IHEEM HISTORY AND HERITAGE
Aviation apprenticeship an excellent grounding
The April 2018 HEJ article looking back at IHEEM’s early history and some of its key milestones brought back memories for a former chairman of the IHEEM Publications Committee, Amos Millington, whose own NHS career began in 1965 when he started work as the Deputy Group Engineer to the Salford Hospital Management Committee, having cut his teeth engineering-wise during an apprenticeship with legendary British aviation manufacturer, de Havilland. HEJ’s editor, Jonathan Baillie, spoke to him about his engineering career, some of his most memorable experiences, and some of the interesting people he met along the way.
Now 77, and living in Manchester (he grew up in nearby Walkden), Amos Millington wrote to me at HEJ in mid-April this year to say how much he had enjoyed reading the article in that month’s issue, ‘Early engineers’ lot was not an easy one’. One significant omission from my article, however, his letter noted, had been any mention of one of the Institute’s early Secretaries, John Furness, who, with the support of his wife, ‘worked tirelessly to successfully improve the status of the Institute and its members’. Amos Millington said: “In those days, the Institute was run and managed by just two people – John Furness, and an able office assistant, Rosemary Hewitt. It was during their tenure that the Institute moved from its London base to Portsmouth, with financial benefit for the Institute, and domestic benefit for John, since, being an ex-naval man, Southsea was his domicile.” (The Institute’s) Council meetings were still held in London (with Amos Millington’s favourite location being the Royal Society of Arts). He added: “In recognition of his work as Institute Secretary, John Furness was deservedly awarded an MBE.”
‘A driving force’ ‘‘
After I received Amos Millington’s initial letter – he subsequently wrote me a second, containing more information – we had had an interesting telephone conversation, during which we talked a little more about the ‘invaluable work’ done by John Furness, although he admitted his own information on the former Institute Secretary was limited.
the rank of Commander.” (Any HEJ readers who know more about John Furness and his professional and IHEEM activities are encouraged to write in to me at
jonathanbaillie@stepcomms.com).
Amos Millington, a former chairman of the IHEEM Publications Committee, enjoyed a long and successful NHS career.
Former IHEEM President WJ (Bill) Smith had, however, told him: “John Furness was the driving force behind, and formed the core of, the Institute when I joined in 1970. He worked so hard for it, especially in organising the annual conferences, and was a great supporter of the Branches. I don’t know much about his personal life, except that he came to us from the Navy. The Institute’s headquarters were at his home in Portsmouth for some years, and when we moved to our own premises, it was best to stay in Portsmouth to retain him. He was followed as Secretary by a succession of retired naval officers, all of
John Furness was the driving force behind, and formed the core of, the Institute when I joined in 1970. He worked so hard for it, especially in organising the annual conferences, and was a great supporter of the Branches
Presidential ‘Roll of Honour’ While fulsome in his praise for John Furness’s work, Amos Millington said he had also enjoyed reading about, and subsequently reminiscing on, the ‘Keele courses’ and Eastwood Park visits, as well as the Presidential Roll of Honour that has run in HEJ on a continuing basis in the Institute’s 75th Anniversary year looking back at Past-Presidents. He went on to discuss with me his own very varied career and IHEEM links, explaining that, alongside his professional duties, he was, for about a two-year period in 1982/1983, chairman of the IHEEM Publications Committee. The IHEEM journal – at the time known as Hospital Engineering – was then published by Mallard Publications in London’s ‘Bank’ in the ‘Square Mile’. He said: “Mallard’s logo was a picture of the famous locomotive, the Mallard. I discovered that the director of the company was a keen locomotive enthusiast; hence the name. For reasons I cannot recall, the contact with Mallard subsequently came to an end, and John and I travelled to Blackheath to interview and appoint a new publisher.”
Apprenticeship with de Havilland Returning to discuss his own engineering career, Amos Millington explained that, not long after leaving school, he began a five-year apprenticeship with De Havilland in Lostock near Bolton, joining the famous aircraft manufacturer in 1957, where he was tasked with looking after components such as aeroplane propellers and undercarriages for military aircraft, and parts for guided missiles such as the Firestreak. He said: “It was a well- structured apprenticeship at a factory originally established during World War II.
August 2018 Health Estate Journal 39
©Amos Millington
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