UPA ColworthN E W S L E T T E R FEBRUARY 2015

Wednesday March 25th, John White, Rushden

The 2015 AGM of the Unilever Pensioners’ Association, Colworth, will be held at John White Golf Club, Bedford Road, Rushden, NN10 0SA, on Wednesday March 25th at 11.00am starting with coffee at 10.30am. The meeting will be followed by lunch (for which a small charge will be made) and the bar will be open. Complete and return the flyer included with this newsletter by Friday March 6th with an indication of whether you require lunch.

Agenda1 Chairman’s welcome and opening remarks.2 Unilever report: Pensioners’ Liaison Manager, Karen Abbott.3 Apologies for absence.4 Minutes of the previous AGM.5 Matters arising.6 Secretary’s report.7 Membership Secretary’s report.8 Event Secretary’s report and Colworth Walkers’ report.9 Treasurer’s report.10 Election of new Committee.11 Any Other Business (accepted at Chairman’s discretion).

UPA Annual General Meeting

Isle of Wight with UPA Anglia

Some of you may recall that UPA Anglia had spaces on their December holiday to the Isle of Wight and invited us to join them. In the event only two members signed up, partly because we were only there a couple of years ago. Mervyn How reported on the trip:“IOW was great. The participants were all very agreeable and friendly!and the programme for the week went in no time at all. We visited a pearl factory, Alum Bay, the rest of the IOW!and had a day in Portsmouth. The weather was cold (what were we expecting?), the accommodation good and the meals very good. Well worth a visit, and inexpensive. The site had many other facilities which we did not have time to use. Our coach driver was excellent (a coach in the IOW is essential) and even tried to find a way round an “incident” on the M25. All in all an excellent holiday. Thank you UPA Anglia.”

Editorial

Just enough space for me to draw your attention to the AGM, Colworth’s Museum visit (see back page), and the request to help Tom Williams with his footy foto (page 3). I am grateful to Bob (Peaky) Safford and Terry (Shackleton) Horsman for their articles and to John Saul for writing the report on the Waddesdon Christmas lunch. Also, I am delighted to include the piece by Betty Huggett (page!5) and on behalf of our members I wish her all the best for 2015.

Waddesdon Manor, December 2014 See page 2

On a day when the north-west was being hit by a Force 11 “Violent Storm”, 70 Unilever Pensioners set off in calm, sunny but cold weather for their trip to Waddesdon Manor for Christmas Lights and Lunch.

Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury, was built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild between 1874 and 1889 in the style of a French chateau; its mansard roofs and an extraordinary assortment of fragile-looking finials and pinnacles suggest a wealthy person’s disregard for the cost of maintenance. Baron Ferdinand filled Waddesdon with his extensive collections of decorative arts and paintings. The house, its contents, 200 acres, and a £750,000 endowment, were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1957.

On arrival, we were briefed about our programme for the day, which would climax with lunch at 2.30pm. We had time for coffee and an initial trawl through the shop, which proved to be of a distinctly higher class than your average National Trust shop. Adjoining the shop was a wine store featuring second and third

wines of the famous Rothschild-owned Chateaux – nothing much above £50/bottle, but none of our party seemed to be buying. There were also some strange drinks for sale: anyone for Champagne Beer?

Some of us then found time to tour the wine cellars, which contained an impressive but well-secured collection of first-growth Rothschild wines going back many decades. No, they hadn’t passed their “use-by” date.

UPA Christmas Lunch, Waddesdon Manor, 11th December 2014

Dinner table centre-piece Divali-themed table-setting

Continued on p3

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Continued from page 2

We had tickets for a 1.40pm entry to the Manor for “Lights and Legends”, a series of decorations inspired by stories, myths and rituals celebrating light and the Winter Solstice. This took about 40 minutes to traverse, after which it was at last time for lunch. Everyone

seemed to enjoy the excellent Christmas

meal, though perhaps a slightly larger glass of wine would have been nice.

After lunch, it now being dusk, we set out

on the Winter Light Trail. This

consisted of seven inventive installations

linked by lit paths. It was designed by Bruce Munro, a lighting designer “best known for immersive large-scale light-based installations often inspired by his long-standing fascination with the emotional and sensory impact of light”. (I couldn’t have made that up.) We then returned to the shop to get warm and to spend some money, before boarding our coaches for the journey home and a chance to sleep off the effects of our lunch.

