David Lloyd is the little one.
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Dirty Dan:
Hi! The Zenobia started to work 30th october 1979 and sank 7th june 1980.Danne
Thanks for putting me right. Just shows how much nonsense there is on the interweb. There’s a great magazine article with wonderful photos of the Zenobia on the bottom of the seat with the trucks inside… I think I have it somewhere…
Well done Efes. Our John’s certainly got his hands full in a few of those photos.
Of course Graham Bertram was another one of those characters Promotor seemed to attract. I sometimes feel I was the only normal (boring) driver employed by the company. It is sad though that like John Preece he left the party much to early.
It is the first time I have seen the photos of Grahams coffin being transported on the back of his last lorry, E73 GWC, he drove for Promotor. By the time of his death we had very few units left. Much of our work was for rigids. However, enough work was found for Grahams lorry and one other which was driven by my son Christopher and there he is, in the middle of the picture looking at Grahams coffin. As I said, it is the first time I have seen these photos. Thank you John for keeping them in your collection and to you Bryn for allowing Efes to post them here on this Promotor thread.
Been looking at some of the photos again and one that intrigued me was the one of John Preece standing by the ex German army ‘Munga’. Nothing untoward in this photo you may think but to me somethings wrong. It’s where Efes says the vehicle was rebuilt by a certain David Boulding.
Now Mr Boulding was a Promotor driver who joined the company around 78/9 and if my memory, what there is of it, is correct stayed as a loyal, quiet and unassuming driver with the company for about ten years. Absolutely no way was he a top notch mechanic nor high powered salesman yet Efes tells us he rebuilt the ‘Munga’ and then flogged it to John. I know John could be a bit gullible at times but I think there must be more to the story than Efes is letting on about. Perhaps John had been on the booze with Mr Boulding before he agreed to buy it but that doesn’t stack up as I thought Mr Boulding was teatotal.
Another thing about our Mr Boulding was that he was fluent in French and German. I remember him trying to explain to us how to reply to a frenchman when he greets you with ‘Ca Va’. After five minutes of that lesson I think he was muttering something about ‘teach and pork’ as he walked away from us. I also remember another lesson was how to communicate with ‘les mesdemoiselles’ when we stepped off the ferry in France. He didn’t get very far with that one especially after Graham Bertram told us he just smiled at them and said in english ‘hello babe’. And we all know how much success he had with the ladies. None of us were in Graham’s league.
No Efes. I really don’t think you knew our Mr Boulding at all well.
Mr Boulding had many talents - too numerous to mention here - and he did indeed rebuild the Auto Union Munga (ex-German army two stroke Jeep). He bought 2 wrecks and built the one good one out of the two. The rear lights on the Munga (lorry trailer lights) were purchased in Germany when he reloaded out of a Germany car parts factory. He even went on holiday in it to Cornwall with a lovely Swiss girl and had a most enjoyable time. It didn’t break down once. However, he was keen to have a Willys Jeep and this was a step towards owning one. Once the Munga was bought by John he then had the space on his driveway for a new project and bought the parts to build a 1943 Willys Jeep which he also rebuilt and still possesses to this day. And a very fine example of one too.
All this work was done during the rare time off from Promotor with average time out of the UK being more than 260 days a year. Working from Pro’s also involved working in the UK too, the drivers had very little time off.
Tea-total? Not our Mr Boulding. I suspect I know him rather better than you Sandway.
Didn’t you just hate those passport photos. Wouldn’t have looked out of place on a ‘Wanted Poster’ and no Efes the French police didn’t take our pictures. They didn’t have the time as they were busy hosing out their police van after I spewed up in it. Just for the record, Johns the ugly one.
Another photo that hasn’t seen the light of day for over 30 years. Taken at the Baghdad Fair on the Saftcrest stand. John Preece trying to knock out this young Iraqi girl with his boxing skills. All he really wanted was to get her into his (dark) corner in case he needed the kiss of life.
I’m so pleased its John who’s first up on this page. A fitting image to celebrate the fifty pages of this thread.
Evening Efes. I bow to your more intimate knowledge of Promotor driver David Boulding. Obviously My memory is playing up again as just proved on the ‘Kent transport’ thread where I confused two companies with similar names. However, the little anecdotes concerning the French lessons were true but I admit I did apply a bit of artistic licence to the story.
Getting back to the John Preece photos. I have trimmed the one of John on the beach as he looks most uncomfortable with those brazen hussies forcing themselves upon him in a titalising pose. I’m sure nobody wants to see those kind of photos on here when there are plenty of lorry photos to be seen and ogled at. He was no doubt taking his midday constitutional to clear his head before they forced themselves upon him. For all we know he may have been on night shift and only just got up. You have to feel sorry for him.
I note you mention bendy busses in one of your posts Efes. This was of course when he was running Gatwick Airport. It must be my ‘little grey cells’ letting me down again but I always thought he drove ‘jumbo jets’. Maybe he did that for a bit of overtime. I must admit I have never seen him looking so sad as he does in that photo though.
The photo of John with, you assumed, a Swedish lady was interesting. She was indeed Swedish and together with another Swedish lady worked in their countries pavilion at the Baghdad Fair. I met them as they often popped in to our pavilion for a coffee and and were always there for the end of show party arranged by Promotor. I believe both of the ladies husbands worked in their embassies. They may also have worked there themselves. I visited the villa where one of the ladies lived on one occasion, a single story structure in a select area not far from the river. The embassy no doubt paid the rent but I remember thinking at the time that the property seemed much superior to those I saw that our embassy personal lived in. I have a photo that I will attach of myself and the other lady at one of the parties. I only wish I could remember their names.
