| 2021 |
(Nigel) Ian Cameron ex General Manager Counters, Midlands, South West, and Wales Following National Service in the RAF as a commissioned Navigator, and where he was proud to have been chosen to command the RAF contingent lining the streets of Belfast for the Queen’s Coronation Visit in 1953. He then went up to Pembroke College Cambridge to read History and Geography. Nigel to his family and Ian to his friends and colleagues, joined the GPO in 1957 as an Assistant Postal Controller Class II in the SW Region, where he covered all the usual wide field of Mails Operations, but became an expert on the Buildings side of the Business. In 1964 he was promoted to Assistant Postal Controller Class I, in SWPR, and in that same year he married Angela whom he had met at Cambridge. They both enjoyed life in the South West where they made many life-long friends. In 1970 Ian was tempted to PHQ London to take up a promotion as Postal Controller on Mechanisation, and the family moved to Putney, where they spent the next seven years, during which they were able to indulge their love of Opera and were regular visitors to Glyndebourne. His work in PHQ involved him in the team developing Postcoding and conducting the trials at Norwich and Luton. Following its successful introduction and the national roll-out which followed, Ian moved for a brief spell as Controller Project Management Branch involved in the management of building and mechanisation projects and then on promotion to Head the Estates & Buildings Department, where he was tasked with taking over responsibility for all building construction work from the Government Property Services Agency. In 1977 he was promoted to the rank of Director, at that time the youngest in the Business, and took up his directorship as Chairman of the Midlands Postal Board, with the family moving to Solihull where they remained for the rest of his career and in retirement. The Midlands Postal Board included four non-executive members from outside the Post Office, and for a three-year trial period from 1978, six trade union nominees under an Industrial Democracy experiment. Although like many others Ian had his doubts about the wisdom and practicality of this experiment, he gave it an enthusiastic launch. Ian was a most effective Chairman and also a great host. The Board meetings always finished with a splendid informal lunch where free- speech was encouraged. In 1982 Ian accompanied the Managing Director on an “exchange of ideas” visit to the USA, Australia, and Singapore, with a further visit to Australia in 1984. When in the 1986 Re-organisation, the Post Office was divided into separate Letters, Parcels, and Counters businesses, Ian was appointed General Manager Counters for the Midlands, South West, and Wales. In 1989 on behalf of the Business he went to Japan and the USA to study customer relations, but in 1993 another major re-organisation took place with which Ian had little sympathy, and after a highly successful and enjoyable career he decided to retire, although he did agree to undertake some overseas consultancy work, including four months in Bahrain advising its government on postal services. Retirement gave Ian the opportunity to pursue his many non-Post Office interests including genealogy and local history, which included writing and publishing a well-received book, ‘The History of Ashleigh Road’, which related to the conservation area of Solihull where he lived. With his wife Angela he was also able to travel widely in Africa, South America, and Uzbekistan to add to his earlier trips to India and elsewhere whilst at Cambridge, where he and Angela had helped to found the Explorers and Travellers Club. In his travels around the world, he did not neglect Great Britain, especially Scotland where he had roots and was always proud to wear the Cameron kilt. Ian was always a strong family man and was extremely proud of his three sons and their families. A true and genuine gentleman, and someone it was always a pleasure to be with. Ian is survived by his wife Angela, their three sons Peter, Alastair, and Colin, their wives and six grandchildren.Our thanks are due to Len Clifford, Angela Cameron, Keith Webb and Tom Clay for this obituary.Following the very sad death of our old colleague (Nigel) Ian Cameron on 19th December, his wife Angela has provided details of a Thanksgiving Service which will be held on Friday 8th April at 14:00 in St Alphedge Church, Church Hill Road, Solihull B91 3RQ, followed by tea at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, just down the hill from the church. All will be welcome, but Angela has asked Len Clifford to co-ordinate numbers. Replies by e-mail to Len Clifford please at len.clifford@rmgf.net. |