Many thanks to Jean Ablett for organising the day for us and remaining unflustered throughout.

The Spot-the-Wine competition

John Saul

Tom Williams, who used to work in SEAC (ESL as was) has asked for our help in identifying the members of this Colworth House football team – possibly taken when they played against another Unilever site in the 1950s. Tom has been able to identify Alec Rees, Syd Williams (his dad), Jack Adams and Fred Tysoe but is unable to place other members of the team.

If you can help, please let me or Sally know.

Geoff.

Can you help identify these players?

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At the peak of fitness – Part 2 " " " " " " Bob Safford

FTER lunch our wa lk took us f rom Ribblehead, crossing the railway line and

heading for the summit of Whernside, the highest peak in Yorkshire at 736m. As we started our ascent the sun was well up, and the temperature rising. That, coupled with fatigue starting to set in, made it a long slow climb. The top of Whernside marked the halfway point of the walk. On paper only ten miles and one peak left to go, but with flagging stamina this was going to be the hard part. On our descent of Whernside we stopped so Dick could attend to his blisters, and lo and behold, behind us appeared the “lads”. It turns out they had taken the long route, as they missed the signpost and followed a man with a GPS who wasn’t doing the Three Peaks Walk.

Having descended Whernside it was a “short” walk before we started to climb Ingleborough, the second highest peak in Yorkshire at 723m. Again a gradual climb to start with, but with energy levels running low, recovery stops were becoming frequent. As we got closer, a very steep (almost vertical) climb came into view. “I’m sure we don’t have to go up there”, I said confidently. But we did. It nearly killed me. Halfway up I thought “this is it”, but looking back down I realised it was easier to keep climbing. Eventually I reached the top of the climb to find Dick sitting waiting patiently. But we still weren’t at the summit. “Do you want to wait here while I go to the top and back?” Dick asked. But sod that

for a game of soldiers I thought, I hadn’t gone all that way to give up now. So with a final push we reached the top. Time for a breather, to enjoy the magnificent views and take on water (and another banana), but not for too long as we still had our target to meet. It was downhill from there – just 4.5 miles back to Horton. Our total time for the walk was 11 hours 18 minutes, so the challenge was met. Not bad for a couple of pensioners. A short drive took us back to our B&B, The Lion at Settle, where we were looking forward to a few pints and a hearty meal. Sadly, after a couple of pints we were both shattered, and I barely touched the chicken, ham and chorizo pie and chips we had ordered to share. So an early night finished the day. At the beginning I said I thought it would be a piece of cake. Well it turned out to be – literally. I returned home the next day to find my wife, Sharon, had baked a celebratory Three Peaks Cake.To describe the experience in a few words, I steal the aphorism from a London marathon T-shirt: “Excruciating pain; Mental trauma; Total fatigue – A perfect day!”. Would I do it again? No. But watch this space – we are already looking for a new challenge.

The descent of Whernside

Atop Ingleborough

The Three Peaks Cake

AThe Three Peaks Challenge, continued

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I started work at the Van den Berghs & Jurgens factory, Purfleet, in 1936 when I was 15 years old. The factory had always been known locally as ‘Jurgens’ and my father was one of many who were moved there and worked in the office. We lived in Grays, Essex, and had previously lived in Wembley and dad used the train to get to work.

We took over the large offices to do all the accounts for Stork margarine, Blue Band etc. I started by counting the Stork vouchers which in those days stormed into the office day after day – hundreds of them. It was not a very nice job.

I next moved into the back office for a short time where I struggled with the location of different offices on the various floors and, in theory, learnt how the money-world went round.

Before long I was working in the Machine Room operating a machine which serviced the Accounts section. I well remember the pressure, monthly, when the Accounts were sent out to goodness knows how many customers. Sitting, opening the envelopes then inserting the Statements and sealing them up. What a sigh of relief when the job was done.

The whole office was evacuated at the outbreak of war and my dad went with them but I stayed at home. I got other work at Esso Petroleum and then I married and moved first to Brighton and then to Exeter, Devon.

There, in time, I found myself working with another Unilever company, JL Thomas and Co. – but oh, how different. We went round Devon, Cornwall and parts of Somerset collecting offal. When I started open lorries were used and drivers had to shoulder the ”goods” into the lorries. Not nice work at all. Later, closed lorries were used which made it much easier for the drivers. The factory needed access to water and in Exeter we first worked by the river with a tanning factory next door so you can imagine the smell. A new factory was built for us on the canal, but even there when the wind was blowing towards a posh district across the Exe the phone didn’t stop ringing with complaints.

