Thanks Sandway, that’s a great photo of Graham. 
I have just been doing a search to see if I could find the thread that was started by Rocket Ron’s wife several years ago and here is the link. There are a couple of good photos on there and if any body still contacts George Fardell can they ask him if he was South African or Rhodesia. I am sure that he told me in The National in Belgrade over 35 years ago that he was in Rhodesia.
The guy driving the Promotors Ford D series in the photo may of been called Roger.
In the mid to late 70’s I was on a Ford clinic on my way to Nurnberg when I parked up for the night on the Autobahn just north of town. At 7 next morning I awoke to the sound of a truck reversing near me. It got closer and closer and I had a peek out of the curtains. It was another Promotor outfit. He had seen me parked up in the lay-by and and stopped on the Autobahn before reversing back into it. Luckily for him there was no one trying to leave. I got up, dressed and went to talk to him. The very first thing he said was “ello blue, wanna coffee”. My first introduction to Graham Bertram. One of the nicest blokes around. I got to know him well over the next few years. I invited him and his lovely Filipino wife and children to a party we once held at Paddock Wood. Great family. It was so sad when he died aged just 62.
George is English but spent a considerable amount of time in Rhodesia.
mushroomman:
Thanks Sandway, that’s a great photo of Graham.
I have just been doing a search to see if I could find the thread that was started by Rocket Ron’s wife several years ago and here is the link. There are a couple of good photos on there and if any body still contacts George Fardell can they ask him if he was South African or Rhodesia. I am sure that he told me in The National in Belgrade over 35 years ago that he was in Rhodesia.
The guy driving the Promotors Ford D series in the photo may of been called Roger.
George told me that he had served in the Rhodesian army and the South African Police Force. As I remember his father had made the family’s money in Rhodesia.
The Roger who used to drive the Ford D, usually to Spain to pick up repat cars was Roger Oakley.
Luckily, on the photo of Buggsy the wind is not blowing directly at him. When it did his hair used to get blown up and stand up straight. But it split into two parts and looked like a couple of horns on his head. I had some really good laughs with Buggsy, in fact my first trip for Pro’s I drove back from Bucharest with him and Rocket Ron. Well, as far as Bratislava, where they decided to take a day off and I kept going. ha ha ha
Picture shows Graham parked outside our Longfield Road depot in Tunbridge Wells. Date is obviously 1987 cos its on the side of his trailer. I think by this time he had perfected the comb over to cover up the less inhabited areas of his dome.
sandway:
Picture shows Graham parked outside our Longfield Road depot in Tunbridge Wells. Date is obviously 1987 cos its on the side of his trailer. I think by this time he had perfected the comb over to cover up the less inhabited areas of his dome.
Yes Sandway. Either that or he had bought a load of hair gel, which plastered it down. That or super glue. Ha ha ha.
I knew I had a photo of you here somewhere Micky T. Looks like your loads taken a bit of a battering!!
sandway:
SUPERCUBE:
sandway:
Hello Dave Clark. Were you on Pro’s in the mid to late seventies? I know your name but can’t put a face to it! Were you there before Dave Stagg?Dave Clark was on Astran before Promotor, I first met him when he was working the blue book for Astran, I was doing the same for Promotor…Bob Heath.
Hello SUPERCUBE
You must have known the lovely Liz then, Peters wife. Super lady. What work were you doing in the early days? I assume Bannons exhibition work to eastern europe featured.
Hi sandway, I was on there from 1971-1975, I cannot recall the exact dates, Dave Clark started around 1972/3 at the Bromley office where Liz was working in the office.at the offset we were doing anything to keep the wheels turning, Peter was pally with Bob Paul so we got the odd load off them until the firm got established with its own clientele. Bannon (Bob and Ann Glover) were one, then there was Mike Egon from Brewster Druce Turner in Covent gdns who also did Eastern Europe expos, we had a girl driving on there as well, Sue, she left to work in BDTs office, Peter worked in fords at dunton in a former life so had plenty of contacts there and we did their work as well. All in all we had plenty of work to keep everybody working till Dave Stagg came back from Spain and Norsed it all up.
sandway:
I knew I had a photo of you here somewhere Micky T. Looks like your loads taken a bit of a battering!!