John Denham ex North East Counters. The death was announced on 9th December 2021 of John Denham aged 83 years, a well-respected and popular member of the North East Group Fellowship who died peacefully at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.John was born in Birkby, Huddersfield on 4th March 1938 and returned to the town of his birth in 1986 when he was appointed as Director North East Counters. He always called it “God’s own country.”He stated what was destined to be an impressive PO career in 1957 as an Executive Officer in the Accountant General Department (AGD) on return from National Service. John was not long as an EO in Telecomms. before he was appointed APC2 in Midland Postal Region in 1962 where he remained for 6 years, moving on to become Head Postmaster Luton and subsequently Director of Studies at the Postal Management College in Rugby. Spells with the UPU in Romania and in Postal Finance Chesterfield followed before his final appointment as Director Counters, Leeds.On January 12th,1963 he married Ann the love of his life, having met her at the Huddersfield College Barn Dance. The couple have a son, Stephen, and two daughters, Clare and Jill.Even in retirement John’s talents came to the fore in Directorships with the highly regarded Huddersfield Choral Society (2004-2008) and Kirwood Hospice (2004-2018). He was also an active member of Huddersfield Rotary Club.John is remembered with fondness by ex-colleagues; an excellent manager, committed and energetic and happy to try new things “He was one of those people who bring sunshine with them”We are grateful to Stuart Scoffins, Gerard Nosowski and other NE colleagues for this tribute.In addition, we are pleased to include the following wonderful memories of John from his Counters Executive Council colleagues:A great strength for POCL and an advocate of Customer First. A lovely avuncular man who always made me welcome when visiting. The “virtual“ bar at Rugby is becoming an ever emptier place … but lots of good memories. John was a great guy and one I always looked forward to dealing with. He never seemed to get cross; always had good thoughts about issues and especially was always ready for a laugh. He could lighten up any room with a sunny personality. A couple of stories about John which I always remember with a smile. The first is when the CMC had a meeting in Leeds and stayed at a hotel with a swimming pool. I had gone down to the pool at the end of the day – I’m no real swimmer but it was relaxing. The pool was pretty empty and I was slowly swimming breast stroke up the pool when there was a large splash behind me and a few seconds later I was engulfed in a tidal wave as someone roared past me with a very powerful crawl. These were in the days when John was, let’s say, largish, and I hadn’t thought of him as in any way sporty. He told me afterward s that at one time he trained or swam with Anita Lonsbrough before she was an Olympic Champion. I never saw John in the same light again. The second was on one of the Total Quality trips to the states, I think one organised early on by the Chairman. It was winter and a snowy day in New York and the group of us, which included John, were moving on to somewhere further north in a small, one seat either side of the aisle, plane. I was one side of the aisle and John the other in the front row when a stewardess came up to John and whispered something to him. He then started to gather his things together and I asked what the matter was. He said the pilot was having trouble trying to balance the plane and would he please go and sit down at the back! Needless to say we didn’t let him forget it for the whole of the trip. A really lovely man who will be very much missed and of whom I have some great memories. I recognise and have benefited from all his traits others have described. A man whose company we sought. In the early days of Customer First all CEC members had to report back on a ‘Personal Action Plan’ to work in a front- line role and talk to customers. These were days at the height of the conversion programme and John had gone to a branch office in North Yorkshire where a rumoured protest was to take place. Sure enough before opening time a fair-sized crowd had gathered outside and John decided he should go out and talk to them and explain the policy. By the time he had finished chatting with some confused, slightly deaf old folk a bus turned up, they all filed on, and drove off to the coast for a day out, leaving a red- faced Territorial General Manager to ponder the wisdom of CF. John’s report back to the CEC was as hilarious as it was splendidly self- deprecating; you had to like and love the man! I have one memory of John which for some reason has always stuck in my mind. We were on one of those TQ trips together and found ourselves with some free time in Amsterdam. As you do, we hired bikes. Dutch bikes in those days had inertia brakes instead of the usual hand brakes. So, you had to back pedal to slow down or stop. John had not quite grasped this and set off down a slope heading for a canal. Luckily, he had the presence of mind to use his shoulder against a wall and came to rest just in time. It was all either of us could do to