You may not have heard the name. John is not a limelight sort of person. But for the past 20 years he has powered so much behind the scenes.
It started in 2003 when Leicestershire County Council (LCC) offered a free website facility for all Leicestershire communities: www.leicestershirevillages.com LCC was a leader in this field and Barrow community groups took up the offer with enthusiasm. Barrow’s website became the biggest, the fullest and the most heavily used of all the county sites, largely because of John’s commitment, expertise and ability to share his knowledge with new users. Then just as other county councils set up similar schemes, LCC pulled out. So, what did John do? He created five new independent sites (Village, BUSCA, Heritage, Barrow Voice, Library and a Barrow picture gallery) transferring all the considerable amount of data from the old site. Having created the Barrow Voice website, he then joined the editorial team as treasurer.
At the ripe old age of 80+, John now wants to take more of a back seat. Thankfully, Keith Butler has taken over the website role. Phew! Thanks, Keith! But I wanted to find out how John came to be so skilled in IT. We take these skills for granted now but not back in 2003.
Over a pub meal, I probed to discover John’s life history and the odd coincidences that led to his expertise. He is a local lad whose education was cut short at the age of 15 because of his failures in English despite excelling at everything else. He was apprenticed to a big firm of electricians and because he was earning more and earlier than many of his school friends, with the help of his father, he acquired a car earlier than most. His first proper job in 1960 was with Cottons of Loughborough. They made the machinery to manufacture ‘Fully Fashion Stockings and Knitwear’ in the Leicestershire hosiery industry, including Drivers (which was located in Sileby Road). He was employed as a qualified electric/electronics engineer, helping to install machines; train customers’ staff; trouble shoot; and act as an ambassador at exhibitions. When his boss discovered this young man had a car, he was immediately allocated to sites up and down the country and around the world, so began his life-long career as a travelling electric/ electronics engineer.
He worked for Cottons for 37 years and visited over 50 countries. John told me that he now appreciates what a wonderful company Cottons was: a new modern factory with excellent facilities; a sympathetic management approach to the workforce; and good mates to work with. It is true that sometimes he would really question why he was putting up with loneliness; insect bites; stomach upsets; unrecognisable food; cold and dirty hotel rooms; and an inability to cope with foreign languages. But overall, he had some amazing experiences.
In the late 1970s, John was asked to join the development department. Cottons needed to computerise its machines to compete in the world market. John teamed-up with a computer boffin from the university. He provided the hands-on knowledge of the working machine while the computer expert dealt with the computerising. In fact, John tasked himself to learn about computing, coding and information technology so that the two could work together as partners. In the end, Cottons began to decline – they’d probably been too late in the modernisation process. In the later years John was made Technical Manager but made redundant when Cottons finally closed in 1996.
Undaunted, John walked into a job at British Home Stores Warehouse, heading the department that managed and serviced two computerised sorting systems – really a precursor to what Amazon uses now. He was in his element! Even better, he got deeply involved in the creation of a BHS website.
And so now, I had got my answer: John gained his very specialised expertise via a succession of extraordinary jobs, some glamorous, some horrific, and all because he bought a car at the age of 20.
We thank John for his steadfast determination, skill and generous giving of his time. He must have spent hundreds of hours transferring Barrow births, marriages and deaths from old microfiches of census data. At least he gets the satisfaction of glowing and grateful emails from all round the world!
So, thanks John for the websites and all you have done for Barrow Voice and everything else!
Judith Rodgers