Information Circular —
July 2009
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Items listed in chronological sequence

27 July 2009 – From Susan Rockley

Dear Mr Walker, I am hoping you might be able to advise me, I would like to know if there is some documentation somewhere about my Great-Grandfather, who was employed by HMSO from about 1882 until about 1899. He was, I believe a 'porter'. He was called Robert Allin. If you are unable to help is there somewhere else I could try?

Hello Susan, Thank you for your enquiry. I am afraid that, as a website for (mainly) people who recently worked with HMSO, I don't have records for the period during which your grandfather worked. I would be interested to know where exactly he was employed, as it is possible I have an old photo of the premises. All records from HMSO have been lodged with National Archives so all I can suggest is that you go to www.nationalarchives.gov.uk and try your luck there. Best wishes. Reg

22 July 2009 – From Dave Brennan

Hello Reg, Thanks for your recent email. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but that is not me in the photo you attached [see Picture Gallery: c1975 Gateshead in the Seventies: The Equipment]. As far as I can remember the person was one of the Linotron 505 phototypesetter operators who worked at Gateshead, sometime about 1970. I did appear in one or two of the HMSO publicity booklets that were produced in the early 1980s. After over 43 years in HMSO and TSO I finally retired from Parliamentary Press at the end of April 2009. Since then I have done very little, apart from taking up Indoor Bowls, and currently my wife and I are reviewing the situation. Hopefully, I might been able to catch up with old colleagues. I will be looking at the HMSOldies web site. Best wishes, Dave Brennan

Hello Dave,Thank you for your reply, and apologies for misrepresenting you in the Gateshead picture! We will publish a correction: we don't want to be sued at our age. You certainly outdid me regarding your time at HMSO/TSO. I managed 33 years, starting in 1963 and leaving  upon privatisation in 1996. Thirteen years passes remarkably quickly. Good luck with your retirement, and hoping to hear from you on HMSOldies in the future. Reg

14 July 2009 – From David Silver

Dear Reg, I just wanted to say how sorry I was to have missed you when we were in Norwich, and to thank you for arranging the lunch at The Eagle  – it was just magic to see everybody and so many memories. Sod's law would of course come into play to stop you being there. Not sure if we will be able to come to UK again but I will keep in touch through the web site. How long did the Jury duty last? I hope you did not get a long running case – one here went on for months. I managed to avoid jury duty having worked with legal firms for my first 15 years here. I have just about caught up with the three months mail that was waiting for me. Again, many thanks and all best wishes. David

David, Excellent to hear that you enjoyed the  day  – some nice photos prove it. As regards my Jury service, if I say that they could not organise a barbie on a beach (have I got the 'piss-up in a brewery' allusion right?) Lovely that Peter Mac and other old souls turned up. I well remember, of course, 'the good old days' and hope that we can make contact again  – you never know, my son may turn up in Orstralia and I could be found, ordering a pint of Young's Special in your local pub in a trice and turning up at your front door . . . 'Hello, it's Reg . . . is anyone there? . . . I have a bottle of Cava and only want to stay a week. Or three . . . '  Be afraid . . . be very afraid . . . Only joking: I have burned the passport. That's another tale. All the best, and thank you for your kind message. Reg



13 July 2009 – From Dave Burchell

Dear All, Following the sad death of Frank Hallett, John Eveson and myself would like to arrange a dinner to celebrate Frank's life and have a drink to his memory. If enough people are interested we will try and arrange it for early September and hold it at the Thai restaurant in Lower Marsh which was a favourite haunt of Frank's. If you are interested, please let me know and if there any dates that you cannot make, please add those as well. John will be contacting a number of ex HMSO/TSO people who knew Frank who may also wish to attend. Look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards, Dave

David Burchell, Parliamentary Liaison Manager, The Stationery Office
Tel:  +44 (0) 20 7219 4271, Mobile: +44 (0) 780 118 0597
Email: dave.burchell@tso.co.uk