stay upright while being doubled up with laughter. His jacket was less amused! He told a story too about the very early days of those light displays that carried advertising in post offices. John first saw one of those I think in Sheffield where customers were baffled by seeing a display saying, ‘Welcome to Long Eaton Post Office’. John always had the gift of telling a good story. John was a great supporter of the early roll out of the Leadership Programme headed up by John Garnett of the Industrial Society. At the end of the intensive course, participants were encouraged to let their hair down a bit on the last day which culminated in a series of presentations and skits from guest senior managers. This quickly developed into a full stage production and a basket of various clothing built up for use as participants gave license to their preferred roles. John liked nothing better than to get into drag and many dresses, jumpers and tights were put to good use. He was a star.These contributions are from Paul Rich, John Roberts, David Taylor, Richard Dykes and Bruce McNiven. |
| Gordon Robert Brooks – ex Head Postmaster Kings Lynn Sadly, Gordon Brooks passed away peacefully on 28th November 2021 at aged 94 years, at his home at Heckington near Sleaford, Lincolnshire.  He was born in London on 13th June 1927. A year after his birth, his parents returned to their hometown, Peterborough, to live with Gordon’s maternal grandparents in their rented home at Gazeley Hall. The family then moved to St Albans for a brief time in the early thirties before returning to Peterborough in 1934 where they bought a house and grocer’s shop in Orton Longueville. At school Gordon was a bright and diligent student but as was so often the case in those days his parents wanted him to cut short his education and enter the world of work. Gordon did not let this hold him back and joined the Post Office as a Boy Messenger in 1941 at the age of fourteen. In his spare time, he studied for his Civil Service exams using textbooks he had purchased himself using the money remaining from his wages after paying his parents for “his keep”. He passed these exams with flying colours at the age of sixteen, gaining the highest mark in the North Midland Region. By the age of eighteen he had gained promotion to become a Sorting Clerk and Telegraphist (SC&T). Gordon’s Post Office career was interrupted in 1945 when he was called up to serve in the Army. Training initially in Norwich before joining the Royal Engineers. He enjoyed army life and was soon promoted to the rank of Corporal. It was while he was stationed at Packington, near Meriden in 1947 that he met his future wife Edna who was on the same camp, working in the NAFFI. He first saw Edna at a 21st birthday party, which was then followed by a cinema show on camp. When Edna’s date for the evening had to leave the film early, Gordon seized his chance and jumped into the vacant seat next to her. The rest as they say is history. Gordon and Edna were engaged in April 1948 and the following month Gordon was demobbed and returned to work for the Post Office in Peterborough and was promoted to become a Postal and Telegraph Officer (P&TO) in January 1949. In May 1949, Gordon and Edna were married in Edna’s home city of Birmingham. By 1953 Gordon and Edna had saved enough money to have a house built in Orton Longueville, Peterborough on land provided by Gordon’s parents. Happy and settled in their new home they decided to start a family, Michael was born in 1955 and Carol in 1961. Gordon progressed well during his time at Peterborough and was promoted to the roles of Overseer in 1957. After periods in charge of “Counter Duties” and then various “Writing Duties” he then moved onto “Planning” and was also heavily involved in major projects such as the introduction of the East Anglian Road Service which transferred parcel movement from rail to road, the conversion of an old airfield hanger into a Parcel Office and the conversion of an old electricity generating station into a Sorting Office. In 1967, Gordon joined the “Ripple team” and was promoted to the role of Assistant Superintendent Planning. Some reminiscences of the Ripple Team Leader “By the time the team arrived in Peterborough we had learned that the quickest way to convince local managers of the merits of the McKinsey approach was to come up quickly with identified savings, and to get them introduced immediately. The local pressure overtime employed on the afternoon sorting of second-class mail offered a solution. Gordon was all smiles when he was shown the results of the team analysis. Without a word of direction, he disappeared for a short while and the next thing we knew the process had been revisited, new duties introduced, and with the forecast savings secured. A good ‘starter for ten’. Later he participated in the introduction of post coding for the PE Postcode Area and completed the local plans for the new Peterborough PCO. All of this provided Gordon