Alan doing what he enjoyed 

most -working on a teleprinter

at the Steyning IBTE museum 

Alan outside the Museum

of London during a recent 

visit 

Alan enjoying a visit to

the KESR strowger

exchange 

Alan (and Bob) looking

for a bargain at the BT auction

on preview day 

BACK TO HOME 

Many People in the  both the worlds of Telecommunications and radio were saddened by the  loss of one of

its greatest exponents -this is my tribute to a great friend.

Alan was the reason I joined the THG in the first place -his willingness to impart his massive knowledge and know- how was unending .Alan's first love was anything vaguely connected to mechanical teleprinters,

but his knowledge and collection extended to all things telephone and radio he held the amateur radio callsign G8GOJ for many years recently upgrading it to an "M3" ,his love for using the old machines for sending and receiving RTTY over the airwaves was legendary .Alan was president of BARTG the British Amateur Radio Teledata Group

Alan was a regular member of the Addiscombe

Amateur Radio Club contest group .

Alan spent his life's career in the Power generating business for CEGB/POWERGEN  running their in house communications systems .

Alan spent 2 days a week (minimum) passing on his wealth of experience to youngsters as the communications officer or the 1924 Squadron ATC  Air Training Cadets and was often to be found in his "2nd shack" at the squadron HQ -complete with its ex CEGB internal strowger phone system .He will be sorely missed by everyone at the Squadron as shown by their huge uniformed turnout and tribute at his funeral .Alan also was often to be found helping out at Guide camps run by his wife Jill and was on the buildings  committee of the division Guide HQat Radcliffe in Croydon .

Alans role in the THG as our resident teleprinter/telex "GURU" often led to TV /film appearances-not for him but for his machines ! many a prop in recent years was one of Alans ! -his expertise in setting up and getting the machines working on camera was respected by directors everywhere.

Alan was an extremely accomplished engineer and was often known to reject a piece of work time again until it was perfect  his skills as a designer were as good as his handiwork ,Alan excelled at overcoming a problem by designing something from scratch to fit the bill !.

Alan left his wife and 2 daughters  with a great respect and sympathies from everyone that knew or came across him and will be sorely missed .

He finally succumbed to a 10 month battle with cancer in April 2004 (-his main worry about chemotherapy was losing his legendary beard ! :-)

               RIP