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Photos: Geoff Moxon
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Cpl
GEOFF
MOXON
ECE Mech M & G Platoon REME Workshops |
What happened to some of the Old Pals who served with us? Fortunately some of those who we remember from 47 Regt. Royal Artillery and the REME Workshops, stationed in Napier Barracks, 1957 - 1966 (or thereabouts) have found us, and we present their stories here. |
I left the Army in 1964. After a very short time at Nottingham University working as a technician, I started with ADT and aside from trouble shooting bank vault alarms, I became a central station supervisor. It was really interesting work aside from the shifts, as I never really recovered from working nights. It was well paid though and when we left England for Canada in 1970 I had 50% equity in a nearly new detached house outside Nottingham.
The money evaporated on travel fares, a car, an apartment rental (plus deposit) and car insurance, within two months and I was in panic without a job, virtually no furniture and two kids. In desperation I took a job selling photocopiers for Olivetti, which was a terrible way to earn a living, but I did learn that I had skills as a salesman. I eventually got work as a salesman for ADT in Vancouver and made so much money the next year that I paid more tax than I had earned in England.
After 15 months of what proved eventually to be a two year strike (very acrimonious, even dangerous in the end) I accepted a job at Honeywell, initially selling maintenance contracts in Industrial instrumentation.
Of course Industrial instrumentation was almost perfectly suited to my army Electronic control equipment mechanic training (I believe we called it ECEMEC but have no idea if or how we would spell that). Technical sales were perfect for me and I loved it as it is very well paid, has lots of freedom and virtually limitless opportunities for advancement. I could have taken many promotions if I had been prepared to move from Vancouver but simply am not.
With Honeywell footing most of the bill I did a 3 year course in business management at the University of BC.
Most of the last 35 years have been as a regional manager first with Honeywell and then
with Rosemount Instruments. I retired at 59 in 1999 and got a generous severance package as they appreciated me offering to go instead of laying one of my
other engineers off. Talk about being lucky, as six months after I retired they closed Rosemount Canada and rolled the direct sales force into the Fisher Reps.
(Emerson had purchased Fisher some years before). My job would have been virtually toast anyway so I picked a perfect time to go.
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