Peter Russell – Costs Department

My name is Peter Russell. I joined Standard Triumph straight from school in 1964 as a clerk in the Cost Office at Canley. In my time it was situated in the large open office immediately behind the Canley Reception suite and Directors Offices.

I can recall some names from my Cost Office days :-

Ralph Lawrence (Cost Office Manager)

Brian Skelcher (Cost Office Section Leader)

June Huggup

Shiela Marsden or Marston (?)

Susan Lestrange

Nichola Evans

Tom Braund

Tony Gibbs

Philip Moore

Les Whalley

Harry Gordon (Bennett?)

Doug Swann

Doug Gill

Anne Leopold

In the photograph accompanying the Cost Office Part 2 article on the website (Oh! What memories that brought back!) I think I can identify one person not already named, the gentleman 6th from the right, just behind Susan Lestrange, we used to call Harry. I think his surname may have been Gordon, or possibly Bennett.

Tom Braund and I were neighbours for a while in Eastern Green, Coventry, sharing a lift to work. Sometime later, when giving Susan Lestrange a lift home from work one day, I remember she was a passenger in my Herald convertible when we were hit in the rear by a driver who must have been asleep! The car was never quite the same again. I don’t know about Susan!

After about 2 years in the Cost Office I moved to the Buying Office. This was located in the same large office area at Canley. I started as a Progress Chaser on the Steel Bar and Sheet section. Names I can recall are:-

Bill Randle (Manager)

George Milne (Section Leader)

Gordon Chinn (Buyer)

When Gordon left I became a Buyer, some time later moving over to the Castings & Forgings section working with:-

Len Freeman (Section Leader)

Mike List (Buyer)

Maggie Callaghan (Secretary)

The Department Manager was Ted Collier, with Joyce Swann as his Secretary.

Other names I can recall from the Buying Dept. are:-

Peter Graham White (Supplies Director) – I was his P.A. for a short time immediately before his retirement. A true gentleman of the ‘old school’.

Arthur Hines (Hinds?)

Frank Randle

Tom Skelcher

Bill Carroll

Anne Shakespeare

Charlie Killick

Tom Jones (sadly deceased)

Peter Clarke

Nick Sutton

Ray Hay

I finally left the Company in 1975 to work in the aircraft industry.

My father was Ernest ‘Jim’ Russell. It was my father, together with another chap, George Brooks, who founded the ‘Standard Swimming Club’ which used to meet at the Livingstone Road swimming baths every Thursday night.

 I hope this information is useful to you in your quest for Standard Triumph employees.  Peter Russell.
(Incredibly useful, thank you Peter – ED)