Hi SANDWAY,BLACKWALL TUNNEL, when having a standard tilt the light would flash, but we used to just keep going because the tilt top would have a slight bulge like a quif right at the front of the trailer esp if empty, due to the air flow, god only knows how, but it did ,and would activate the lights just move over to the right and way we went, taught liners different ,Victoria deep water ,from the slip road.it was like bow bells if you clattered the pipes, that is where the saying [the pipes ]come from. .lol.
Seen this pic before, but couldnât remember whether it had been popped on this thread. Scammell Crusader and Promo trailer. (NMP)
ERF-NGC-European:
Seen this pic before, but couldnât remember whether it had been popped on this thread. Scammell Crusader and Promo trailer. (NMP)0
Almost certainly a part load for or from Ireland was being transhipped into or from a Pandora box. I think the Crusader was owned by Mr Taylor. Believe his name was Phil and had been a Promotor driver for a while in the 70âs. He also did UK work for Astran.
sandway:
ERF-NGC-European:
Seen this pic before, but couldnât remember whether it had been popped on this thread. Scammell Crusader and Promo trailer. (NMP)Almost certainly a part load for or from Ireland was being transhipped into or from a Pandora box. I think the Crusader was owned by Mr Taylor. Believe his name was Phil and had been a Promotor driver for a while in the 70âs. He also did UK work for Astran.
Got a bit confused there. Phil Taylor was employed by Promotor in the early days doing mainly UK work. However, the Crusader belonged to Mike Taylor from Borough Green who did a bit of UK work for us as well as Astran and others. Iâve attached a photo with the Crusader on the right. The little Scania tucked away second from the left belonged to Steve Lacy aka flyingflash007, who went on to drive for Promotor and instigated this blog back in 2016.
As I mentioned a few posts back we provided all the exhibition services to a small group of pharmaceutical companies who participated at an Iraqi seminar and exhibition held at the Medical College, part of the University in Mosul and Medical City in Baghdad. Iâm still not sure of the date but believe it was in the spring of 88. These small events had been a regular part of our business in Iraq for six or seven years but this was the first time we had moved outside Baghdad. A few years previous we were meant to set up the exhibition in Basra as well as Baghdad but the Basra event was cancelled at the last moment due to flare up in the Iraq/Iran war.
I flew to Baghdad and spent a few days smoothing out last minute problems with my contact at the Iraqi Ministry of Health and our customs agent and Mr Fixit, Saeed Hadi. Saeed and I were meant to drive up to Mosul but at the last moment he couldnât go on the prescribed day so after obtaining a letter from the Ministry of Health explaining that my visit to Mosul was of National importance I found myself aboard the next morningâs Iraqi Airways flight heading north. The plane was a Boeing 737 that had seen better days but I arrived safely in Mosul airport and from there made my way to my hotel, an establishment that had also seen better days. There was only one decent 5 Star hotel in Mosul run, I think, by the Taj Group but our budget didnât extend to that.
Promotor driver Tommy Birch had set off for Iraq before I left the UK. He was pulling one of our Supercube trailers with a bulky load but with no more than six or seven tons aboard. I liked to have Tommy help me construct the stands at these exhibitions as he was an electrician in a previous life so could handle all the lighting and any power points that were needed. Also he was a good laugh and we got on well. One thing I cant remember for sure is what we did about customs. Normally it was down to Fallujah to register and if we were going to the Baghdad Fair we cleared customs at the fairground, but on this occasion I believe Tommy went direct to Mosul customs and cleared there. We had Saeed Hadi in attendance and I remember the load being inspected but not at the College. Obviously made sense to do it in Mosul as that was where the first event was to take place but Iraqi customs werenât always blessed with an over abundance of the grey stuff. However, they did give us grief over some of the giveaways, but more of that later.
Anyway, I remember Tommy arriving outside my hotel on the designated day almost to the hour. I had been in touch with the Medical College who had agreed we could park the lorry inside the grounds and after making sure it was secure Tommy moved into the hotel with me. We had allowed three days to clear customs, unload the trailer and build the stands. Something we achieved with ease. Once we were ready to unload the College provided us with labour which was quite handy as the exhibition was in a large hall on the first floor of the main building. Of course we were the centre of attention and at times were surrounded by both students and academics. All spoke english which was a prerequisite as lessons/courses for doctors and nurses were in the english language.