8 July 2009 – From Pat Kennedy

Hi Reg, I have been trying to compose a suitable apology to Keith Batchelor for keeping him waiting at his radio mast near Hitchin on 17 May in the wind and rain — as Editor, you could have informed him that my crank came loose on two occasions during my 40-mile charity cycle ride that delayed me for over an hour. Keith must have been involved in radioing the messages from the marshals on the course to call-in the roving cycle mechanics to come to my aid — thank you Keith and sorry I couldn't pedal any faster to allow you to go home any earlier. An exciting tail-piece to the above ride was the Rotary Clubs of St Albans informing me that I have won this year's Senior award for the most money raised by an individual for the cycle ride charities (£790) and I have been invited to a presentation evening on 14 July in the St Albans District Council Chamber to receive a trophy – the first trophy I have ever won in a long cycling career! I have won a couple of medals and several certificates, but never a trophy. A special thank you to Reg Walker and Ernie Downs for their generous contributions and to Keith Batchelor for his Radio Amateur Emergency Network efforts in erecting his mast and antenna on such a soggy and windy day. Pat Kennedy
 
Thanks Pat. As Keith was on the Prestige Section at HMSO he should be used to waiting around for the Great and Good to turn up. Excellent to read of your fund-raising success and the fact that you are being suitably honoured. By the way, my son (28) is seriously contemplating the Lands End/John O'Groats trip. In the saddlesteps of Terry Walls? We'll see. Best wishes, Reg

John Barker Remembers

John worked around the print areas of HMSO for many years. He sent HMSOldies this fine reminiscence in July 2009:

'I must confess that I haven't logged on to HMSOldies for a month or two now and it was very sad to see that a few old friends have left us. Ruth Vivian, Jim McDonald and Jim Turner.  There are others of course, but these three brought back some happy memories of the past.

Ruth, of course I remember from our Atlantic House days when she and Peter were courting.  I got to know them more when I took over as chairman of the IPCS Union in London in the late '60s.  Ruth, Peter and I had some good times together at two union conferences at Scarborough and Bournemouth along with dear old Don MacFarlane and his wife Gwen and my wife Angela.  We used to put the world to rights in those days.  We also had a nice holiday in Norfolk when our two children were still very young.  One evening of our holiday we spent with Ruth and Peter at their house.  They both spent most of the evening on the floor playing with our children and Angela and I both felt what wonderful parents they would have made.  Sadly they were never blessed with children, but they both seemed to be helping others all the time.  You couldn't have wished for a better person to be in Welfare than Ruth.  She was always very sympathetic to people’s problems and although I hadn't seen her for a few years now she obviously continued to be a well loved person.  I am sure that all her friends and relatives will miss her.  It was a privilege to have known her.

Jim McDonald very kindly came to my retirement party in London in June 1996.  13 years ago now and it only seems like yesterday.  Jim and I were reminiscing as one does at these gatherings.  We both talked about when we came into HMSO in the early '60s.  For the first time since I joined HMSO I admitted that I was lucky to pass the eye test side of the medical that we had to have before being established.  The conditions of entry to HMSO were that defective colour vision could disqualify one from entry.  I knew that I was colour deficient in certain colours, so when I came to be tested in this area, the doctor couldn't find the Ischihara book which contained a series of coloured dots on each page.  There was no way that you could cheat on this test if you were colour deficient in certain colours.  Or at least I thought that until I spoke to Jim on my retirement day.  He stood and laughed at me and said that he had the same problem.  He was obviously ready for this test as he admitted to me that being an ex compositor he could read upside down and had borrowed  the Ischihara book from a friend and memorised the numbers on each page from the folios at the bottom. 

That is obviously how Jim was so successful in his career in HMSO and so popular as well.  We will all miss him and his Christmas Newsletter which he sent out each year to retired HMSO staff.  Fortunately for me when it came to checking my colour vision the doctor couldn't find the Ischihara book and he went round the room asking me what the colours of various items were.  Much easier than the proper test and I managed to struggle through it.  Neither Jim or myself would have been very good at ordering colour printing, but we managed to bluff our way through even though we both spent years in Print Procurement.

