Listers,
I greatly doubt any of you will have ever known or met this man,
though its highly likely his name will appear in the index pages of
Standard and Triumph books under the authorship of Messrs Piggott and
Robson.
This is just to let you know that one of the very few surviving
members of the former senior management team at Standard Triumph in
those early post-war years has died. His name was John Morell
(sometimes written Morel, Murrell) and he was for many years the UK
Service Manager. In this capacity, he did a great deal for the
Company's after sales image - not only in the UK but Overseas as
well. It needs to be said that John a gentleman in the true sense of
the word and he was a gentle man too. Kind, considerate, caring,
forward thinking, extremely popular with both his staff and all those
with whom he came in contact - but above all, an able and highly
competent engineer.
Sadly, I was unable to attend his funeral which took place today
(Thursday) - though my long standing chum, Paul Richardson, was
there. I feel confident that in the quieter moments both during
John's Service in Church and later at his cremation, there was a
symbolic dimming of headlights, occasioned hopefully by the souls of
the cars that we know and love who, unlike all of us, had prior
knowledge of his passing.
I was on the former factory site earlier this week and was gently
reminded that as I looked around me for not the first time this year
- that the place is full of ghosts. Now there is just one more name
to add to an already very long list.
It is perhaps appropriate to mention that the numbers of that former
management team to which John belonged (and who still survive him)
can now be counted on the fingers of one hand. All of them are now
very old men, still gracious as they always were and sad to say,
their style is not reflected by those who have followed them (under
the name of Rover.)
John Mac
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