LAST FRIDAY, APRIL 26TH, A NUMBER OF HODGITES GATHERED IN THE THREE HORSEHOES AT ECTON, NORTHANTS TO SAY GOODBYE TO KEN KIRKPATRICK, WHO HAD SADLY DIED FOLLOWING A CAR ACCIDENT IN MARCH.
Ken Kirkpatrick, 1933-2013
K.M.K. had been buried some four weeks before at a private family affair, so most of his ex colleagues who had wanted to, had no chance to "celebrate his life" as they say in the modern parlance.
Around 23 gathered that day, from many departments of BH, and George French, who had employed Ken in Hunsbury back in the middle 1960`s, related his knowledge of Ken`s history in the Company.
He started as a fitter in 1956 after an interview with Jack Johnson, having worked at Mulliners before that with Don Montgomery, and over the next 6/7 years, worked in JBH Works, the Service Department, out on site on machine demonstrations, and of course like many of his contemporaries, around 1963 did his time abroad both on the Mangla Dam in Pakistan, and in the Marampa Mine in West Africa.
When Pip Johnson left Hunsbury for JBH New Sales in May 1966, George looked around the company for a ready replacement, and so started KMK`s career in sales and hire.
When George left in 1968 to start-up Southam Truck, Eddie Beesley promoted Ken to Sales Manager of HML, with Jimmy Cahill being Plant Manager of BH Hire, and that remained so until Jimmy left in 1971, and Bob Russell came on board as p/m, with Ken in overall charge under EPB.
It was in this year that your author "got the start" as office clerk in HML working for Gerry Lord, and when Les Massey (HML rep) left in 1973, KMK made me upto salesman, although with some trepidation on my part as I remember !!
Give or take the odd HML rep leaving of their own accord or "being asked to leave", the status quo remained until the Christmas of 1979, when Eddie replaced Bobby Greenshields as JBH Sales Director, and Ken was made upto Director & General Manager of HML/BHH, and duly promoted yours truly to Sales Manager, much as I remember against Eddie`s wishes (we didnt get on that well, you will be surprised to know !!).
The next change came in late 1984 when Ken was asked by that un-named pair to go and run E.P.S.S. (or was it E.P.P.S ?), anyway, renamed as Gressor, which I suppose was a good name for a company run by Ken, and he stayed there for 2 years, returning to HML/BHH in January 1987.
Things had changed during his absence. We had been badly led and supported from above in those 2 years, so we had become less reliant on our so-called betters, and more confident in our own decision making, so when he returned, he was encouraged to see things differently, and fair play to him, he did, and didnt try to turn back the clock.
By 1989, after various rounds of redundancies, and with the final "sell-out" of BH getting inexorably nearer, and also possibly when he saw his last chance of further promotion disappear when the top job in BH UK went to the Africa Corps, Ken decided just before Christmas to take early retirement in the New Year, and duly did around February 1990.
He did various things after BH, but I suspect that nothing could ever have come close to his 34 years of muckshifting.
In latter years, especially after losing his wife Joyce in 2004, Ken became a more solitary figure, but still came to the fore when required, his speech for instance at the 1st Reunion in 2009. His health was not great, having just missed the final curtain in 1993 when at Chelsea FC, where the club doctor saved his life, and later he had a heart bypass. Some minor strokes also hit him, but he always bounced back, and when allowed to drive again, to be out in his Mercedes rag-top, his "baby", was one of his greatest pleasures.
Ken was a hard taskmaster, sometimes unfairly so, but having been brought up on EPB`s methods, it wasn`t surprising that some of them would rub off on him, but one thing you could be sure of, if you made a mistake, although he would ream you out in private, in public, he would defend your rights vigorously against whosoever was doing the complaining, expecially if it was the Works & Service or New Sales !!
Many people questioned our sanity at Hunsbury & BHH during the times we worked for him, but ask any of the people that did, and with few exceptions, the opinion you get would be that he was a hard bugger, but a reasonably fair one !!
Without doubt, his ambitions from being a young engineer were always to the fore, but whereas many people hid their lights under a bushel, Ken never did, and a lot of people didnt appreciate that, but which is worse !!
It was only recently that I learned that his parents, his father in the RAF and his mother in the Biltz, were killed in WW2, so at the age of seven or so, he had to learn to look after himself to a degree, so a bit of independence and ambition isn`t surprising.
One should only speak personally on such occasions, and for my part, as CJ said many times in Reggie Perrin, I would not have been where I am today if it hadn`t have been for KMK, and although there were days when I could have gladly shoved him off HML`s third storey office roof, I am very grateful for having been taken on by him, and guided by him (I didnt listen to everything he said !) to the point where I eventually replaced him, so the highest compliment I can say to sign off this tribute is ……………so long Boss !! K.A.Brealey.
Right, enough of this chit-chat. Strange though it is, we decided to have a few photos of last Friday`s wake for KMK, ably taken by the oldest Hodgite there, 82 year old Ken Lansley, one of KMK`s companions in Mangla.
Normally photography is rare at funerals and wakes, but this occasion seemed more like a meeting of the Eastcote Eight rather than a wake for one of its members (dont forget, Ken was the one who suggested the BH Reunions back in 2008) so it seemed fitting that those who gathered were recorded, and they are as follows…….Ken Lansley, Jimmy James, George French, Jimmy Cahill, John MacGregor, Colin Jailler, Ted Farmer, Martin Ede, Tony Freshwater, Neville Harding, David Hall, mine host Steve Wheatman, Peter Hardy, Dennis Tidmarsh, Tony Nelmes, John Bailey, Eric Belcher, Tony Vernon-Smith, and of course last but not least, the HML/BHH heavy mob of Nigel Bailey, Mick Stevens, Keith Brealey, Ned Edwards & Bob Startin, and they all posed as follows.
The Editors.
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