THG-Rodger Bean

Rodger Bean

Here are a selection of letters from Rodger's career in the GPO...

On 7/9/67 I was appointed as a Tech 2A on probation, at a starting rate of £14.12.6d rising to £16.14.6d.

	I have to inform you that you have been appointed... Technician II A.
I also received notification on 25/7/68 of selection, at a later date yet to be notified, for training as a Technical Officer (TOiT).
	I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected for training as... Technical Officer.

I started with ETE at Electra House in September 1964. Along with a bunch of other young lads I was introduced to our training officer, a stout man whose name I cannot recall, but I do remember that his secretary’s name was Tania. He summed up our responsibilities by saying, “Do as I say not as I do”. Our group of trainees was then shown to Arundel House, which was adjoining the Western end of Electra House, to collect our issue of dust jackets etc. My starting pay was about £7-0-0 per week and one of the first things I saved up for was a new AVO Mk8, which cost me about £30-0-0.

Most of the time as a TOiT I was in ARQ maintenance, which was on the third floor of E.H.. The electromechanical TORs had just been decommissioned and scrapped, and the Marconi HU21s were the only operational TORs. These, unlike the old Haslers were all electronic. Apart that is for the output relay, which was upgraded to an electronic one. These HU21s were decommissioned about the time I resigned. I believe one of them was donated to the London Science Museum
Opposite: A letter of thanks for a job well done.

Failure to return these items may lead to deduction of pay in accordance with H.P.M. R.2. VII 33 paragraph B.

	In those days, the GPO was very strict about the issue and later return of stores items issued to staff.

On 16/06/69 I transferred to the Board of Trade (Civil Aviation), and remained on loan to them until 31/03/72, at which time I officially resigned from The GPO or as it had then become, The PO. As one of my friends used to say “We were demoted from God’s Poor Orphans to just Poor Orphans.”.

Rodger Bean +++++++

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