The stands were very simple structures made by Stan Mountain in his small workshop in Chardstock, Somerset. We had used them before in Libya, Algiers and Baghdad and all Stan had to do was re-cover the wooden frames ready for the next event each time they came back. Tommy and I had them up in less than a day and that included the electrics. The only heavy items were the cupboards which were made out of laminated chipboard. The four sides were hinged together which opened up to form the cupboard. The top was then put on and held in place with a couple of screws. All very simple.
We had allowed half a day to bring in the exhibits. As our customers were all pharmaceutical companies there were no heavy items to place on the stands. Most companies had graphics to decorate their stands as well literature to give away but a couple had samples and that did give us a headacheâŚ
Please click on a photo to enlarge.
We had Saeed Hadi, our customs agent in Iraq, with us in Mosul. He had driven up from Baghdad and was staying with friends and his job was purely to sort out the customs formalities for the load of exhibition goods in Tommyâs trailer. We had arranged a number of these exhibitions for the British Pharmaceutical companies in Baghdad over the years as well as one in Libya. Never having had any kind of a problem with customs we were perhaps lulled into a false sense of security for on this occasion the Mosul customs came up with a classic.
All of the pharmacutical companies took literature to these exhibitions to be handed out as required. Also a number of them would bring goodies such as letter openers or rulers with a small calculator built in or key rings but a few always brought samples of their products. These were small packages containing a small number of pills such as Tagamet. On this occasion the customs werenât happy about these samples being handed out as they feared they could be sold on the open market so they decided every little box had to be stamped with the words âNot for resaleâ. Saeed gave us the bad news and my first thought was that we would have to keep them in the trailer but I knew we would have some very unhappy customers. It was then that Saeed came up with an idea. If I have a rubber stamp made can you stamp all the boxes in time for the opening of the exhibition. Well obviously we had to go for it.
Sure enough Saeed found someone to make the stamps which had to be in english and arabic. He also bought ink and a pad and after we had built the stands we got into the back of the trailer and started stamping. What a difficult lousy job it turned into. We had three pallets of these sample boxes all packaged up into small bundles wrapped in cellophane. We had to break the lot down and stamp every single little box. Another problem was the outside of the boxes were shiny so the ink took a long time to dry so we could only do those that could be laid out to dry in the small amount of space around us in the trailer. We worked into the evening and were back at it early next morning.
We finally completed the task. I brought the rubber stamp home with me with the intention of displaying it in the office under the heading âPromotor goes that little bit further for its customersâ or some such witty comment but it never happened and the little rubber stamp disappeared into the mists of time, but------------ Iâve still got the photos to remind me of that godawful job.
ps. Iâve just clicked on the photos to enlarge them and seen it wasnât only small boxes that had to be printed âNor for resaleâ. There were plastic bottles also.
The Seminar and Exhibition held in the Medical College in Mosul was, for the Iraqi medical profession, the chance for all those involved in the north of the country to get together, meet up with friends, swap ideas and generally immerse themselves with fellow like minded people. They were the educated liberal middle class and that really showed through in the students attitude and demeanour.
They were a great bunch of youngsters many of them having been abroad already some to London, Paris or Geneva where their parents had second homes. We got on well with them meeting them outside in the grounds of the college, they had been barred from entering the building where we were working as the college principals knew they would get in our way. I got talking to a small group of young ladies when I noticed one had a gold pendant hanging from a gold chain around her neck and nestling nicely in her cleavage. I of course had a close look and told her the pendant looked like the outline of Israel. Have you ever had that feeling youâd tried to engage gear without depressing the clutch. It was worse than that. I knew immediately I had blown my chances with this young lady. She immediately shouted at me it wasnât Israel, it was Palastine and that the lands belonged to the Palestinians. I beat a hasty retreat before I put my foot in it again.
The attached photos show Tommy Birch and I erecting the stands, a job that took no more than five or six hours. I was glad Tommy had been an electrician before becoming a driver. He had brought out the few tools he needed and I was able to leave him to do his own thing.
Please click on a photo to enlarge.
During the few days we were working at the Medical College in Mosul Tommy and I were well looked after by the collegeâs workers. Food and drink was brought in many times during the day, if we needed a hand there was always somebody there and we never had to find a taxi to take us back to the hotel. Even though we were never short of the continuous supply of Pepsi we preferred to have coffee and as at all these exhibitions we had taken our trusty urn with us. Tommy soon had it wired in and piping hot water was on tap all day long. We also built in a little cubby hole in the stands where the urn was placed and during the three days of the Seminar and Exhibition we would supply the punters with free hot drinks, not only coffee but (black) tea also.