with a wealth of experience and knowledge. However, to progress further into “Senior Management” he realised that he would need to move home and seek promotion in another Post Office area. In 1970, Gordon, gained promotion to become Superintendent in Operations at Dudley and so began a new chapter of their family life. With their children growing older, they embraced new family activities including watching their football team “West Brom” play in what was then the old “First Division.” Memorable Saturday afternoons were spent on the terraces at “The Hawthorns” cheering on their heroes Jeff Astle and Tony “Bomber” Brown. Gordon quickly adapted to his new role in Dudley. One of his strengths was managing budgets and increasing productivity. He quickly identified that there was unnecessary overtime being claimed and soon put a stop to this, as a result the UPW District Organiser gave him the nickname “Chopper” Brooks! Further promotions followed when in 1974 Gordon became Head Postmaster of Boston, at the time becoming the youngest Head Postmaster in the Midland Region. The snag with Boston was that it was on the extremity of the Midland Region with little visiting by the Regional staff, but Gordon ensured that there a tight control on both costs and service, and that the HR was good. The office was reviewed for regrading whilst he was there; he recognised the threat of his domestic life being disturbed yet again, but he accepted the likelihood with his usual pragmatism and good humour. However, in the event, it was decided discretely to give the Midlands Board the opportunity to overturn the proposal, which it did, and this probably led to the extension of his time there until promotion in 1980. His next and final promotion was to Head Postmaster, Kings Lynn in 1980. Whilst in Kings Lynn, Gordon was invited to join the Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce, earning with pride the distinction of serving as President within both organisations. With both Michael and Carol having “flown the nest” Gordon and Edna were free to enjoy the busy social life the move to Kings Lynn brought. It was an extremely happy time in their lives. Gordon retired from the Post Office in 1987. Throughout his time in management, he had always been enthusiastic about developing others and helping them to progress in their careers. Amongst his mementos were letters from colleagues he had helped along the way and without doubt, his role in helping others to achieve their life goals was as important to him as any of his own achievements in a remarkably successful career. Upon retirement Gordon and Edna moved to Dersingham, Norfolk where they devoted themselves to their grandchildren. Laurie, Joe, and Emily all of whom spent happy hours at play when they came to stay with their grandparents. Gordon and Edna’s other great love was cruising. They completed their first Mediterranean cruise during the first year of his retirement and never looked back. During a long and happy retirement, they visited most countries in East and West Europe, Canada, and North America. Making new friends along the way. Gordon and Edna’s final move was to the village of Heckington, near Sleaford. To be nearer their children and grandchildren. They thoroughly enjoyed village life once again taking the opportunity to make more new friends. Both Gordon and Edna attended several Fellowship lunch meetings at Coton House. Always giving the impression, in the nicest possible way, that they were ‘joined at the hip’. They never seemed fazed, on the other hand, by their long journey from Norfolk to the function; and were always good company. Gordon made an impression on all those he met, and it is pleasing to note how his talents were also recognised in the wider society of Kings Lynn. Sadly, Edna died in 2014 just weeks before their 65th wedding anniversary. Gordon was devoted to Edna and was devastated by her loss but as was his way, he showed fortitude and continued to soldier on as a widower. Gordon considered himself fortunate to live to see important family life events, such as Laurie moving into her own flat and living independently, Joe and Emily graduate from university, and embark on careers in teaching and social work respectively, Emily and Ash getting married and Joe and his partner Beth having their first child Matilda. Gordon enjoyed good health into his nineties, however, more recently a fall resulting in a fractured hip together with a battle against pneumonia and sepsis affected his strength and mobility. Gordon passed away peacefully at home on the morning of Sunday 28th November aged ninety-four years. The previous evening had been spent watching football and Strictly Come Dancing with a large glass of Baileys in his hand! He died as he had lived with the minimum of fuss and thinking of others. The tributes which followed all said the same thing “Gordon was a true gentleman”.This obituary was kindly prepared by Michael Brooks (his son) and Carol Fossitt (his daughter) with additions by Keith Webb. |