That looks like a Baghdad load. I remember the Turks opening me up at Kapik and there were bottles of whiskey rolling around the floor of the trailer. They only took one for testing purposes. Don’t remember who had the other one. Some chancer obviously. ha ha ha
Do you have a date on the photo Sandway? I think maybe late 79
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
sandway:
I knew I had a photo of you here somewhere Micky T. Looks like your loads taken a bit of a battering!!That looks like a Baghdad load. I remember the Turks opening me up at Kapik and there were bottles of whiskey rolling around the floor of the trailer. They only took one for testing purposes. Don’t remember who had the other one. Some chancer obviously. ha ha ha
Do you have a date on the photo Sandway? I think maybe late 79
Hope the chancer didn’t have to bad a headache next day. Unfortunately no date on the photo but very good chance it was 79.
sandway:
Vodka Cola Cowboy:
sandway:
I knew I had a photo of you here somewhere Micky T. Looks like your loads taken a bit of a battering!!That looks like a Baghdad load. I remember the Turks opening me up at Kapik and there were bottles of whiskey rolling around the floor of the trailer. They only took one for testing purposes. Don’t remember who had the other one. Some chancer obviously. ha ha ha
Do you have a date on the photo Sandway? I think maybe late 79Hope the chancer didn’t have to bad a headache next day. Unfortunately no date on the photo but very good chance it was 79.
Ha ha ha. Unfortunately, or not I had bought a 2 litre bottle of Johnny Walker Red at a duty free shop in Bulgie, on the way through to Kapik so did not need to purloin a bottle from the trailer.
A lot of that cargo was beer for the exhibitors to give out to potential customers, alongside the whiskey.
I picked the trailer up in Dunton Green and it had been loaded in the warehouse. Badly! That was why the load collapsed. Heavy stuff on top of light stuff. You can see that the pallets had gone everywhere. Good job it was a local delivery. If it had been a long way then there could have been a disaster. Ha ha ha
Photo 1. Do you remember driving around Yugo when all their trucks seemed to have limiters fitted and set at 25mph.
Photo 2. It wasn’t only Romania that had horse and carts especially in the backwoods.
Photo 3. And if you got past those 2 there was always a Dobra Dan in the middle of the road to contend wth.
SUPERCUBE:
sandway:
SUPERCUBE:
sandway:
Hello Dave Clark. Were you on Pro’s in the mid to late seventies? I know your name but can’t put a face to it! Were you there before Dave Stagg?Dave Clark was on Astran before Promotor, I first met him when he was working the blue book for Astran, I was doing the same for Promotor…Bob Heath.
Hello SUPERCUBE
You must have known the lovely Liz then, Peters wife. Super lady. What work were you doing in the early days? I assume Bannons exhibition work to eastern europe featured.Hi sandway, I was on there from 1971-1975, I cannot recall the exact dates, Dave Clark started around 1972/3 at the Bromley office where Liz was working in the office.at the offset we were doing anything to keep the wheels turning, Peter was pally with Bob Paul so we got the odd load off them until the firm got established with its own clientele. Bannon (Bob and Ann Glover) were one, then there was Mike Egon from Brewster Druce Turner in Covent gdns who also did Eastern Europe expos, we had a girl driving on there as well, Sue, she left to work in BDTs office, Peter worked in fords at dunton in a former life so had plenty of contacts there and we did their work as well. All in all we had plenty of work to keep everybody working till Dave Stagg came back from Spain and Norsed it all up.
Morning SUPERCUBE.
Thanks for the reply. I have always been interested in Promotor’s early years. I wasn’t involved with the company then but do know some of the history as I knew Peter and Liz as well as their 2 children Simon and Annabel quite well. I have just looked, via the link supplied by Mushroomman on Sept 5th to the Promotor Drivers thread put on by nightowl33 (Ronnie Harts wife) back in Jan 08. I often visited Shawfield Park where Liz was still living and had kept in touch with her up to a few years ago. After she and Peter split up he bought a town house in Bromley where I was able to throw my gear and get my head down after a trip if it was not convenient to go home. I have just read an obituary to Peter put on by Jazzandy back in 2012. Unfortunately he got most of the facts wrong. One thing he got right was that Peter could be ruthless in business. However, he was very loyal to his drivers and staff. Perhaps his greatest act of infamy was when he set up Promotor Exhibition Services and took a lot of Bannons work to Eastern Europe off them. Off course we had a Bannons Exhibitions signed trailer at that time. That tilt was replaced immediately. I remember doing a load to Bucharest for Bannons in about 78 with Tony Grainger. We arrived late and Phil Pugsley (ex marine tough guy) their site rep went ballistic. It was going to be the last loads we would ever do for Promotor as he was going to have us sacked. When we got back nothing was said. I think Peter had already set his mind on having his own exhibition service company. We also had another trailer signed up for Brewster Druce Turner but that also quickly disappeared. I think they packed up anyway. Nothing to do with Promotor. Bob Turner I believe set up in business on his own hiring furniture to UK exhibition and events. I met him now and again.
