Under Stress

In 1981 I’d been attending teacher training school at Edge Hill college, Ormskirk, times were hard as they say and I’d been out of work for almost a year after being made redundant from two jobs in a row (Gullick Dobson in Wigan and Alcan in Skelmersdale). Well, the grant money had run out and one Thursday, early in 1982, I went into the Jobcentre in Kirkby and saw the advert for ‘Stress Engineer’ at some place called Automotive Products down in Speke.

I remember turning up at the Speke plant security for my interview, the factory, although probably very modern looking in the late fifties, felt quite archaic in the early eighties. I think it was a young Howard Van Netton that came down and walked me back to the office (which was at the back, over by a landing gear drop test tower in those days). I was greeted by a chap who looked in his early fifties, Harry Clark, who took me into his office, and the interview was underway.

Harry Clark was a soft spoken man, the stereotypical aerospace elder at the time with his tweed jacket, slide rule and pipe. After the formalities of the resume and the academic ‘achievements’ we settled down for quite a chat about why I would want to leave teacher training school, would I really want to change from being a draftsman to a numbers man. I just had to be honest and tell him that I really needed the money and I thought that becoming an analyst was a ‘step up’ from a drawing board job (actually meaning that it was a step up from being unemployed).

After that, Harry took me out into the stress office, basically two lines of metal desks next to the windows. Everything was open plan, the drawing office being right next across the aisle. He introduced me to Bob Morris who sat ‘at the back of the bus’ and Howard and the other members of the stress office, but gave no real indication to me if I was to join them.

I drove home thinking that it was just another waste of time, four days later I had the written offer that was to start my analysts career and introduce me to all the amazing characters at APPH and eventually result in emigration to Canada.

All I had to do was pass a medical.