An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

Chapter 3 - 1985 to 1988 : The Tombs YearsBuilding on SuccessPeopleThe Second ChairmanSir Francis Tombs BSc, FEng, Hon FIChemE, FIEE, FIMechE, Chairman of Rolls RoyceLtd., and Chairman of Turner and Newall plc, was elected Chairman of the EngC on 1 May1985. As with others before and after him, he rapidly became aware of the distrust felt insome Institutions of the EngC and with some success he spent much time trying to establishmutual trust and respect. Another problem he discovered was on the one hand the ambitionsof the Institutions to dominate the Council and on the other the ambitions of someindividually elected members to do so. He chaired a number of quite difficult Councilmeetings but was able successfully to maintain an independent and effective Council. Thisindependence was highlighted at the first election of Council Members in May 1986 when theappointments hitherto made by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry ended.Funding for the EngC’s activities dominated the opening months of Sir Francis Tombs’speriod of office. The Government’s grant-in-aid was about to end on 30 June 1985, forcingthe EngC to seek financial support from elsewhere, logically the engineering profession orthe engineering discipline as a whole. To bring in additional cash, the annual fees for 1986paid by individuals for inclusion on the EngC register were raised from £1.10 to £2.50 forEngineering Technicians, from £2.20 to £4.50 for Technician Engineers and from £3.20 to £7for Chartered Engineers. Helpfully, all these increases were agreed by the Institutions whichcollected these registration fees from their members on behalf of the EngC.Committee Chairmen and Other ChangesIn 1986 and 1987 there was a general rearrangement of committee chairmen such thattowards the end of 1986 Professor John Illston, Director of Hatfield Polytechnic, took over asChairman of the SCET from Geoffrey Hall. On 5 May 1987 Robert Malpas relinquished hisChairmanship of the Industry Standing Committee but then joined the Finance and GeneralPurposes (F&GP) Committee. He was replaced by Roy Roberts (Chairman of SimonEngineering and Deputy Chairman of the Dowty Group and of GKN). Dr Gordon Beveridgerelinquished his Chairmanship of the Professional Institutions Committee but joined theIndustry Committee and the F&GP Committee. He was replaced by Frank Chorley who wasalready a member of the BER. Ronald Hooker relinquished his Chairmanship of the F&GPCommittee and was replaced by Jean Denton (Chairman of the Black Country DevelopmentCorporation, Chairman of Burson-Marsteeler and a Non-Executive Director of BritishNuclear Fuels and of the Ordnance Survey). On 23 October 1987 Lewis Chelton took over asSecretary of the EngC on the retirement of John Carlill who had established a robustsecretarial and administrative structure with appropriate procedures for the EngC.37