16 - G.H.R. Towers, John Redhead and Sons Ltd.

Summary

I was fortunate enough to have a chance of two family jobs. My father was an Average Adjuster, a shipping lawyer, and my mother was a Redhead, and I was asked if I would like to join Redheads. I served three years in the Drawing Office, and then went outside into the yard. The success of Redheads was that we had three departments. We built and engined the whole ship including making lifeboats. When shipbuilding was going down, ship repairing kept us going. We also did a lot of engineering work for other people. After seven years I was given the job of Assistant Manager. Then my uncle, Sir James Redhead died, by which time I had been made a Director of the company. The family decided that I should take on the job of Managing Director, but I do not now think I was ready for it. Redheads were a family company, which had a large proportion of people who had a father or grandfather working there. There was a Geordie saying that, “you canna get a job at Redheeds unless you see a coffin gan oot.”

The mistake that was made, where I was concerned, was that I should have been sent to another shipyard for at least a year or two to gain experience. The strength of Redheads was that we built a good ship, and had a good reputation. I know for a fact that we got ships, although we were not always the lowest price. I became Managing Director in 1940, and held that position until Swan Hunter took us over post-Geddes [1968\.

We specialised in cargo vessels, and had exceptionally good labour relations. There were about twenty-one trade unions in our engine works and shipyard, and I had difficulty when transferring men from one department to another as his wages had to be adapted to the department for which he was working. Generally speaking, we were a happy outfit, but there was nearly always too many people employed to do the job. We tried to install new machines, and in some cases we were not allowed to do so by the trade unions.