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With his National Service finally over and done with, Dad returned home to Derby (though the family home was no longer in Alvaston, but at 29 West Bank Avenue, off Duffield Road).
Dad went to work for one of Derby's |
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| leading employers, Rolls Royce Engineering. His close colleague at Rolls Royce, Richard Taylor of Littleover, describes what he did there. |
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| "I used to work closely with Les because his job was to write the production programmes for aero engines which supported our commercial undertakings to customers, while I
changed these into schedules for producing the components needed to build them. So our task was to negotiate the balance between what was required commercially and the ability of the factories to produce the output. In modern parlance, this would be
called Master Scheduling. |
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| What I do remember is that Les had a wicked and irreverent sense of humour. However dificult the problem, Les always had a joke or two lined up, and I always looked forwrd to
our meetings because he had a way of putting everything into perspective. I don't think all his bosses took too kindly to this light-hearted outlook on what they saw as being deadly serious, but his opposite number in Commercial was John Campion, who
had a similar sense of humour. How they ever got anything arranged is beyond me because they were always laughing! |
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| I can't remember exactly when I last saw Les, but I think he left RR to work in the nuclear industry somewhere. Sorry to hear he died: I have pleasure in telling you he was a
joy to know." |
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| Any other ex-Rolls Royce employees out there? |
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| The characteristic that Richard Taylor best remembers about Dad, ie his "wicked and irreverent sense of humour" is also prominent in our memories of our father. Do any other
former colleagues have recollections of Dad too? Sadly, his partner in crime, John Campion, died around the same time as Dad, but there must be other former Rolls Royce people out there who witnessed their comedy act. If you are one of them, or you
know someone who is, please get in touch. |
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