Pictured from left: John Owers, Rob Herrick, Al Pereira, Richard Eling, Ken O'Brien, Charles Morlham, Nick Burnell, John Ford, Bob White, Steve Cornish, Dave Hutchinson, Nick Miller and Les (Gareth) Williams.
DUNTON, UK – A group of 13 former Ford apprentices who all joined the company way back in 1964, got together for a 60-year reunion this month.
The group, some of whom had 40 years’ service at Ford, reminisced about the past over a beer or two in a pub in Brentwood, close to Ford’s former UK headquarters in Warley.
Charles Morlham told @Ford: “We all started as 4-year Student Engineering Apprentices on Higher National Certificate (HNC) or Higher National Diploma (HND) courses back in September 1964 and were based in the Apprentice Training School (ATS) in Harold Hill which, I think, had just been newly opened having been relocated and renamed from Dagenham.
“We were split in to two groups spending every six months alternating between the Company and the Barking Regional College of Technology (BRCT), now the University of East London (UEL). This was called a Sandwich Course. We all got on extremely well and had many enjoyable adventures and helped each other with our studies when required.”
Back in the day, Ford wasn’t obliged to employ people who had finished their apprenticeships, but most of the Class of ’64 did join the company.
“We were split up to join many different parts of Ford,” added Charles. “During the course of our professional working careers, we managed to find each other again, which was not an easy task and, we think, a rather special thing to achieve.
“When we retired, over 20 years ago, we thought it would be a good idea to meet up over lunch every two months or so to keep in touch with each other, discuss current affairs and continue to help each other over issues encountered. I am pleased to say that we have done this very successfully.”