| Jim Webber ex DHP Gloucester We have been advised by his daughter Carol that Jim sadly passed away on Friday 8 October aged 87 years. We have no further details at present but will provide these when available. |
| Lillian Gipson widow of Alan Gipson ex Dartford We have been advised by the family that Lillian Gipson, widow of Alan ex Dartford, passed away on 30 September aged 86 years. Lillian’s funeral service will be at 14:30 on Wednesday, 20th October at Eltham Crematorium, Crown Woods Way, London, SE9 2AZ. After the service, the family say you are warmly invited to a buffet reception to share their happy memories of Lillian at The Oaks, Eltham Town, 176 Footscray Rd, London, SE9 2TD. |
| Patrick (Pat) David Nield ex DGM RM South-East With sadness we report the death of Pat Nield aged 79 years on 4th September of a serious respiratory infection. Following a period of casual work as a farm labourer on leaving full time education, Pat left his family home in Saltash, Cornwall in 1960 to make his way in the ‘Big Smoke’ having been successful in the Civil Service open competition for Executive Officers (EO’s).  He was allocated to the GPO London Postal Region where his first appointment was to the Parcel Branch in Mount Pleasant Post Office. There he gained a broad experience in all areas of operations at local office level and excelled at project planning, including heading up the Parcel Christmas Arrangements team. At the time, young direct entrant EO’s were a novelty in LPR, which ruffled a few feathers amongst some of the longer serving personnel but Pat’s excellent analytical skills together with his report and letter writing ability quickly overcame any prejudices and marked him out as potential for rapid promotion. He soon moved through the Executive ranks and away from Mount Pleasant into Regional HQ where in the mid 1970’s he was appointed Assistant Controller Planning in the Marketing and Planning Division, dealing with Major projects. In the late 1970’s, Pat led a number of “special studies” in the LPR designed take on the increasing pressures for change. This culminated in him providing the interface with the Monopolies and Mergers Commission investigation into the LPR. Much to do with his knowledge and political skill, the outcome of the enquiry was considered to be of major benefit to the Business. He went on to become District Postmaster NDO, Controller Personnel and after a short assignment in the mid 1980’s as Deputy Director in Postal HQ, subsequently returned to LPR as Director Letter Operations. Then, under a major Business reorganisation in 1991, he was promoted to become the Director & General Manager, Royal Mail South-East Division based in Brighton and from where he retired in 1997. Some personal views by David Watts of Pat’s time as DGM South-East Division – the overriding memories of Pat was a man who was extremely dedicated, wholly professional and when needs be, quite demanding. He was a man of inspirational principle with great values by which he lived. He was extremely kind and generous with his time and concerned for people’s welfare especially at difficult times. Pat actually had a well-developed sense of humour and a memorably infectious laugh. He was a good man and will be missed. In his younger days, Pat enjoyed swimming although never regarded himself as a sporty type, preferring more cerebral activities and an interest in the Church and Theatre. Indeed, on one occasion he took on a role as the country bumpkin in a local amateur drama production and even undertook research to perfect his dialect. At about this time he met Carolyn and they were married in 1968 at St Giles Church in Camberwell, SE London, setting up home in Lewisham. They went on to have three children together – Helen, Nicholas, and Christopher – moving home until they finally settled in Bromley. Following his retirement, he continued with his work for his local Church as treasurer. He eventually expanded this role to cover a group of Churches. His local branch of Amnesty International also benefited from his commitment to pursuing causes he felt strongly about. He recently became Chairman of the Branch. Just prior to retirement, in 1994 Pat and Carolyn went on holiday to Greece for the first time to the island of Crete. This was followed up in the following years by visits to other Greek Islands. But they finally found much to their liking, the island of Halki in the Dodecanese group. In recent times Pat and Carolyn took to visiting Halki each year in June and September. It was typical of Pat’s thoroughness that to complement these visits, he set about learning the Greek language. It is not clear how successful he proved to be at conversing in Greek but in his role as a senior Royal Mail manager he was always very clear about what he said. In addition to their holidays in Greece, both Pat and Carolyn pursued their love of the Theatre. Throughout his retirement, Pat with Carolyn were also keen supporters of both the Fellowship and LPR Retired Colleagues Lunches. He was also a champion of the LPR Clerks Supper and regularly spoke at the dinner right up to 2019. His funeral took place at Bluebell Cemetery, Halstead, Sevenoaks on 28th September 2021 which was very well attended also with a good contingent of Fellowship members.Our thanks for this obituary go to Karl Ahlborn, Mike Ede, Drew Robertson and David Watts. |
