Sebastian Moonjely was brought up in the 1960s in India on stories of the big factory in Southend where his father was trained to be the Works Manager of the Ekco plant in Bombay, now Mumbai. It was only at the weekend that a lifelong ambition to visit Southend came true, when Sebastian saw the big factory in Priory Crescent which was once Southend's largest employer.
|
|
Sebastian and his wife Shukla were shown around by Chris Taylor, an Ekco apprentice of 40 years ago, who has recently contributed to a new website about Ekco and its radar products. It was from the website that Sebastian traced Ekco's history.
Sebastian, who is an IT Manager for the Bank of India, is on secondment to the UK and visited the site and saw the Ekco radio and TV collection in the Priory Museum. His father Mr Devassy worked in the Ekco factory in Bombay with Southend manager, Vic Major, and supervised the production of many of these Ekco designs at the National Ekco plant which supplied the sub continent.
National Radio and Engg. (of TATAs - a leading business house in India) collaborated with EKCO and was known as National Ekco Radio and Engg. Ltd. in India (now known as Nelco). It did not have a TV division those days.
His father retired as the Asstt. Works Manager. His total period with Nelco (including erstwhile National Ekco) was from 1941-73.
Sebastian was also presented with a video copy of some old Ekco films by Westcliff Film and Video Club and it is planned to have a showing of these with a reunion for former Ekco staff in the next few months. |
Layout by spitsortie for ekco-electronics.co.uk |
|