On the opening day of the exhibition Tommy and I were there early. Not that much could go wrong. After all, it was a very small event. Most important job was to turn the urn on. The Iraqis love a bit of a show and so somebody in a uniform, ok so a lot of people were in uniform, welcomed everyone in the auditorium where the seminar took place before they all trooped into the hall to view the exhibition.
The event was on for three days but was always over by two in the afternoon. On the final day, once the show was over, Tommy and I dismantled the stands and had them carried back down the stairs to the trailer. It was one of the most enjoyable jobs I did in Iraq perhaps only bettered by the trip John Preece and I did when we delivered three JCBâs and spare parts to Sulaymania in Kurdistan.
Next morning we were on the road heading south to Baghdad and Medical City.
During the Isis occupation of Mosul the University was one of the places where they based their operations. Most of the colleges were closed but the Medical College comprising medicine along with pharmacy and dentistry were allowed to continue. It is thought that Isis tried to make chemical and biological agents at the university. As the tide of the war changed the Iraqi army slowly pushed them out of the complex but a lot of the buildings were badly damaged. Isis of course were finally defeated and many students and staff returned to clean up, repair the damaged buildings and continue with their studies.
We had dismantled the exhibition stands at the College of Medicine in Mosul and were now heading south to Baghdad in Tommyâs lorry. We left early as we needed to park up near our next venue at the College of Medicine in Medical City by late afternoon. Of course as we had done customs in Mosul there would be no need to go out to Fallujah which was a blessing. As I had sussed out the location before flying up to Mosul we went straight to the area set aside for the lorry. After making sure security was in place we took a taxi to the Meridian Hotel where a room was awaiting our arrival.
Next day we set about unloading the trailer and setting up the stands. The buildings here were quite modern, unlike Mosul, and we were able to back right up to the entrance. Unloading was so easy we didnât bother with any local labour. However, Awat my Kurdish friend was always there to help out if help was needed and Hanan came along to add a bit of glamour to the proceedings. It only took a couple of days to build the stands and bring in the literature and giveaways. Once again the pharmaceutical exhibition was there to support the seminar where speakers shared their knowledge. We had at least one expert out from the UK who spouted off for an hour each day then it was back to his hotel swimming pool for some R & R.
My contact at the Ministry of Health had asked if I would be interested in leaving the stands in Baghdad. He was thinking they could build the stands themselves at the many small events they loved setting up throughout the year. I knew of course they could never maintain them let alone erect them properly and that within a very short time they would be little more than a heap of rubbish in one of their warehouses. As we had been thinking of purchasing a more substantial and professional stand system anyway I readily agreed. This meant of course Tommy wouldnât have a return load so on the opening day of the Seminar and Exhibition he checked out of the hotel and headed for home. He picked up a load in southern Germany arriving back a few days after me as I flew back courtesy of Air France.
My friend Awat was into photography and took a couple photos of Tommy and the lorry. I know I have posted them before but theyâre worth showing again.
Please click on a photo to enlarge.
Thought Iâd blow the pics up a bit to see what theyâd look like just out of interest. Well at least Tommy was photogenic.
Click on them and theyâll jump out at you.
sandway:
Not much fun sitting in your hotel room in Baghdad with nothing to do even if you are on one of the top floors with fantastic views. So we organised a small group of exhibitors from the Baghdad Fair, hired two descent taxis with air conditioning, talked Hanan, one of the girls working in the British Pavilion to come with us as a guide and headed off to Babylon.Babylon is about eighty five km south of Baghdad and situated just outside the large town of Hilla by the Euphrates. A large part of the structure was in a bad state as the mud bricks were disintegrating but Sadaam Hussein had parts of it repaired using the traditional bricks which looked a bit odd but better than doing nothing.
We spent about three hours there. Of course weâve all heard of the âHanging Gardens of Babylonâ but I can tell you thereâs definitely no gardens there now. Just the overpowering heat and dust. We were all pleased to have made the effort to see these famous ruins but doubt any of us would go back again. Best bit was having Hanan along as guide. This was a couple of years before she escaped from Iraq and made her way to Canada. I use the word escape as when the Iraq/Iran war was on only young children and the elderly were allowed to travel abroad.
