The textile factory in the town known as the "Silk Mills" was closed down by the Ministry of supply and we took over their labour force putting our numbers up to about 200. There is no better cure for cold feet than to get stuck into the job, and by the end of June, with no time to worry about personal problems or responsibilities, I felt fairly confident that we could and would successfully accomplish the task allotted to us.
All this was done with no written authority or contract - just on Air Commodore Leedham's verbal instructions; it was many months before the paper work came through. I purchased machine tools and production materials to the value of thousands of pounds without written authority; we were not concerned with such petty formalities, to the horror of the permanent Civil Servants at the Ministry who feared their world would collapse about them if they did not have appropriate paper work.
Without wishing to indulge in the popular pastime of bashing the Civil Service, it is certainly true what with out exception and excluding Air Commodore Leedham and the staffs of TRE and RAE the men at MOD who really pushed through our program throughout the war, obtained scarce supplies and machinery, as well as key labour, were temporary civil servants on loan for the duration by various companies, or freelance.
We certainly took tremendous financial risks; in 1943 when as will be later related, the AI Mk VIII programme was passed to us for production, I had at one time, in order to shorten the pre-production delays on outside material placed orders for over £500,000 with no formal authority either from the Ministry nor from my own Board, - but I am anticipating events.
I was tremendously fortunate in my colleagues and assistants many of whom later achieved single success after the war. John Stoodley who held the fort at the outbreak of war became my administrative assistant, later joined the Board of Trade in 1941 and after a successful career as UK Trade Commissioner in Rhodesia, Israel, Australia and Pakistan, became London Area Regional Controller of the Board of Trade in the 1960's.
Charles Garland from 1941 to 1945 Personnel Manager, joined the London University Agricultural College at Wye as Register/Burser and played an important part in guiding its great expansion in the post war period. R. Y. Parry, who was recruited from the Ekco Radio Service Department in Bristol, rose to be head of the Instrumentation and Test Gear Department and after the war became Manager of an Atomic Energy Authority offshoot in charge of Isotopes. Dr. Lewis, who was Works Doctor from 1943 to 45 achieved fame by taking his wife and children around the world in a Catamaran well before this became a common practise.
L. B. Greenwood who later became my Works Manager, joined Marconi in the fifties and built up from scratch their new factory at Basildon before he tragically died in 1961, and John Harbour who came to us from Southend in 1940 and was in charge of test and inspection throughout, returning to Southend in 1945 and until his retirement fulfilling the same function there, and hence in no small measure, responsible for the reputation for reliability of Ekco Radio & TV, still a byword in the Trade.
