Attached are 3 photos for the collection of EKCO personnel.
The first is V.J.Cox and myself chatting at a party to celebrate my 25th anniversary (of working for MEL) in 1992.
The second is a photo of Dave Richards taken at the same event.
The third is of Len Lumber (who worked with Ken Dawes on PDS contracts), Bernard Price, and Brian Linge (who was only at Southend) at the same event.
You may be interested in some stories about the Malmesbury factory, which were told to me during my time at Southend. I stress these are second or third hand so I cannot vouch for their authenticity.
- During the war, several members of staff went to and from work on horses. The Company provided hitching rails and daytime care for the animals.
- Many of the former servants at the house were given employment by the Company following the requisition of the premises. These old retainers insisted on referring to the various rooms by their old titles such as M-lady's bedroom or M-lord's drawing room, rather than Radar Lab 1 etc.
- A certain Senior Engineer was well known for being single-mindedly interested in all things electronic with very little interest in anything else and certainly not expert in the art of small talk. When attending a reception, he overheard a lady discussing geraniums and immediately launched into a dissertation on why silicon was to be preferred to germanium because of its superior high temperature performance. Needless to say the unfortunate lady could not understand the relevance of operating temperatures in excess of 80 degrees centigrade when she was talking about growing flowers in a south of England garden.
- Ken Sims and Gordon Simon were well known for planning pub-crawls around Malmesbury with meticulous, almost military, precision. The object of the exercise was to consume a pint in every pub during the course of one evening. I understand that they succeeded, but were a little the worse for wear by closing time.
Tony Wadsworth – August/September 2004
(Editors note; does anybody want to hazard a guess how many pubs there were in Malmesbury during the 40's/early 50's)
