Standard Triumph Works Directory
Documenting Employees of the Standard and Triumph Works
THE STANDARD Canley works came to be built when the founder of the company, Reginald Maudslay, felt he needed to break away from restricted sites at Bishopsgate Green and Much Park Street.
A series of A-framed sheds were constructed in 1915, the three earliest being fronted by a substantial red brick office building, the Ivy Cottage. In these workshops large numbers of First World War fighter planes were produced before the Armistice.
At 12 noon on 16 April 2000, a monument to Standard Triumph was unveiled on Herald Avenue, on the site of the old Canley factory in the outskirts of Coventry, just behind the Standard Triumph Recreation Club – the last remaining original building of the factory complex. The unveiling was performed jointly by the Right Worshipful the Lord Mayor of the City of Coventry, Cllr Mrs Joan Wright, and Harry Webster CBE. Cllr Wright was herself a past employee at Canley and Harry Webster was their chief engineer from 1954 to 1968.
The story of two men who both worked for the same company – by one of them. The book is divided into two parts.
The first part deals with the life and career of Charles Macartney, who joined The Standard Motor Company in 1921 as a mechanic in the Coventry Service Department. After two years, he became ‘mobile’ on his 1915 Triumph motorcycle, visiting customers around the country and repairing or servicing their cars at their homes. This was long before the days of a franchised dealer network to undertake such work. By 1928, Charles became the Company’s Service Manager.
Continue reading “Charles and John Macartney”
Official Launch 18th January, 2017.
93 entries in the database.
Online register and memories of ex-Standard Triumph Employees
We have developed a new initiative to collate and document info on ALL the ex-employees from Standard/Triumph over the years – from our sister site (www.triumph-herald.com) have been sent so much info, which isn’t necessarily Herald related, but is so important we thought it all needed to be saved some how – hence this new site.
We’d love you to get involved…
What’s the Idea with the Database?
Fascinated with stories from ex-employees from Standard, Standard Triumph and Triumph, we thought we would collate and document as many of these memories. We’d love you to get involved by adding as much or as little information as possible to the archive. Ultimately, we’d like a list of every worker, the years they worked there and which department, or part of the factory.
This, we appreciate, needs to start somewhere – so perhaps you can help with a name Smith, John for instance – it gives us something to aim for.
You can submit as many names as you wish – you may have worked in the same department with Steve Smith, John Evans and Bob Jones, so you can submit their names either independently, one for each submission, or as a list in the description, and we’ll pull them out, to list on their own.
Life at Standard Triumph
by Martin Longmore
Reproduced via ‘oldclassiccar’
It was 3rd, August 1969 and I was starting my first day’s work at Standard-Triumph Motor Company in Coventry. Full of anticipation I parked my old 1951 Riley and made my way to ‘Ivy Cottage’, the reception area, and asked for Harold Knibbs, who was to become my manager. My interview with Mr. Knibbs had gone far better than expected and I was duly given the job. He was an affable gentleman of the old school, well dressed and very polite.
My father had worked at the company during WW2, and was a friend of long-standing with John Bevington who, at that time, was Personnel Manager, or so I believe. They both enjoyed trout fishing together and it was John Bevington who introduced Sir John Black to the sport. I remember my father telling me that one day he had a telephone call from John Bevington, telling him to be outside of the reception area at 11.00am where a car and driver would be waiting to take him to Billy Lane’s fishing tackle shop, in Coventry. Once there he was to choose some good quality trout fishing gear, creel, rods and flies etc, and the driver would pay for these items by cheque. The fishing gear was for Sir John, as he was going to try his hand at the sport. John Bevington had suggested my father choose the gear as he was an experienced fly fisherman. How Mr. Black got on with his sport is unknown to me, but my father and I spent many happy hours together fishing with John Bevington before, and for some time after, his retirement, until he decided in the early seventies to migrate to New Zealand with his long time friend Ken Green and family. Ken had just secured a position overseeing the distributorship in NZ. I continued corresponding with JB by letter as he had known me since my birth, until his death in the late seventies.