We had a purpose-built factory and offices and our job was to visit butchers, kennels etc, to pick up their waste and bring it to the factory where it was transformed into edible goods. Tallow went out in tankers to be used by other Unilever companies and there was also a small Edible Dripping outlet and a large animal-feeds section.

There came a time when Unilever sold the company but we were given the opportunity to stay in the pension fund which the office staff did to a man (and woman).

Part of my job was to visit company pensioners and their partners which I loved doing. Taking a Christmas box filled with goodies I visited some of the odd spots around Devon. Come the time of my own retirement Unilever forgot all about me! I had to write to them before I got anything. Shame! I didn’t get a Unilever visitor. I moved from Devon to Cambridgeshire but still no visitor. Unexpectedly one day I received a call from Dick Lawrence – would I like him to be my Unilever visitor. Would I? – I should say so! Dick has fulfilled this office beautifully and still helps keep an eye on me although it is not as easy for him now. This is because I left my flat in Godmanchester for a Retirement Home in the middle of Cambridge. It was Dick who suggested that I join the Colworth pensioners and you kindly agreed to have me as a member. Your magazine is wonderfully interesting.

Thank you from 93-year-old Elizabeth Alice Huggett (Betty).

[And thank you to Dick for putting Betty in touch with us. Ed.]

Betty’s Story

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Down amongst the penguins ! ! ! ! ! ! Terry Horsman

OME of you may reca l l that in September 2012 my wife Debby gave a

talk at a lunch club entitled “Shackleton’s Lost Men”. Debby is related to one of the members of Shackleton’s ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (ITAE), hence our interest. But first, some background.The early 1900s were the Heroic Age of polar exploration. In September 1909 two Americans both claimed to have been the first to reach the North Pole, the Arctic Pole (90°N). This marked the beginning of polar challenges and controversies.

The first British attempt to find a route from the Antarctic coastline to the South Pole, the Antarctic Pole (90°S), was made by Robert Falcon Scott on the Discovery Expedition of 1901–04. Scott, accompanied by Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson, set out with the aim of travelling as far south as possible, and on December 31st 1902, reached 82°16!S. Shackleton later returned to Antarctica as leader of the British Antarctic (“Nimrod”) Expedition. On Januar y 9th 1909 , w i th three companions, he reached 88°23!S – 112 miles from the Pole – before being forced to turn back.

Fast-forward to 1911, and the race was on between Amundsen and Scott: Amundsen reached the South Pole on December 14th, 1911, leaving poor Scott (who followed a different route) to arrive on January 17th, 1912, thirty-four days after Amundsen. Worse was to come, as on the return trip, Scott and his four companions all died of starvation and extreme cold.Shackleton was determined to claim some sort of “Antarctic first”, so in 1914 he planned his ITAE, aiming to set out with his main team from the Argentine side (the

“Weddell Sea party”) and cross Antarctica via the South Pole and thence to link into a trail of food and fuel dumps left by his back-up team who had entered Antarctica from the New Zealand side (the “Ross Sea party”) to complete a 1500-mile journey. Despite the onset of World War 1, Churchill had advised Shackleton “to proceed” – presumably on the assumption that the war would be over by Christmas.

A Centenary Cruise to Antarctica

Antarctic snowscape

A skua harassing gentoo penguins

Abandoned whaling station

Rockhopper penguin

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The history of the Weddell Sea party is fairly well-known: they never got started as their ship, The Endurance, didn’t manage to land on the continent and was eventually crushed by the ice. There then followed an amazing story of escape in open life-boats to Elephant Island, and thence an even more dramatic voyage of one of those boats to South Georgia. Following a pioneering climb to over 4,000ft to cross the mountain range down into a whaling station, a rescue of the remainder of the Weddell Sea party was effected. The Ross Sea party, who knew nothing of this, manfully completed their task in the face of extreme hardships, albeit losing three men in the process, including Arnold Patrick Spencer-Smith (known as “AP”), to whom my wife is related.

On to 2012, and the Scott Polar Research Institute proposed to commemorate these events by organising a centenary cruise to the Argentina side of Antarctica in 2014, and contact as many relatives of the participants of Shackleton’s ITAE as they can, as well as other Antarctica fanatics…which is how we came to flying out to Buenos Aires on November 16th.

