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Presentations in Wolverhampton
On Monday 2nd
April, 1894, the Express & Star reported that a large
number of officials and workmen employed by the Electric
Construction Corporation, Bushbury, met at the Victoria Hotel,
Wolverhampton, on Saturday evening, for the purpose of making
presentations to members of staff who were leaving the company.
They were Messrs. J.H. Woodward, E.S.G. Rees, C.H. Iles, and Mr.
Armistead. Unfortunately Mr. Armistead was not present that
evening.
The chair was occupied by Mr.
Thomas Parker, and he was supported on the platform by Messrs.
Richard Jones, Westwood, Hussey, Green, Cadwallader, Dodd, May,
and Rock.
Each gentleman was presented
with an address in a neatly-bound album, containing photos of
several foremen, clerks and employees, and also 180 signatures
to a testimonial. The address ran as follows:
We the foremen and employees of the
Electric Construction Company, Limited desire to express our
great regret at your resignation of the position you have held
in connection with our company, and our deep sense of the value
of your services both to Elwell-Parker Limited and the present
company during the past seven years; and to assure you that your
departure will be felt by us all. We beg you to accept this
album as a token of the excellent and kindly relations which
have always subsisted between us during our joint service under
the company, and our heartiest wishes for your future prosperity
and well being.
Signed: R. Jones, Chairman; J. Westwood,
Vice-Chairman; W. Cadwallader, Treasurer; and A.E. Robinson,
Secretary.
Mr. Parker, in making the presentations,
referred to the perfect harmony which until recently had existed
between the officers and the staff engaged at the Bushbury
Electrical Works, and regretted that so many changes had been
found necessary. In addition to the resignation of the four
gentlemen in receipt of souvenirs, they had also lost Mr.
Walton, and no doubt the company would regret the retirement of
Mr. Moore, who was in charge of the drawing office and is now
leaving for America.
Upon the point of Mr. Parker’s own severance
from the E.C.C., he said that there were many circumstances
which need not be reviewed at that meeting, but owing to some of
the serious matters that had lately been forced upon him, he
jocularly compared his “lot” to that of the policeman in the
Pirates of Penzance, which was not a very “happy one”; still he
had a duty to perform to himself as well as those under him, and
although he preferred peace best, he could not help fighting
when there was any fighting to be done. Work was his motto, and
he congratulated his men upon having done good service in the
past.
He believed more in paying good wages to
first-class servants and workmen, than in tolerating the parade
of so many useless top hats and big collars. Good workmen too,
should be kindly treated instead of bullied, harassed, and
worried as they often were without cause or reason. Not
withstanding matters as they stood at present, he has that day
secured another order for the works at Bushbury, and, although
they might not all meet together again as on the present
occasion, they might rest assured that he would continue to do
the best that lay in his power to promote the interests of those
around him.
(great applause).
Messrs. Woodward, Rees and Iles each thanked
the subscribers, and bore testimony to the high business
character of Mr. Parker, who had well trained his leading men in
the knowledge of electricity. Mr. Rees thoroughly believed that
he and his colleagues had only done their duty by severing their
connection with the company. After short speeches by Messrs.
Jones, Westwood, Hussey (foremen), and Robinson (head chemist),
wishing the recipients long life and prosperity in all their
future undertakings, Mr. A.B. Jones gave the well known
recitation, “Horatius,” and the remainder of the evening was
spent in harmony and general conviviality.
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