OSAmag81

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 7 9
Genesis 1, verses 26-28. There was an
Address and Prayers. The Music at the
end of the Service was ‘Sailing’ (Gavin
Sutherland 1972) performed by Rod
Stewart.
The photograph was taken on holiday in
Porthleven, Cornwall in May 2008.
A Life by Michael Spinks
Harry Roy Spinks, Roy, to distinguish him
from his father also a Harry, was born on
20 April 1924 inside the sub¬division of
Tollington in the Registration District of
lslington in the County of London, at least
that is what his birth certificate states. He
was the beloved elder son of Harry Claude
and Beatrice Maud Spinks, brother of
Peter. No two brothers could be more
unalike.
Roy attended the Stationers Company
School and studied electronics and radio
engineering at night school and became a
highly successful electronic engineer.
From his own CV he writes,
“1943-1947 Royal Air Force, Leading
Aircraftsman, Wireless Mechanic South
East Asia Command” “1948-1949 Air
Service Training, Hants. Student. War
interrupted studies leading to Institute of
Electrical Engineers and City + Guilds
Radio and Telecommunications exam
results. Maybe it is true that he never
threw anything away. We have the exam
results to prove it.
He worked successively in London for
The Gramophone Company at Hayes and
then for Murphy Radio Electronic
Division Engineer where he did work for
Swedish Air Force radar. He subsequently
signed the Official Secrets Act. I trust
nobody will be done for revealing that the
Swedish Air Force owes him a debt of
gratitude.
As a young man he played tennis. It was at
a tennis club that he met the lady who
soon became his wife, Pamela Mary
Cambridge Clarke. They were married at
the Parish Church of St. Aldhelm,
Edmonton on March 15th 1952. They
became the proud parents of Michael,
Susan and Richard and the grandparents
of Robert, Alex, Timothy, Fiona, Owen,
Kathleen, Freya and Megan.
Roy and Pam moved to 3 Gayton Road,
Southend-on-Sea, Essex late in 1952. He
started working for EK Cole in Southend
in January 1953 and wrote up a set of notes
“Memories of EK Cole 1953-1957” A
colleague from those days, Alan Moltino,
regrets that he cannot attend today. Neither
can his brother, Peter, living in Devon or
his old “cousin” for want of better words,
George Trowbridge.
Roy left EK Cole in 1957 and worked as a
Principal Development Engineer at the
Plessey Company, Ilford. He acquired a
Thames Minibus, 00 3609, and transported
a group of SE Essex residents to Ilford
every working day between 1957 and
1966. That minibus became almost a
second home and was used as a camping
base at Burnham on Crouch and for
transporting the whole family for many
summers on the annual overnight trip
down to Praa Sands in Cornwall. Neither
the MS nor the M4 existed then so it was
more of an adventure in its own right than
it would be now. Turning back to his
career, it was whilst at Plessey that he was
involved in the development of a family of
UHF Airborne and Marine Transmitter
Receivers for the RAF, RN and “friendly
governments”. That led to an opportunity
for the family to resettle in South Africa
but it didn’t happen.
It was whilst living at Southend that a
passion for sailing was ignited. He built his
own Lazy E, a twin manned sailing boat,
somewhat bigger than an Enterprise, in
the garage, which he had also built, in his
back garden and sailed it for many years on
the River Crouch at Burnham as a member
of Burnham Sailing Club. For the last 10
years of his life he was a Member of
Creeksea Sailing Club.
The family moved to Muswell Hill, North
London in 1966 when Roy joined the
family business, EFG, as a Director.
Relationships between the generations on
the male side of the Spinks family have
never been the easiest and he departed in
1969. He joined Marconi Space and
Defence Systems at Stanmore as a
Principal Quality Engineer on the Stingray
project essentially being the Quality
Controller to do with vendor and subcontractor
plans.
Perhaps his radio engineering days at
Plessey and then at Marconi were
professionally his most creative and
satisfactory opportunities. He had joined
the Institution of Electrical Engineers in
1947, became a Chartered Engineer, and
received congratulations in 1997 for having
been a member for 50 years. He was also a
member of The Chartered Institute of
Quality Assurance.
After leaving Marconi he rejoined the
family business, this time as Managing
Director. He put up the new buildings at
Liverpool Road, fought the good fight
against British Rail when they damaged
those buildings, fought each of the many
(hundreds or thousands of them )parking
tickets that our drivers accumulated,
supported the Freight Transport industry
inside London, ensured our banking was
done correctly each day and defied any
mugger to attempt a robbery on his daily
visits to the Nat West Bank branch in
Upper Street. Working Life in the
wholesale industry was a bit more civilised
when Roy was at EFG and a daily luncheon
break was taken at either of the two Italian
Tavernas at Highbury Corner.
He did effectively retire but nobody is
quite sure when because he retained keys
to get in for many years and had an
unhealthy attachment to the company’s
fork lift trucks. Very little was more
important than checking that they were
properly on charge each weekend.
What were Roy’s passions? Certainly for
sailing which he maintained for 50 years.
He was sailing independently last summer.
Whilst he never learned to swim and was
baled out of the River Crouch only last
June having been outside his boat for 20
minutes and unable to get back in, he was
never deterred. In his later years he went
on many Jubilee Sailing Trust voyages in
their two large three masted schooners to
places like The Canary islands and Lisbon.
He blacked out preparing for one such
trip, ended up in hospital, forfeited the trip
and never fully forgave them for not taking
him back on board again.
He was involved in The Worshipful
Company of Loriners. Before him, his
father was and now his grandson, Robert,
is a member. He became and was very
proud of being a Freeman of The City of
London. He had his loyalties to a select
group of clubs which he actively maintained
and supported for many years, The Burma
Star Association, The Royal Air Force
Association, The Royal British Legion, the
United Wards Club of the City of London,
the City Livery Club and was Chairman
of the Aero Section of The City Livery
Club. He also supported the RNLI and
the National Memorial Arboretum and
other voluntary associations. Whilst
Chairman of the Aero Section he
accompanied John Jordan chairman for
many years ofJordans the Flour Millers
who supplied the Essex with its flour) who
piloted his own biplane, by approval onto
an RAF base. What was not approved was
the manner of their departure which
involved doing barrel rolls in the biplane
down the length of the runway and which
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