| John Stark ex Chester John sadly passed away on 15 July 2021 after a very troubled period of dementia. John was born on 17 January 1937 at Newport, South Wales, the son of Henry and Bertha Stark. He had a sister Jean, who is six years older. He went to Eveswell Primary School and, having passed the 11-plus, went to Newport High School – that is when his rugby career began. He stayed on at school an extra year because he thought, wrongly, he hadn’t done well enough in his A Levels. He then went on to Exeter University in 1956 but left after two years due to organising rugby for Rag Week, and generally having a good time! John started his career within the Post Office as part of AGD which did help in his future career as a Class 2 when dealing with Section A of the Head Postmaster’s annual review with memorable events at Wisbech during his training. He arrived in the Midland Region as a trainee APC2 in 1966 and was initially assigned to what was called the Far East territory. This was an enlightening time as he came to grips with the role of the postal service in the community. Memories remain of seeing John perched on a bicycle off with a local rural delivery postman to acquaint himself with rural services. Another memory was his saying, whilst travelling by car from Peterborough to Rugby to meet his Class1, that he had left his travelling bag behind. Hurried arrangements then made to have the bag delivered to Rugby. The embarrassment was when the bag was delivered to his feet in the sorting office whilst with the Class1!! John was a very personable individual who loved to communicate with his friends and colleagues, although sometimes on a different wavelength. His passion was rugby to which had devoted much of his life through his school and university days through to his personal time at Lichfield Rugby Club and its social life. He met Daphne in 1973 and settled in Lichfield where, interestingly, Daphne had been at school. Daphne was a stabilising effect on John and supported him in his ambition to develop a Post Office career. They later moved to Burntwood where they had two children – William and Catherine. It was at this time he applied for the new post of Regional Sales Manager (RSM) in Cardiff for which he was successful necessitating a move to Cardiff. John had a successful tour as RSM and thoroughly enjoyed the socialising with customers where he could “talk a good talk” about the Post Office over a drink. John then moved to Newport (back home!) where he became Head Postmaster but found this a very onerous challenge. He moved to the Head Postmaster post at Chester but this was regrettably not a successful posting with difficult union relationships. For a short while he worked at Liverpool as Assistant Head Postmaster which was followed by early retirement from Royal Mail in 1987. By this stage he was 50 and the Post Office were downsizing management as part of reorganisation encouraging staff to retire early. As one can imagine this was a bit of a shock, but fortunately John was immediately head-hunted to set up an Enterprise Agency in Birkenhead and then one in Chester. Then followed interesting years where John was a viewing representative for an estate agent for a while, then he worked with Daphne on researching and selling Staffordshire Porcelain, as members of Daphne’s family had been artists in the Pottery Industry. John had also been active in Talking Newspapers for the Blind for many years. His last few years have been difficult for the family as John had dementia and did not recognise Daphne, Will and Catherine, or their teenage grandchildren Joe, Bethan, Alice, Freya and Neve. However, his suffering is now over, and the family have great memories of a special, much-loved man.Our thanks to Daphne Stark, Len Clifford, Derek Reeves for the preparation of this obituary. |
| Ron Hutton ex Ballymeana Valerie Snell, daughter of R H Hatton, sadly advised us of the death of her father, R J Hutton who was living in Edinburgh, on 7th April at aged 92 years. |
