A delightful correspondence from a childhood friend........

Hi John, I read your letter in the Cornishman a while ago and it left me wondering if you are the John Paull who I went to school with much longer ago than I care to think about ? I'm John Martin who, at that time, lived in Leskinnick Place, Penzance. If you are the John Paull who I remember we both went to St.Paul’s Junior School and then on to Penzance Grammar. It would be great if you could send me a reply to confirm one way or the other.

Take care, best wishes---------------------------John Martin

Hi again John, well spotted ! I thought that I sent you that info but, on reading my e-mail again, it looks as though I forgot. Yes that's me 4th. from the left, front row. It gets more and more difficult to remember all the names of the lads in the photo and, sadly, quite a few are no longer with us.

I remember well listening to your brother, Jimmy, and my brother, Peter, singing duets at St.Johns Church. My brother, sadly, died 3 years ago at the age of 74. He had cancer but left it too late to do anything about it !

In front of you on the end of the row is Steve Palk, who turned out to be a likable rogue ! Obviously, living down here, I met up with him from time to time but had quite a shock back in the eighties when working with S.W.E.B., the then local electricity supply company, to meet up with him again on Scilly. We were engineering the link up of the Off Islands to the generating station on the main island and Steve did the ferrying of equipment and personnel in his small cargo boat.

After several years working in engineering in Cornwall I moved to the Midlands, near Worcester, and worked for a company manufacturing gearboxes for marine and industrial installations. I spent about 14 years there and travelled quite a lot supervising the service, repair and installation of both the marine and industrial gearboxes. They were not your normal gearbox but were mainly epicyclic gearboxes which transmitted up to 35,000 S.H.P. Most of the ships were huge tankers and container ships up to 400,000 tons. The industrial side were mainly installed in power stations of various types.

After 14 years Cornwall was calling me back as the one thing Worcestershire did not have was the SEA ! We moved back in 1979 and I joined the local electricity supply company on the substation engineering team. Very different type of work which, when working on voltages up to 132,000 volts, certainly made one concentrate !

S.W.E.B. was bought by a company from Atlanta in the U.S. called Southern Electric in about 1992 and they immediately started to reduce staffing levels. I was offered an early retirement package, which as it was so generous I couldn't refuse, in 1996 at the age of 54 ! I have done little work since and consider myself to be one of the lucky ones who has been able to do my own thing for many years.

Sorry for the long epistle--------------------------------you may regret getting in touch l.o.l I'm sure that we have many memories to share.

Thanks so much for replying. Best wishes------------------------John.Hi again John, yes I would love a copy of your e-book but must confess that I have no idea how it works. I have tablet as well as my P.C. so will get my grandson to give me a rundown on how to read your book !! As with most things in this computer age, the young people have grown up with it and find it much easier to cope. Obviously I had to use computers with my work but, initially, I found myself going back to using the old tried and tested formulae on occasions just to make sure !

My career in engineering seems very parochial when I look at what you have achieved but I think that you were correct when you said that I had had the best of times. The best of times on two counts-------one of being able to experience so many varied aspects of engineering and two having had such a good basic training. I have leaned on my training on countless occasions and felt good being able to say, when promoted to a supervisory level, that I would show someone how to complete a task if they were unsure !! I think that this is one of the main problems in industry today that personnel who make the decisions, in lots of cases, lack the basic training to make an informed decision. Training in engineering in this Country, in the main, has been reduced to about 2 to 3 years and I think that it is impossible to absorb such a complex subject in such a short time ! My apprenticeship involved 5 years added to which was a year as a "journeyman" whereby, for that year you were serving a sort of probationary period so not on full pay ! I may be wrong but I think that, in any profession, you need a good basic training and, thinking back to our schooldays, I wonder what sort of training some of our teachers had ?

