My Memories of EKCO Malmesbury
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by Dermot Graham - October 2004 |
I was brought up in my early years in Didmarton and I went to primary school at Tetbury and then we moved to some temporary council housing on the disused Long Newnton airfield. We then moved to near Marlborough for a short time and finally settled in Swanage, Dorset, where I finished my formal education at Swanage Grammar School, gaining 4 GCE "O" levels. |
I felt that I would like to return to Wiltshire and so I wrote to EKCO, Malmesbury and I had an interview with Mr. Kebby, the personnel manager and I was told that I would be contacted at a later date. |
About four weeks later, I had a letter to attend another interview and I met Mr. Kebby again who then introduced me to Mr. Dickie Granger, who was then head of Inspection and he showed me round parts of the factory and he agreed to take me on as a trainee Inspector. |
I started work at EKCO in early September 1955, after finding lodgings in Malmesbury and to begin with I was employed as a trainee Inspector on SPA (Small Parts Assembly). I was also given day release to attend college at Chippenham, but I hated every minute of it and so I did not do very well! |
After about 3 months, I moved to the main production area in the Assembly and worked inspecting the WS88 walkie-talkie+. I was very happy there and the people on the production line were very kind and friendly to me. |
Unfortunately, in about 1957, my mother became very ill with cancer and so I left EKCO to be near her but she died in 1958 and my father died from heart problems about 3 months later and so my brother and myself decided to return to the area and we rented a small, rather tumble-down cottage in Didmarton for 7/6d a week. |
I applied to return to work at EKCO and was accepted and so I travelled to and from work on a Sherstonian coach++. |
I went back to work as an Inspector on the WS 88 line but the set, which had about 20 B7G directly heated valves, was nearing the end and a much smaller walkie-talkie was going into production - I think it was called the WS A40 ** but I can't be sure of that. It had miniature wire ended valves and a lot of the components were mounted on a printed circuit board. |
After a short time, I gained my AID stamp (ekcm 953)+++ and so I was a fully qualified Inspector. One of my last jobs in the main Assembly was on the PDRM ++++ (Portable Dose Rate Meter) used by the Civil Defence and the M.O.D. |
After some time, I was transferred to the Araldite and Impreg department, where many components, transformers etc. were moulded in a new Araldite compound and much of the work was for Scanners and Radar equipment manufactured by EKCO. I made many good friends in that time; one who I remember very well was a girl called Janet who worked in Thermovent and she would sometimes slope off from her work place to come and chat with me. |
Quite often I would stand in as Inspector in the Plating department, almost next door, when the Inspector there was off sick etc. During my time at EKCO, I worked in quite a lot of departments - Assembly, Winding, Machine Shop, Plating, Paint Shop, and also on the Thermovent heaters, when they transferred the final stages to the main Assembly. I finally worked, still as an Inspector, in the new building housing the PYE TMC manufacturing. |
I finally left EKCO for the last time in 1968 but in my time there I made many good friends, but after such a long time I can't remember their names! I would specially like to thank Mr. Granger who was a strict boss when it came to work but he was always there if you had any personal problems and he would always listen and advise. |
Dermot Graham - October 2004. |
| + The WS88 radio transceiver (walkie talkie) was essentially the successor to the Type 19 radio and was one of the most successful military radio sets made in the 1950's. These sets were widely used throughout the British Army as well as NATO forces, they were also exported to many friendly countries. |
++ Sherstonian Coaches were believed to have later been taken over by Athelstan Coaches. |
** The WS A40 was the successor to the WS88 set and remained in forces service up to the early 1970's when the Clansman system superseded it. |
+++ In the 50's and 60's, the award of an A.I.D. (Aeronautical Inspection Directorate) stamp was considered an honour since it was a recognition that you could 'stamp off' parts as meeting the standards required by A.I.D who could, and sometimes did, verify your work. |
++++ The PDRM (Portable Dose Rate Meter) was another important product made by EKCO Malmesbury in the 1950's where there was a real perceived threat of a Nuclear conflict. |
Layout by spitsortie for ekco-electronics.co.uk |
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