Jim Turner.  There is so much one could say about Jim.  I first got to know him soon after I joined HMSO in the early '60s.  Jim was DW (Director of Works) at that time, and I was in the next office in Works HQ as a young Printing Officer working with Arthur Phillips and Freddie Pymm.  Jim used to borrow me from time to time and send me out on investigative trips to Companies Registry, BPIF and the like.  I got to know him quite well and I always admired him.  He was a very intelligent man with great strengths.  In those days the industrial unions had a very powerful grip on HMSO but that never seemed to worry Jim, and when Harold Pickford retired as Assistant Controller Jim was the obvious choice to succeed him.

By this time I had become the Chairman of the IPCS in the London Sub Section and on many occasions I used to get a phone call from Jim's secretary about 4.45 just as I was thinking of going home.  She used to say "Could you spare Mr Turner a few minutes before you go home?"  I knew that often that would be a couple of hours, but I usually enjoyed our conversations.  I very often had to ring my wife and tell her that I probably wouldn't be home until late because I was with Mr Turner.  He knew that anything that he told me in most cases I would relay to Don MacFarlane in Norwich the following morning.  That was all part of the game in those days.

One such occasion remains in my mind.  Jim asked what I thought of a new time of entry into the technical office side of HMSO as technologists.  I don't know if it was Jim's own idea or not, but in spite of some initial reluctance from the IPCS it became a reality.  Where would we have been without the likes of John Eveson, Keith Mayhew and Bob Stutely and others. The last time I saw Jim was at Oyez Press some while after he retired from HMSO.  I was there late one night controlling a classified job that they were printing for us and in walked Jim.,  He was doing some consultancy work for Oyez and he was obviously in his element and enjoying himself.

Unlike his successor George Macaulay, who only had a couple of days retirement and died, and Ken Allen who followed George in the post, and never even reached retirement, Jim had well over thirty years.  He was someone who was well respected and admired by all in the days when HMSO was a very important figure in the printing industry.  He will be sadly missed by his family and all that knew him in HMSO.

John Barker



Ronald William Sims 1923-2009

We are sad to report the following message, received from Ron's daughter on 30 June 2009:
 
'I thought you would like to know that Dad passed away suddenly on Thursday from a heart attack. The funeral is on Monday the 13th July at 11.15 at Earlham Crematorium, Norwich.'
 
Ron was established in 1940 and joined HMSO in 1967. He spent time in Establishments Division (Accommodation) and in Supplies. His ramrod posture and fund of stories left his colleagues in no doubt of his wartime military service. His wife Iris and daughter Hilary both worked in HMSO Norwich following dispersal.

Andrew John Woolway 1931-2008

We are sad to report the death of Andy Woolway on 20 October 2008

The announcement was not received in the usual way. There was a London Gazette Notice (752218) dated 4 March 2009 which, under the heading Deceased Estates, requested that any claims on the estate of AJ Woolway of 54 Richmond Road, Raynes Park, London SW20 should be made to Alan Roper, c/o Howell-Jones LLP of 22 Coombe Lane, Raynes Park.

Andy joined HMSO in June 1950. Don Ray recalls that he and Andy took the Open Executive Officer Examination in October 1949. Andy achieved an impressive 18th place out of 1267. He worked in Supplies and A/MA, and in 1959 was promoted to HEO, spending some time in Manchester and in HQ as PS to the Controller, Sir John Simpson.

Bob Barnard knew Andy from Publications, where he recalls his exceptional draftsmanship, and worked to him when he was promoted Principal 1975-1977. Previously they had swapped jobs between ADP5 and ADP1. His final post, before early retirement (he declined to transfer to Norwich) was as Director of Publications Marketing. A keen bridge player, he partnered Ivy Lee and Dickie Dunn at the Friday Bridge Club in Atlantic House. His other keen interests were Lawn Tennis and Kent Opera.

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