My retirement, to a large extent, has been taken up with helping some primary schools in Uganda. When working for SWEB back in 1988 we had 2 Ugandans from the Uganda Electricity Board with us for 6 months training. I became quite friendly with them outside of work, as at weekends they were mostly left to their own devices. My wife and I had them over for meals and generally showed them some of Cornwall. The friendship carried on over the years after they had returned to Uganda first with letters then with e-mails. In 2001 we decided to go out to Uganda for a holiday and pay them a visit whilst there. The chap who was with me for 6 months, Francis, borrowed his nieces vehicle to take us on a week's tour of most of Southern Uganda during which time we visited a small rural primary school. What a culture shock----------- 7 classes but only, what could be loosely described as, 4 classrooms ! We decided, on our return to U.K., that we would do something to make the lives of the pupils at that school a little more bearable. On our return we set about raising funds by many different means and, in the beginning, sent money out to start on building a proper school. On our second visit, some 6 months late, we found that some of the money had " gone missing " and that building work had not progressed as far as it should have done. On seeing this we decided that no work should take place unless we were in the country and that we would make our visit to Uganda our annual holiday. It has been a long, and sometimes, uphill struggle but we finished building work in 2005 and there are now 265, last count, children who now have a solid school instead of having to be taught under the trees and having to go home when it rained. We finished the building off completely only last year as plastering the outside and inside, painting the inside and providing a library took a lot longer than we thought it would ! It has been a wonderful, life changing, experience and we feel very privileged to have been able to so close to people, who are far worse off than us, and make a real difference to their lives.

We now have 4 schools which we are helping to a greater or lesser degree. Now, having finished the school, our visits mainly involve taking out sports kits which are of no more use to local clubs here in Cornwall, something we have done from day one. We also have some primary schools here linked with the school we built and the staff and pupils communicate via e-mails. It has been good to see the children over here see what conditions are like, first hand, in primary schools in another country and maybe, just maybe, realise just how lucky they are !

How are things over there ? Are you noticing any changes with this downturn that everywhere is experiencing ? We are noticing many changes in services provided by Cornwall Council now that the Government have made big cuts to subsidies paid to local councils. I may be slightly cynical but I think, certainly over here, that we have to get back to a culture involving less supervisory expenditure and thereby releasing my cash for the job in hand.

I believe that you have been experiencing some really bad floods in your part of the U.S. and hope that you have not been affected by them. You may have heard about the flooding in Newlyn earlier in the year when the river broke its banks and flooded all the way from the old Gaiety cinema right the way through to the fish market to a depth of 3 feet in places !

Hey, this started as a short "yes, please" I would like a copy of your book ! Sorry about that. Take care and best wishes--------------------John.

I'm not sure what you meant about linking your wife's pupils with our project. We rely on 1 teacher sending e-mails and, occasionally, some photos from an elderly laptop which was donated by a primary school in Camborne. There is no Skype, no possibility of a video link and all telephone calls are via a mobile phone which tends to be expensive ! I did get Francis, the chap I had with me for training, to have a look to see if the electricity network could be extended to the school but it would need 3 kms of poles so would prove to be a very expensive exercise. Our next project is to provide some form of solar power so that they can at least recharge the battery on the laptop. We have, some time ago, provided each teacher with a small solar charger so that they can recharge their mobile phone batteries.

I do have some DVD's, just a case of finding them, which I made to show the children in the Cornish schools which we go to so that they could at least see what things are really like in a rural primary school in Africa. You or your wife would be very welcome to have a copy of them and I could post them off via snail mail if you forward your home address. Don't expect 20th. Century Fox or anything approaching it ! They are very amateurish but seemed to hold the attention of the 10yr. olds who watched them !

At the school, which is in a very rural location about 6 miles out into the bush from the nearest town, there is no electricity or running water ! Until 5 years ago each class had to send 2 pupils on a trek of 1.5 kms. to fetch water in 20 ltr. plastic jerrycans every morning. After years of badgering the local village elders we got a borehole, with a hand pump, dug about 50mtrs from the school !

Take good care, best wishes-------------------------------John.

Hi again John, thanks for the e-book. I'll try to get my teeth around it to download it later on !

I have no problem with your sharing our experiences with anyone you care to share it with. Our Idea of getting our local Cornish children involved was to give them, first hand, some idea of what life is like in Africa and what a struggle everyday life is. It also, I very much hope, makes them realise how lucky they are !

I will have to give your offer of help some thought as to how best to go with that one but, in the meantime, a very big thank you.

Why " Mike " well it's a nickname from later school days which stuck and now very few people call me " John ", except my sister who insists on calling me John.
I'm Mike to all my friends who I have met in adult life so I was Mike when my wife met me, and so the name has just stuck !

As for a photo-------------I'll see what I can find and send it on.

Best wishes-----------------------------John

Hi again John, We usually ask the Headmaster about the textbook situation around January time and get a few of the main textbooks from a list whilst we are
there. Due to many reasons, one of which being security at present situation, we may not go to Uganda next year. This does not mean that we will not be helping
them ! We have a Teacher, a Mr. Misaeri, whom we have know from day one and we have sent money to him many times. He always keeps receipts and we have
a secondary check with Western Union. Next January we will ask for the list, as usual, and send some money via Western Union.

