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Peter tells me: "I joined
the company in 1963, working in the Basildon colour unit, moved
to distribution and then to export and finished my career (having
taken early retirement in 1986) in the London office under Jeff
Vickers".
"During the years I worked
in the Export Division, I was under Frank Bearcroft who was the
"recipient" of the Queen's Award to Industry for export
achievement, twice!" (see chronology for years 1970 and
1975).
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| During the
1980's Ilford sponsored
a rally car which sported the Ilford logos and was used as publicity
and shown at the Photokina exhibition around that time. Below
is a fine Cibachrome print of this car, supplied by Peter. The
car appears to be a Mk 2 Ford Fiesta - presumably an XR2 specification,
such as first appeared in June1984. This fits with Peter's belief
that the car was sponsored during the years 1984-1986. |
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Another Ilford
sponsored rally car, this time a Ford Escort RS2000, as driven
by Mike Smith in 1986. My thanks to David Jarratt who says "It
was taken outside the camera shop I used to work in, in Stockport.
It was originally called Stockport Camera Exchange, but the bosses
changed it to Crewe Camera Exchange, to fit in with the other
branches they had". |
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| Peter Pearse goes
on to say "During my time in the London office I was handed,
for safe keeping, an old, partly rusted, enamelled metal advertisng
plate as used outside shops. When I left the company I dutifully
left this item behind (I should have pinched it !) but not before
making a facsimile copy on the Cibachrome copy machine that was
installed in the premises. I still have this photo which has
all the appearance of a metal plate (that was Cibachrome for
you !!). The excellent Cibachrome facsimile is shown below. |
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During my time in the colour
processing unit at Basildon (in the administration department
looking after customer queries and complaints) I used to do a
lot of cartooning in my spare time and was often asked to produce
"art work" for various occasions.
At one time in the early sixties,
the then chief executive, Sir Paul Chambers, made a trip the
Soviet Union (this was at the time of the Cold War) and he took
with him the holiday pack of four rolls of 8mm Ilfocolour cine
film (see 1968). This was to be specially handled during the
processing and I was asked if I could design a colourful title
to be attached to his epic. At this time, all customers four
packs were returned with a titled leader attached, which I had
a hand in producing. This film strip was made by filming the
effect of revolving coloured lights.
However, it was deemed appropriate
(for the Chief Excecutive) to provide something special, so I
set about the work which was, of course, done in my spare time
at home ! I drew a somewhat dumpy little character with a cine
camera rather nervously filming the baroque architecture of Russia
whilst being overlooked by a glowering, beefy, K.G.B. person,
who did not seem too pleased with our hero. I was pleased with
the result and it was duly copied onto 8mm stock and sent off.
Sadly, I never ever found out whether or not he liked my efforts
and heard no more. I wonder sometimes if it is still hanging
around somewhere.
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| During my time
at Basildon I worked with a couple of guys who were very clever
at witticisms and so, combined with my drawing ability, we were
given permission to produce a small satirical magazine to be
distributed amongst the staff. This was at a time when Ilford
still retained some of the friendly qualities of a family company.
I doubt if such permission would have been granted in later years.
However, after doing this harmlessly for a few editions, (reproduced
on Azoflex paper, before Xerox was ever heard of) we were told
to cease. The reason was a tongue in cheek article about a foreign
body found on a fork in the staff canteen. Someone objected and
that was that ! |
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During my few
years at the Tottenham street U.K. Sales office, one of my many
tasks was to demonstrate the Cibachrome copy machine to prospective
customers. Word must have got around about the superior quality
of these reproductions, for one day I received a visit from two
members of the Scotland Yard Fraud squad who suspected that this
machine was capable of printing currency notes and what did I
have to say about it !
They seemed pretty confidant that they were on to something,
but I was able to show them how the process worked and how different,
and somewhat thicker, these copies were to the fivers (£5
notes) in their wallets. They went away suitably chastened.
Mind you, they never thought that maybe other things could be
better forged and I tried a little experiment and copied my railway
season ticket. To my consternation, it seemed like the real thing,
so I quickly destroyed it and said nothing ! (until now !). |
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| I attended one
of the amateur nights in the Oxford Street department and have
fond memories of that, and many other, occasions. |
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| Below is a stunning
example of results obtainable from Cibachrome II, introduced
in 1981 (see chronology). This Ilford display print was sent
to me by Peter Pearse. |
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This page last updated:
15th March 2018 |
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