John Ric
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Tier
WHAT visitors to the Bristol Royal Show s they saw an authentic Olde Englishe a moving across the show ground is not That it was transported by one of Watney, Coml vehicles is, however, a matter of history and prid( Lemmer: it was photographed and the picture al office. This is just one of the gimmicks he thinks time to time, for everything connected with the o transport seems to fall within his responsibility—e• aspects of it which either verge on the advertisin; enter plumb into the centre of it. Brewers are not people who value their transport as a publicity of course. But they do pay a great deal of alti smartness as well as down-to-earth efficiency, and Combe Reid have, in John Lemmer, a true special matter. A member of the judges' panel of th British Coach Rally, he also judges other similar But, after all, it would be difficult to find any ptransport industry with which he's not familiar. 1 at it now for .34 years, from the day he was appre the old L.G.O.C, until this culmination of his ca the Watney, Mann Group. As an appre: learned the techniques of engine overhaul, asser testing—in fact, the whole gambit of automobile ing. As transport manager and engineer, the po held since 1957, he has to bring into operation all he ever acquired in the realm of engineering l is perhaps even more important, the ability to ut and get on with people and the art of delegatio some -1,400 heavy vehicles and hundreds of can after, you simply have to delegate. Though, of i he had to, John Lemmer could take his coat off z a cunning spanner with the best of them.
Yes, he has been right through the mill: after 1 is an apprentice he was for 11 years a tester in imental research department at London Transswick Works, to become chief tester in 1942 and ital inspector and technical assistant in the office velopment officer in 1945. A year later we find him as chief engineer of West Midland Roadways, Ltd., Branston, Burton-on-Trent (an appointment which, despite its venue, appears to have played no part in bringing him to the brewing industry). This was a big job: he was now responsible for the maintenance, repair and overhaul of 200 commercial light and heavy vehicles, with a staff of 130. He was becoming recognized outside the immediate sphere of his daily work, for the War Office called upon him to arrange engineering training courses for R.A.S.C. and R.E.M.E. officers, and he served on the engineering advisory committee of Burton-on-Trent Technical College. This leaning towards the educational side of the industry revealed itself in the ensuing few years when, as a district engineer in the Road Haulage Executive, he was responsible for the engineering course for senior personnel, doing some lecturing himself. Some exoticism crept into this extra-mural activity: he drew up the training curriculum for officers in the Indian and Turkish armies.
But more job changes were to come. Next on the list was the position of divisional automotive engineer (Southern industrial division) Mobil Oil Company, when he advised the divisional manager on such matters as automobile engineering and the correct technical application of fuels and lubricants. Instruction again fell within his field: some engineers and all salesmen now came in for instruction.
By now his reputation had spread wide. Mobil Oil made him engineering consultant to several large transport firms numbered among their customers, and it was while carrying out this highly responsible and, in some ways, delicate work that he met his present employers at Mortlake.
Expert at Briefing
Among his lieutenants at Mortlake he has the reputation of being an expert in briefing. He expresses what he is after with consummate clarity, then he leaves them to get on with the job without exhausting niggling and nagging. He has learned how to let well alone—but I would not care to be the member of his staff to trip up through carelessness or neglect. I should think he's a tough customer!
Recently a directorship of Swift Garages, Ltd., was added to his tasks. This company is an offshoot of the brewery. When an appraising look was taken at the very considerable and widespread Watney, Combe Reid properties, it was discovered that not only were they more considerable than had at first been thought, but they included more garages than had been supposed. It was 'thereupon decided to form a separate company—Swift Garages—to operate them as a separate and going concern, covering the whole field, servicing, fuel and sales.
So his career goes forward: organizing one of the largest departments of its kind, experimenting with new vehicles or new modifications of delivery methods—methods, it must be emphasized, which are never static, but always progressing—and all the same sparing time to take his part in the councils of the industry. I confess I was unaware of the existence of the London Brewers' Transport Committee, a sort of "Round Table" consisting of the London brewery managers, at which problems common to all are discussed. They even lay bare their modifications to each other without jealousy or envy! It would seem, therefore, that bonhomie, often born of the stuff they transport, is as characteristic of the jolly brewers' transport managers as of the jolly brewers themselves.
And when he leaves the office to seek his well-earned relaxation, what do you think he does? Goes motor racing, of course, also plays golf (he is a member of the Transport Golfing Society), goes boating, and often joins his sons in an enthusiastic go-kart team.—H.C.