We would indeed be very grateful if your wife's fifth graders would consider some help in this direction. We will also send some money for exercise books and
pencils which they can buy locally at the shop we use out there.

We learnt today that we will have another laptop to take out with us on our next visit courtesy of Roskear Primary School, Camborne. We aim to give this laptop to
Mr. Miaeri to enable him to get up to speed with I.T.

Best wishes------------------John.

Hi John, I've just finished your book and found it very interesting. Interesting to note that Bill Browse met David Hawkins in Entebbe, Uganda ! Your description of your early years was spot on and very similar to mine. I think we all tend to forget just what times were like in our youth and just how hard it must have been for our Parents managing on such low wages ! My father was a gardener so his wages were just about as low as you can get. I can remember my wages overtaking his wages in about the 4th. year of my engineering apprenticeship ! I can also remember that some kids had the lot i.e. bicycles, train sets, decent fishing gear etc. etc.  I don't have any regrets about my childhood as more or less everyone was in the same boat so you didn't notice that much. I can't ever remember being bored as there just were not enough hours in the day for me ! It was only when I started at the Grammar School that I felt that, somehow, I didn't quite fit in ! Some of the teachers didn't help the situation and gave people like myself even more of a feeling that we were slightly different to the people from a different background to mine !

My first teacher there was Doffy Behenna in form 1B. He was, I now know, the ultimate snob. Can you remember the lengths he went to getting us to sound our H's and R's properly when singing ? I did not enjoy my fist year one bit and the next year one little bit ! Can you remember Charlie McArthy the art teacher ( alias Charlie Chair leg ) and his piece of chair leg with which he would give you rap on the head if you were dreaming ! He called it his " brain stimulator " ! Can you imagine a teacher getting away with treating a child like that nowadays ?

I heard some bad news this week as Stevie Palk, front row extreme left in St.Pauls photo, died early in the week. R.I.P. As I said in a previous e-mail he was quite a local character and I'm sure that he will be missed in the maritime fraternity.

Take care, best wishes-------------------John

Hi again John, yes very sad about Stevie and quite sudden really. As far as I know he was diagnosed with throat cancer a few months ago and, despite treatment, he succumbed to it last week. Whether he had the symptoms earlier and didn't go to the see the doctor or not I don't know.

During his late teens he was a very talented motorcycle rider and used to be very highly rated with the speed hill climb fraternity. I think he would have gone on to have become known Nationally but all this came to an end in about 1962 when his brother, Tony Palk was killed. Tony, with his girlfriend on the pillion, were riding back from Trevalor woods one evening on Tony's motorcycle when Tony failed to negotiate a corner and crashed. They were both killed outright and Stevie's father banned him from owning or riding a motorcycle ever again ! His father gave him the money to go and buy a Mini the very next day. 

I think originally he joined his father in the Family wood working and funeral business but he was not so happy with this sort of work. His heart was really in the sea and to that end he studied, got his seagoing ticket, and after skippering for a while eventually got his own small cargo ship. She was an ex Scottish Puffer ( a small cargo boat designed to be beached in small coves to serve the off islands around Scotland ) and, after serious renovation work which included removing the steam main engine and exchanging it for a diesel engine, he put it to work locally and further afield where ever the work carried him !  She was named the " Crazy Diamond " which summed up the owner to a tee. As I said in an earlier e-mail, I came across him again when we were installing the inter Island electrical link on the Isles of Scilly. He was also involved in a lot of diving work both locally and in other areas and brought some quite valuable artefacts up from the deep over the years.

Later on he sold Crazy Diamond and bought a much larger vessel which he, again, used for diving work but he also used it for salvage work on disused sub-marine cables. He made a very good living retrieving these redundant cables and selling them on as scrap !  I seemed to have lost contact with him recently and only saw him on the odd occasion but he had bought a very fast ex. Scandinavian Patrol boat which he was going to convert and set up for high speed cruises in Mounts Bay !

The photo was taken during my time with W.H.Allen  Gearing in Pershore, Worcestershire and shows me, on the right, assembling a set of gearing for a large cargo ship of 290,000 tons. 

Best wishes, John.

p.s. lets see what the years have done for, or should I say to, you !!!!!!!!!!!!!