My granddad was there visiting the Lion of Babylon before you in 1916 with the 1/5th The Buffs but travelled on foot - while the locals took pot shots at them. This is his photoâ of the same place. Youâll notice that the monument is resting on a loose pile of bricks and there are no railings to keep lorry drivers offâŚ
Efes:
sandway:
Not much fun sitting in your hotel room in Baghdad with nothing to do even if you are on one of the top floors with fantastic views. So we organised a small group of exhibitors from the Baghdad Fair, hired two descent taxis with air conditioning, talked Hanan, one of the girls working in the British Pavilion to come with us as a guide and headed off to Babylon.Babylon is about eighty five km south of Baghdad and situated just outside the large town of Hilla by the Euphrates. A large part of the structure was in a bad state as the mud bricks were disintegrating but Sadaam Hussein had parts of it repaired using the traditional bricks which looked a bit odd but better than doing nothing.
We spent about three hours there. Of course weâve all heard of the âHanging Gardens of Babylonâ but I can tell you thereâs definitely no gardens there now. Just the overpowering heat and dust. We were all pleased to have made the effort to see these famous ruins but doubt any of us would go back again. Best bit was having Hanan along as guide. This was a couple of years before she escaped from Iraq and made her way to Canada. I use the word escape as when the Iraq/Iran war was on only young children and the elderly were allowed to travel abroad.
My granddad was there visiting the Lion of Babylon before you in 1916 with the 1/5th The Buffs but travelled on foot - while the locals took pot shots at them. This is his photoâ of the same place. Youâll notice that the monument is resting on a loose pile of bricks and there are no railings to keep lorry drivers offâŚ
Donât it make you grind your teeth!! Whatever you do someone will always say theyâve done that or been there before you. aaaah.
Didnât fancy walking though.
Nice one Efes.
I mentioned in my recent posts the fact that companies offer giveaways at exhibitions to promote their products. These giveaways come in many shapes and sizes. Key rings, T-shirts, diaries, calculators, pens, the list is endless. The only criteria is that either their name or the name of the product must appear on it. Most are harmless, some even childish but always much sought after even by the well healed doctors and other well educated attendees at the exhibitions we set up in the Collegeâs of Medicine in Mosul and Baghdad.
However, one company namely Smith Klein & French decided to promote one of their products âAmpicloxâ by plastering the name on a handle. Not just any handle but on the handle of an 8" knife. A knife that resembled a âstilettoâ. Google âstilettoâ and you will see that its described as having a long slender blade with a very sharp point so that it enters very easily. Smith Klein & French of course described it as a letter opener. Hah.
Was the idea to provide knives to all the doctors as a self defence weapon incase a patient turned nasty over a diagnosis they didnât like or were they to be given to the nurses so when the doctors made advances to them they could protect themselves. Another thought is that it was a backdoor method of arming the Iraqi doctors, maybe thought up by the CIA who, hoping one day one of the doctors would be called in by the regime to treat Sadaam, that doctor could then use his knife to dispatch the dictator. Yes, all a bit far fetched I know, maybe like me the medical profession simply used them for opening letters after all.
In 1980 the Al-Mansour Melia Hotel opened its doors for the first time. Situated on the banks of the Tigris it was the first of the new five star hotels that were to open at the beginning of the 80âs in Baghdad. After the Melia came the Palstine Meridian, Ishtar Sheraton, Al Rasheed and finally the Babylon Oberoi. There was also a new four star hotel run by a French hotel group which we stayed in a couple of times.
As Iâve indicated in my recent posts we organised quite a few exhibitions for British pharmaceutical or medical equipment companies in Iraq and one of the first was held in the Melia Hotel. It was in the early to mid 80âs and involved me driving out from the UK to Baghdad with all the gear needed to build the stands as well as all the exhibits the companies we worked for wanted to promote. It was a good location, not as hectic as the city centre and not that far from the British Embassy where the bar was open on a Thursday afternoon.
I had a room in the hotel for myself as well as fifteen or so rooms for our exhibitors as we also provided travel services for them. It was one of the most enjoyable shows I did in Baghdad. No hassell unlike one I did a few years later when, a couple of days before the exhibition was due to open, the Iraqis told us they wanted to use the hotel for a meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Arab League who were to discuss the Iraq/Iran war. We were told to move, both us and the exhibition, to the Sheraton where rooms had been reserved but when I got there to claim my allocation there were no rooms in our name. However, I did finally get an allocation and none of the exhibitors had to sleep on the street. Our exhibition was held in one of the Sheratonâs banqueting suites.
