a chap called Ron Parry. Unfortunately he was unable to offer me a post but told me of a new EKCO factory, which was just setting up in Malmesbury and suggested that I approach them since he'd heard that they were looking for staff.
After a successful interview with Mr Lipman and Mr Harbour, I joined E.K. Cole in December 1939 although there was little to do at that time since there was a lot of building alteration and transformation taking place to Cowbridge House.
I was therefore posted to Southend for 3 to 4 months to learn the intricacies of 'test and inspection' and came under the wing of Harry Troughton, who was an old school teacher from up north -- very outspoken, but a person who was to have a great influence on me for the next few years.
I returned to Malmesbury in April 1940 and shortly after this Harry Troughton and his wife moved as well. They lived in a house not far from Bremilham Road where I was billeted with Mrs Emery (although I later moved from here to billet with Mrs Bonds in Bristol Road with 4 other fellow employee's).
I spent many evenings with Harry and his wife, listening to the radio or playing cards etc. Harry was an excellent teacher and taught me Algebra to a fairly high standard. I still have the Algebra book and looking at it now, I cannot believe that I worked through so many problems, although now it's mostly forgotten. Incidentally I note the date I wrote inside the book was May 1942.
The next person I would like to mention, and who became a good friend of mine was Mr. Harris who was an A.I.D. (Aeronautical Inspection Directorate) inspector. He was a brilliant mathematician as well as a radio expert. He passed his Higher National Certificate but his parents could not afford for him to go to university.
I recall one incident when I was testing a piece of apparatus where Mr. Harris was sitting alongside me in order to oversee my readings etc on the test set when I noticed that he was very busy writing, what I thought was a letter, so I gave him a nudge and said 'have a look at this Mr. Harris is it OK', so he stopped writing and looked at what I was showing him, meanwhile I glanced at what he was writing and was surprised to see that it was full of mathematics, so I asked him what it was all about, to which he replied 'Oh that's Bessell functions', needless to say I was none the wiser.
I remember he wrote a technical article on the VT90 transmitter valves, which was published in the technical journal 'Wireless Engineer' the upshot of which being that the Mullard Research Laboratories wrote to him asking if he would join them, unfortunately the A.I.D. would not release him.
He was a most brilliant man and I can see him now walking through the factory, his head swivelling slightly from side to side, in a world of his own. I consider it a privilege to have known him.
Two more people I mention briefly are Peter Carr and Eric Seymour. Pete Carr was a friend of Mr. Verrells son and was well spoken with a keen sense of humour; he became a friend of mine, as did Eric Seymour who I worked with.
Eric was a fitness fanatic and once, for a bet, attempted to ride his Claude Butler bike to Swindon and back in the allotted 1-hour lunch break (a distance of some 26 miles). He arrived back slightly over the hour, sweating profusely as it was summer time but nevertheless an impressive performance.
My cycling prowess was nothing like Eric's even though like most people I cycled to work and my best effort was cycling home to Bristol one summers Sunday evening, but I only did this one way and on the return I put the bike on the train to Little Somerford, which was a quaint station and in the winter always had a lovely fire burning in the waiting room.
Eric and I once went to London for a weekend break where we stayed at the Cumberland Hotel, near Marble Arch. This was the first time either he or I had experienced such luxury. I was saddened to hear of his passing from Anne Gilmore in 1995.
Of the ladies, I mention two, namely Mrs Chadwick and Mrs Hemms. Mrs Chadwick was in charge of a production line (she wore a white coat) and Mrs Hemms was an inspector on the same line.
They were both nice ladies, who had transferred from Southend and it was Mrs Hemms who took pity on me and taught me to dance because the dances held in the canteen were the high lights of a somewhat lack-lustre existence in Malmesbury at that time.
The dances were an important part of keeping morale up since many of the people working at Malmesbury during the war were living away from home and in consequence the dances were looked forward to with much anticipation.
Under the guidance of 'Hemmy' as I called her, I learned quickly the essentials of dancing and soon became the envy of some ladies who previously had avoided dancing with me, which was understandable since, until Hemmy took me under her wing I had very little idea of dancing was all about. Hemmy told me that she used to go to dances at the Hammersmith Palais and other venues in and around London.
Both Mrs Chadwick and Mrs Hemms returned to Southend before the end of the war and dances were never the same for me after then. Incidentally, I don't think I ever did know their Christian names.
Returning to my exploits at Malmesbury, I was a tester involved in 'final inspection and test' and held inspection stamp number E.K.C. 16.
The first equipment I worked on was the setting up and testing the AI Mark III transmitter and receiver. This equipment was the first radar system to be made at Malmesbury although 'at the time' caused a lot of speculation since we were not told of its use, it was a case of learning as we went along.
The receiver equipment was temperamental to say the least and a bit tricky to set up correctly although they were quite simple in concept, consisting of a Pye 45Mcs IF strip with a VHF front end which consisted of an acorn valve triode type 954 as a local oscillator and a 955 acorn pentode as a mixer. The Pye strip was a pre-war TV TRF receiver, which included 6 Mullard EF 50 (VR91) valves. The radar receiver tuned over the range196 - 220 Mcs.
I remember Queen Mary visiting the factory well, she walked right past me and I'm just out of the photo.