I still have many photos from my Baghdad Fair days in which John, Chic, Peter, myself and Clive Newman appear occasionally. I will post them at some stage.
A while back I posted some photos of my old Promotor lorry EPU 305T that had been given a facelift and an extra axle. It had been painted pink and given the name ‘Pink Panther’. However, recently I have come across another ‘Pink Panther’. This one is also a T reg but it’s in a sorry state and obviously in need of some major tlc.
The question is which one was done first and which one is the imposter?
Thanks for posting that photo Buzzer. I put it on three Facebook sites asking if anyone had the original as its not a very good reproduction. One guy thought it was in Mick Twemlows book ‘Trucking Magic’. It is indeed in there but its a bad photo so does anyone have a better copy or the original. I was also interested in the Al Mannah comment.
Yet another photo of Promotor driver John Preece boxing the ladies. Photo taken during the afternoon break at the Baghdad Fair. It was a three hour lull in the proceedings when most of us returned to the hotel but this particular Fair had the British company Saftcrest exhibiting. They were a sports equipment supplier and we soon found plenty of things to do as did the girls. It seems Saftcrest only had one customer in Iraq and seeing as he controlled the countries ■■■■■ strings they were on to a good thing. I’m talking about Sadaam of course.
A couple of posts back I mentioned our old mate, Micky Twemlow, a Promotor driver for five years in the late 70’s and early 80’s. As most of you know he wrote three books of his driving exploits and I have borrowed a couple of photos from those books.
The first photo is of Micky in about 82 but its the second photo thats the interesting one. Taken in the early to mid 90’s it shows a group of Kepstow Freight drivers and subbies standing in front of Micky’s lorry, who were on their way to an Oil and Gas Exhibition in Baku. A few Promotor drivers ended up on Kepstowe’s and in the photo, third from the right, is John Mantle. Its the only photo I’ve seen of John. He worked in our workshop as a fitter before becoming a Promotor driver in about 84. I never ran with him and in the years we were on Pro’s together I doubt if I saw him more than half a dozen times and most of those were when he was in the workshop.
sandway:
A couple of posts back I mentioned our old mate, Micky Twemlow, a Promotor driver for five years in the late 70’s and early 80’s. As most of you know he wrote three books of his driving exploits and I have borrowed a couple of photos from those books.The first photo is of Micky in about 82 but its the second photo thats the interesting one. Taken in the early to mid 90’s it shows a group of Kepstow Freight drivers and subbies standing in front of Micky’s lorry, who were on their way to an Oil and Gas Exhibition in Baku. A few Promotor drivers ended up on Kepstowe’s and in the photo, third from the right, is John Mantle. Its the only photo I’ve seen of John. He worked in our workshop as a fitter before becoming a Promotor driver in about 84. I never ran with him and in the years we were on Pro’s together I doubt if I saw him more than half a dozen times and most of those were when he was in the workshop.
That’s “Boshing Pete” on the extreme left. Good chap! Ran back from Moscow a few times with him and had one of the funniest nights ever one very, very cold winter night in Warsaw on the way home at the hotel just opposite the Palace of Culture, one of Stalin’s “wedding cake” buildings that were built around the Commie bloc. A building hated by the Poles. I shall relate this story a bit later… I wonder if Pete’s around these days? I am in touch with Henry Osbourne late of Kepstowe (management) still and must ask. Had many a good night out with Henry in Bulgaria (Plovdiv).
Happy days.
I read that Johnny Mantle was very badly damaged recently in a motorbike accident and was at Stoke Manderville… The now late Mick Twemlow told me this by email shortly before he died of cancer. I wonder has anyone any news on Johnnie?
Efes:
sandway:
A couple of posts back I mentioned our old mate, Micky Twemlow, a Promotor driver for five years in the late 70’s and early 80’s. As most of you know he wrote three books of his driving exploits and I have borrowed a couple of photos from those books.The first photo is of Micky in about 82 but its the second photo thats the interesting one. Taken in the early to mid 90’s it shows a group of Kepstow Freight drivers and subbies standing in front of Micky’s lorry, who were on their way to an Oil and Gas Exhibition in Baku. A few Promotor drivers ended up on Kepstowe’s and in the photo, third from the right, is John Mantle. Its the only photo I’ve seen of John. He worked in our workshop as a fitter before becoming a Promotor driver in about 84. I never ran with him and in the years we were on Pro’s together I doubt if I saw him more than half a dozen times and most of those were when he was in the workshop.
That’s “Boshing Pete” on the extreme left. Good chap! Ran back from Moscow a few times with him and had one of the funniest nights ever one very, very cold winter night in Warsaw on the way home at the hotel just opposite the Palace of Culture, one of Stalin’s “wedding cake” buildings that were built around the Commie bloc. A building hated by the Poles. I shall relate this story a bit later… I wonder if Pete’s around these days? I am in touch with Henry Osbourne late of Kepstowe (management) still and must ask. Had many a good night out with Henry in Bulgaria (Plovdiv).
Happy days.
I read that Johnny Mantle was very badly damaged recently in a motorbike accident and was at Stoke Manderville… The now late Mick Twemlow told me this by email shortly before he died of cancer. I wonder has anyone any news on Johnnie?
Pete Newlyn aka ‘Boshing Pete’ passed away at the end of 2015
