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Triumph Engineering Reunion

Triumph Engineering Reunion – Harry Webster bequeathed funding for an annual get together for Triumph apprentices and last Friday was the day we all got together for our 2016 dinner. It’s a great evening out and a great place to catch up with old friends and reminisce about the good times we all had working there. 

As I’m the youngest member and don’t quite meet the critera of being there when Harry was in charge, it is sometimes overwhelming to think of the projects these guys were involved in. Everything from Herald, Vitesse, Spitfire, GT6, Stag, 2000, 2500 and TR7 (my project) to projects that I am aware of that did not make it. SD2 and Lynx are the 2 that were in development while I was there that didn’t make it to production. Many of these guys managed the projects, were involved in the works teams and much more. So much knowledge, so many stories. Here are some of the remaining Triumph history makers, many who have gone un-mentioned over the years.
Alan Goodwin
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Trevor Worthington – Apprentice of the Year 1962

Apprenticed 1958-63 and Apprentice of the Year in 1962.
Selected to go to VW on an exchange visit organised by the Institute of The Motor Industry 1964. I joined the Quality Department in 1964, became Quality Service Liaison Engineer then Investigation Supervisor located in the dungeon under the Spares Department. Continue reading “Trevor Worthington – Apprentice of the Year 1962”

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Dorothy and Geoffrey Hope

I began working at The Standard Triumph at the age of fourteen years.  I was originally expected to go into service when I left school, but during the war, each evening we had a family who escaped the bombing by coming to stay with us.  It was this family that encouraged me to aim for something better and I applied to work in the offices.

I began working after my initial training just doing basic filing, I then went on to train and work as a Comptometer.  I spent a good many years working in the same department, cycling each day from my family home in Balsall Common to Tile Hill Station where the Blacksmith would look after my bike while I finished my journey to work on the train.
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Edward Ken Wadsworth

My father (Edward Ken Wadsworth) came from Manchester and started working at The Standard Motor Co as a qualified electrician and progressed to the position of Plant Director responsible for all maintenance and tool room departments that included Canley, Fletchhamstead North and South, Radford and Western Avenue.

I ( Peter Wadsworth) first went to visit the Canley factory just after the war in about 1946 at the age of 6 years. It was almost inevitable that 10 years later I would start my Standard Motor apprenticeship training to be a Factory Layout Engineer. The school was located at the Massey Ferguson plant on Banner Lane where I eventually came back to finish my working life. My early recollections are having a ride on the fire engine and going into the boiler house and seeing a row of 13 huge boilers, originally coke fired and later converted to oil fired.

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