Island Life August/September 2018

Interview
Ron with Matthew
and Gareth,
circa 1994
Ron and Matthew at Colwell, circa 1985
“It was really a pleasure for me
going to work and dealing with
them every day, and I think I
quickly gained their trust, too.”
and once on board we had our own private
tour. I was a lot more agile in those days!
The 1970s were also the heyday of the
Island’s nightclub scene – and Ron and his
mates were just the right age to enjoy it all.
They’d start off at his local, The Horseshoe
at Northwood, for games of darts, jukebox
or piano music, and then the famous
‘meat draw’ - and then with an elected
driver, they’d head off for one of the
clubs, such as The Eastcliffe at Shanklin,
the Babalu at Ryde Airport (now a
McDonalds) or The Prince Consort at Ryde.
Working his way up
For all his outgoing social life, Ron also
had a healthy respect for his work. As
part of his apprenticeship, he attended
the local college as a day release student
for three years and immersed himself
in business studies. As he progressed
with the company, he took on sales
invoicing for all departments, took a
further course in accountancy, and ended
up after 11 years with the company
as Accounts Reporting Manager,
ultimately reporting to the Head Offce
in Pennsylvania after JS White’s was
taken over by Elliott Turbomachinery.
His opposite number in the States had
the unlikely name of Jerry Burger and Ron
admits he was somewhat ‘in awe of him’.
“We had a regular Friday catch-up
call and he’d tell me all about his
hunting, shooting, fishing lifestyle
while I told him about the football club
I was helping with and what seemed a
mundane social life in comparison”.
However, Ron’s Anglo-American alliance
was to come to an end when the US
company decided to pull out of the UK,
at which point, in 1981, he joined the
then local timber merchant H.W. Morey.
“I’d had a job offer in Basingstoke
as well but really didn’t want to
leave the Island” says Ron.
This was partly because by this time
he was married to Alana, who he had
met at work. Their marriage year,
1978, had been a good one on many
fronts, since his beloved Nottingham
Forest also won the Football League
and then the European Cup.
They’d bought their first house in
East Cowes in April 1978, five months
before the wedding, but didn’t live
there until after they were married.
“Youngsters today can’t imagine that,
but it’s how it was then” he says. “There
were no lavish overseas trips either - our
honeymoon was a week in Torquay and
we saved our pre-decimal silver coinage
in an old cider flagon to pay for it”.
However, by 1980 they’d been thrifty
enough to be able to move from
their starter home in East Cowes and
take on a bigger mortgage on a large
Victorian house in West Cowes.
Within months of the move, though,
came the blow of redundancy from
Elliott Turbomachinery – happily, to
be closely followed by the relief of
being offered the job of General Offce
Manager at H.W. Morey and Son.
A new challenge
In 1981 Moreys was the only supplier
of imported timber on the Island ,
importing directly from Sweden and
www.visitilife.com 35