| Harry Connor ex Blackburn Harry, who sadly passed away on 4th March 2021 aged 94 years, was born in Blackpool on 27 April 1927, the only child of James and Nora Connor. His father, some 20 years older than his mother, was a professional flautist with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Harry’s early years were spent in Blackpool until in 1937 when they moved as a family to a large house in Waterloo Liverpool. His father and mother developed a flat rental business on the upper floors of their home at 10 Victoria Road. They also ran a fish and chip shop business which carried on throughout the early years of WW2 until it was destroyed in the Liverpool Blitz in 1941. Harry’s contribution to the war effort was to sign-up for service in the Police Auxiliary Messenger Service (PAMS) where he delivered messages between police stations by pedalling at breakneck speed through rubble strewn streets. On one occasion, when he was delivering a message to a lady to tell her that her husband had been injured, the local gasometer blew up following a direct hit from a bomber. The blast blew in the windows, and had he been on the doorstep, he would certainly have been killed: He was deaf for a week after the explosion! At the end of the war Harry completed his education. He succeeded in passing the School Certificate which was proudly displayed on the wall of the chip shop. A happy customer suggested that as a bright lad, he ought to join the General Post Office (GPO) which he duly did joining P.O.E D & Telecoms and stayed for the next 44 years until he retired in 1987. Harry met Joan at a dancing school in 1948 in Liverpool, and following his National Service in the Royal Signals located in “war torn” Scarborough, they married in 1950. Brendan was born in 1952, followed by Terence in 1955 and Sharon in 1959. By then Harry was an APC2 in NWPR and also developed his DIY skills whilst living in Wilmslow. He built a new garage, doing the bricklaying and roof construction at weekends and evenings. In 1961 he moved overseas to work for the UPU. His first project was in Nigeria where he was charged with advising the Nigerian Post Office on improving their service. This lasted 2 years, but was pivotal in creating in Harry and Joan a lifelong desire to travel to far flung places. He returned to Wilmslow, and almost immediately moved to Shenfield in Essex following his promotion to an appointment at Post Office Headquarters in London. After 3 years he moved to Thame in Oxfordshire on promotion to Assistant Head Postmaster Oxford. He served in the Territorial Army. He joined as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers Postal and Courier Communications Unit in 1967. He reached the rank of Major and was awarded the Emergency Reserve Decoration. He retired from the Army in 1977. In 1973 he was a tutor at the Post Office Management College, Coton House in Rugby. In 1977 he embarked on further posts with the UPU, undertaking projects in Egypt, The Seychelles, Jamaica, Gabon and finally back to Nigeria to revisit old haunts. He discovered that most of his earlier recommendations from 1962 had been abandoned and he often joked that he simply rewrote his original 1962 report and gave it back to them! On his return to the UK in 1979 he was in PHQ involved in the vetting and authorisation of new MLO building and automation projects. In 1980 he moved to Blackburn as Head Postmaster, where he and Joan established their home in Pleasington. On closure of Blackburn office, following concentration onto Preston in 1985, he was appointed Head Postmaster Lancaster. He had a final few months in Preston before retiring in 1987. They remained in their home in Pleasington until old age and frailty meant a move to a Care Home in Warwickshire in September 2019, close to their son Brendan and his family. During his retirement Harry finally completed the monumental restoration of his beloved 1962 Volvo P1800S coupe which was a triumph after 25 years off the road – only to discover that he couldn’t get out of the driving seat without a hoist, let alone actually drive the car, as it predated the invention of power steering! Nonetheless he kept it garaged until 2015 as a reminder of earlier days! He also continued with his DIY exploits which had been a feature of every house they lived in. Sadness struck in 2008 when Sharon was diagnosed with cancer and died; Joan died in June 2020 and Harry struggled on with failing health until 4 March 2021. Harry can be remembered for not taking life too seriously and having a great sense of humour. He would often refer to the great ability of regional travelling staff to lift the spirits of Head Post Office staff by saying that we were not very happy when you arrived but now you are leaving, we are glad!! He had endless capacity for correspondence by letter about anything that annoyed him, but primarily his 50 year correspondence – about his ‘lost’ 3 years of pensionable service: Sadly this was unsuccessful despite Jack Straw’s involvement! Yet in 2010 after 65 years, he finally persuaded the Home Secretary that he was entitled to The Defence Medal by virtue of his PAMS service – and it duly arrived in the post! He will be remembered at the head of the dining table in Priory Croft, Pleasington, glass of wine in hand, surrounded by family cheerfully announcing to all ‘Isn’t this lovely…..Our thanks are due to his son Brendan Connor and Neil Brewer for pulling this life history together. |