We boarded a former Russian research vessel (which carried 100 guests) in Ushuaia, and our cruise took us to The Falklands, South Georgia, Elephant Island and finally to Antarctica. We were lucky enough to be able to make landfall at all of these venues, despite the best efforts of the weather/seas (one of the many waves which came over the bows drenched the bridge, some three decks up). We were able, in small measure, to follow in the footsteps of Shackleton, and on South Georgia, a memorial service was held in the church at Gryvitken – afterwards we followed tradition by toasting Shackleton and his second in command, Frank Wild, (both buried here) with half a dram … the remainder being tipped over their respective graves.

An amazing experience throughout – the itinerary was ambitious, and complemented by an impressive programme of lectures, many by relatives of the 1914-participants, and also included expert input to the wildlife of the area.

I hope the accompanying photos give an appropriate flavour of the scenery, the wildlife and the historical links; if any of you are interested to talk further, e-mail me or button-hole me on a Pensioners’ walk.

Shackleton’s grave, South Georgia

Snowscape

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Forthcoming Events

March 17th “Abigail’s Party”, Mill Theatre, Sharnbrook – Now bookingMarch 25th “AGM, John White, Rushden – Now bookingMarch 29th-April 3rd “Walking Holiday – The LakesApril 29th “ “Crich Tram Museum – Now booking

Walking Programme Crawlers Boots & SocksMarch 11th Terry Ferguson 26th Roger & Hazel SteelsApril 15th Roger & Janet Westcott 20th Dudley Ferdinando

ObituariesWith great sadness we report the deaths of Betty Coleman, Ron Whitney and Peter Chamberlain. Betty was the widow of Michael, who died in 2009. Michael worked in the Biochemistry and Medical Units, his final role being in Microbiology. Ron (“Rocket Ron”) was a Maintenance Fitter in Works Engineering who fixed all the “niggles” around the labs. His wife also worked at Colworth. Peter joined Colworth in 1980, retiring in 1992. He worked in Site Engineering as lab equipment manager his last job being project manager in Commercial Services. His wife, Joan, died in 2009.Our thoughts are with their families.

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Association Chairman: Cham Willey, 01604 402730 e-mail: chairman@colworthupac.co.ukAssociation Secretary: Sally Butler, 07768 715846 e-mail: secretary@colworthupac.co.ukNewsletter Editor: Geoff Gilpin e-mail: editor.upac@colworthupac.co.ukUPA Website: http://www.colworthupac.co.uk

New membersA very warm welcome to Martin & Monika Green, Gerald & Julie Boxall and Ian & Bridget Burns. Martin was Senior Scientist in the Strategic Science Group where, amongst other investigations he developed ingredients for skin anti-ageing products. He retired in October. Gerald (Gez) started at Colworth as a histologist. He moved to Unipath in 1984 where his final job was as Sales Representative. He played rugby and cricket for Colworth. Although Ian started in ARD Analytical and spent some time working on fluoride in toothpaste his final job was as TPL in GDC Ice Cream.

Colworth Museum Open – Lunchtimes, Monday, February 23rd, to Thursday, February 26thOver the past six months or so Andy Dyks, Harjit Lall and I have been collating and cataloguing material from the “Unilever Years” at Colworth from 1947 to the present day. We have now a opened the “Skyward End Museum” at Colworth which is packed full of interesting photos, posters, newsletters, archaeology, pieces of scientific equipment and other artefacts. We have every copy of Colworth News from February 1978 to June 2002 for reference.The museum will be open to Colworth Pensioners at lunchtimes from Monday, February 23rd, to Thursday, February 26th and we would be delighted to see you. Those who are interested should meet at the Colworth Sports and Social Club at 12:00pm. There is no need to book in advance as we will collect and walk folk down to the museum (in the old FTD building). Please try to arrive promptly but if you are delayed ring Andy on 07718 155528 from the clubhouse to be collected. We would welcome any contributions of photos, booklets or artefacts. We also hope that you can put names to people in the photos we have on display. Also, if anybody has an intact QED mug from about 1980 we would welcome it for our collection.An article about the museum will appear in a future newsletter.Hoping to see a good number of you during these four lunchtimes. Remember to drive directly to the Colworth Clubhouse Car Park via Yelnow Lane and not the gatehouse. Dudley Ferdinando

Note that double/twin rooms are still available for the Bristol holiday on July 2nd-6th. Members who are interested should contact Cham on 01604 402730.