It was mentioned in one of littleowl pages that Liz had modelled for Polly Peck nylons. She had a timeshare apartment in Roquetas de Mar where I spent some time around the pool with her and can confirm she certainly had the legs for it.
Peter’s companies operated under the umbrella of Promotor Holding Ltd. For trading purposes he had Promotor(Europe)Ltd. All the early work was conducted through here. Promotor Finance, Promotor Travel, Promotor Exhibition Services and Promotor International were used at various times later. In 1990 we won a large contract with Fords which involved looking after their fleet of Promotional vehicles. We normally had 180 to 200 of them to look after. We resprayed them, valeted them, transported them and handled most of this inhouse.
The last time I spoke to Peter was after the company was sold. I called him on his mobile. He came on the line and said you’ll never guess were I am. He had just walked into the Hilton Hotel, Bangkok. He must have been there to find his new wife as he married a Fillipino lady soon after.
It was Bob Turner who rang me to tell me Peter had died at his home in West Kent.
Anyway SUPERCUBE. Looks like I got a bit carried away there but any other information from your time with the company would be much appreciated.
Were you ever asked by your wife when you got home “was it another hard trip dear”. Bit of luck she didn’t see the photos blue!!! Promotor drivers waiting around during Ford clinic job Nurnberg? July 1982.
Do you remember driving up to the Blanc on the French side back in the 70’s and early 80’s when it was slowly slowly a lot of the way. Before the viaduct over the steel works was built and so it seemed, every other lorry was a Brit. I was stopped and breathalyser here one Saturday lunchtime soon after the gendarmes were supplied with the kits. It was a new toy for them then of course. Also we were stopped at the bottom where we turned off to go up to the Blanc so they could check we weren’t carrying hazardous.
mushroomman:
Thanks Sandway, that’s a great photo of Graham.
I have just been doing a search to see if I could find the thread that was started by Rocket Ron’s wife several years ago and here is the link. There are a couple of good photos on there and if any body still contacts George Fardell can they ask him if he was South African or Rhodesia. I am sure that he told me in The National in Belgrade over 35 years ago that he was in Rhodesia.
The guy driving the Promotors Ford D series in the photo may of been called Roger. that could have been roger oakley but i think the bloke with his back to us is tony grainger
hi chaps does anyone remember my sister debbie who worked in the office at promotor with richard phillips and staggy and for those who dont know roger oakley passed away about 4 years ago …im still trying to locate john mantle …and micky t ill get the photos to you soon ive just moved house and all my albums are in cartons somewhere
flyingflash007:
hi chaps does anyone remember my sister debbie who worked in the office at promotor with richard phillips and staggy and for those who dont know roger oakley passed away about 4 years ago …im still trying to locate john mantle …and micky t ill get the photos to you soon ive just moved house and all my albums are in cartons somewhere
Hi Steve, Yeah, thanks, no rush mate. I remember Debbie and Richard of course. And Marshall Steve.
The last I saw of John Mantle was in 95. He was still on Kepstowe, but they packed up around 98, if my memory is correct.
I did not know that Roger had passed away. Shame. He was a good lad.
Hope that the house move went o.k. and not too much stress.
Mick T
Hello Steve. Yes I remember Debbie in the office. Didn’t realise she was your sister but must admit the old grey cells won’t allow me to put a face to her. Richard Phillips was a good lad. Later when Staggie became a director and Richard became transport manager I was always amazed when he went off for a liquid lunch of 3 pints and very little to eat and still do a good afternoons work before knocking off at six. 2 other people not mentioned yet are Zedenka the Yugoslav lady and her hoppo Richard??. Peter Calderwood enticed them to come to Promotor to set up the Anglo Yugo Express business. They worked from the other office at West Kent Cold Stores which was in the middle of the complex with Peters office and accounts.
Sometime around 77/78 I tipped a load in Bologna and run down to a village not far from Arezzo to pick up a load of kitchen units. When I arrived at the factory I was told the load wouldn’t be ready for another week. I rang our office and spoke to our transport manager Dave Stagg, thinking another load would be sorted out for me. Now Staggie was one of those unpredictable characters who could and often did fly into a rage at the slightest provocation. On this occasion all he said was, “enjoy your holiday”. I did. The picture I have attached shows me parked up on an Autostrada service area north of Arezzo after loading. The weather was great and I decided to spend the night there. It was very hot and I had all the windows open to let the breeze blow through. Unbeknown to me the breeze blew my toll tickets out of the window. When I arrived at the next toll booth I think they charged me as if I had joined the Autostrada at Naples. It was certainly a lot of money. Made sure after that all tickets were kept somewhere safe.