Unfortunately I donât have many photos of the Melia event but you will see a young Iraqi girl who worked for one of the pharmaceutical companies. Her name was Sahah and she spoke very good english. Well so she should as she lived in south London for four years with her brother when she was in her teens. She returned home on one occasion to see her parents just as the Iraqis put a ban on foreign travel. She was stuck in Baghdad unable to leave and very bitter. A great girl, we all felt very sorry for her.
Please click on a photo to enlarge.
As many of you know Promotor handled a lot of work to and from Yugoslavia. We even had a Yugo director, the lovely Zadenka (hello darlink), based at our depot in the West Kent Cold Stores complex at Dunton Green near Sevenoaks. There were very few areas of that large country we didnât visit or borders we didnât transit. One of my favourite borders was Gorican/Letenye which was in the north west of the country leading into Hungary. I used it quite a few times when I was tipping or loading out of Slovenia area and I was going commie bloc. It was very handy for Maribor being only a few hours drive away.
Of course once into Hungary, if you were exiting at Rajka to go into CZ, it was best to chuck a left before Lake Balaton and make your way up to the border by running parallel with Austrian but if I was exiting via Komarno then it was best to go to the far eastern end of the lake and chuck a left there.
Some of you may remember the little anecdote I told a while back about three Promotor drivers weekended at Lake Balaton. It was summer and hot, ideal for a dip which our three drivers made the most of. The locals were out in force enjoying themselves with both children and adults splashing about in the water but things got very embarrassing for two of the drivers when the third one, namely Mr George Fardell decided he wanted a bath. So he does no more than take some soap into a shallow area, sits down a proceeds to lather himself profusely. Getting plenty of dirt off himself but in the process polluting a large area of the lake around him. It seems the locals werenât amused.
sandway:
sandway:
Knowledgable ex Promotor drivers or others. Is this Gordon Jones? This lad was on the company mid 80âs and was on the Tripoli and Benghazi double exhibition event we set up for medical and pharmaceutical companies in Libya around that time.Have just looked in my photo album and see that the Libya event took place in November 1983. Richard Brown and Graham Bertram were also there.
Hi This photo is me Alan Grant.
My son recently came across this forum by accident.
I have a few photos I can share when I have caught up.
I have used my own name rather than a nickname as I donât intend to say anything disparaging about anybody.
Not just because sadly I imagine some are dead, I know Buggsie is. But because I have many happy memories of Promotor and the lads I ran with.
Alan Grant:
sandway:
sandway:
Knowledgable ex Promotor drivers or others. Is this Gordon Jones? This lad was on the company mid 80âs and was on the Tripoli and Benghazi double exhibition event we set up for medical and pharmaceutical companies in Libya around that time.Have just looked in my photo album and see that the Libya event took place in November 1983. Richard Brown and Graham Bertram were also there.
Hi This photo is me Alan Grant.
My son recently came across this forum by accident.
I have a few photos I can share when I have caught up.
I have used my own name rather than a nickname as I donât intend to say anything disparaging about anybody.
Not just because sadly I imagine some are dead, I know Buggsie is. But because I have many happy memories of Promotor and the lads I ran with.
Welcome Alan. Its nice to hear from you. Looking forward to hearing your stories and seeing your photos.
Morning Alan. Well Iâve got over the surprise of seeing your post on here last night and look very much to you staying in touch through this forum. Unfortunately we have lost some of our old boys but theres still a few of us left. Steve Lacy aka flyingflash007 inaugurated this blog in 2016. I have been lucky to help it along as I had plenty of photos and anecdotes to tell but without the assistance of Efes, Nottsnortherner and the late Micky Twemlow the Promotor story wouldnât have been told.
I must admit I couldnât remember your name to start with. I have used the excuse âmy little grey cells are not what they used to beâ many times on here in the last four years but I did persevere by posting your photo on various Facebook sites. Finally I struck lucky and you were recognised. Some info was forthcoming such as you working at Lamberhurst Meats and having a couple of your own lorries there. Please feel free to enlighten us of your experiences with or without photos not just when you were with Proâs but other companies you worked for.
If you manage to read through all 59 pages of this Promotor blog (Itâll keep you off the streets for a while) youâll see many names and places you recognise as you were part of the history of the company. If you join us on this blog Alan, and I hope you do, donât feel you have to post everything at once. Just a simple posting when you feel like it would be great.
