About Andy Lambert History in vehicle recovery and at Brooklands

<body text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#0080FF" alink="#00FFFF"> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Times New Roman" bordercolor="#111111" width="763" height="3790"> <tr> <td width="751" height="536"> <font face="Arial">  <br> <img border="0" src="images/andy.jpg" align="left" hspace="6" width="200" height="244" alt="Andrew Lambert Personal Home Page">My full name is Andrew Lambert (but to everyone I am Andy) and these days I live in Hampshire near Southampton, England. </font> <p> <font face="Arial"> It is fair to say I have been successful in my life and 'made a name' for myself in several very diverse areas, including changing the UK Recovery Industry for the better and organising the recovery of most of the major exhibits at Brooklands Museum. </font></p> <p> <font face="Arial"> However, before I 'bore you to tears' with some of the achievements I am most proud of, here is a brief background to the start of my life.</p> <p>I was born back in 1946 and lived at 77a Replingham Road in an area of London called Southfields (to be exact 77a was above the co-op for those that remember it). </p> <p>I lived there until I was 22 and so did most of my growing up around the Battersea, Putney Wandsworth and Wimbledon areas. I shared my formative years with my older brother Geoff. That's the two of us below on his wedding day (I am on the right).</p> <p> <img border="0" src="images/wedding.jpg" align="right" hspace="6" width="243" height="270" alt="Geoff and Andy Lambert">My first School was Riversdale School in Southfields, then later I went to the (then new) Elliott Comprehensive School, up on Putney Common. </p> <p>Old Elliott pupils might like to know there is a Elliott School Egroup as well as a fascinating website that I manage. To view it  <a href="http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Elliott_School">click here</a> .</font></p> <p></p> <p><font face="Arial"> When I left school, I first worked for Decca in Queenstown Road, located in what was then the 'rough end' of Battersea (is there a posh end?). <i>What an education that was, </i>talk about the 'swing sixties'!  </font> <p><font face="Arial"> My father was sadly killed in a car accident during this time and so I had to do my growing up damn quickly. <p>Fortunately I was amongst friends (a bunch of very tough 'rockers') and that no doubt is where I developed my love of fast mechanical things, as well as a taste for leggy blondes! <p>See the picture below showing me with some of the 'gang' I hung out with then (left to right) Christine and Colin, leaning on a BSA Goldstar. Derek, Myself and Penny, just some of the 'The Battersea  Jets'. </font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="751" height="399"> <font face="Arial"> <img border="0" src="images/the_gang.jpg" align="left" hspace="6" vspace="6" alt="Baseing our lives on West Side Story, we were some of the Jets." width="277" height="250">Around that time, my good mate Don Freeman introduced my to the world of 'motor cycles' and my projected carrier in the world of electronics, started to move irrevocably towards the wonders of the combustion engine. It would take a few more years before motor vehicles became my life, but they did (although electronics would remain a hobby throughout). </font> <p> <font face="Arial"> I stayed with electronics for a bit longer, joining Redifon (part of the Redifusion Group) at Wandsworth, around 1965. I then worked for DER at the Mitcham Depot and CES (Part of the Philips group) as a service engineer. </font> </p> <p> <font face="Arial"> I then married my first wife Barbara, left home and we moved down to Portscatho in Cornwall. Here I worked again as a TV repair man, in and around the Roseland area. <br> <br> It was a wonderful place to live and I even became an 'guest' Cornishman, still having several friends in this part of the world today. Employment however was very hard to find and in the end we moved back to London. <br> <br> When we came back, we first lived in Surbiton and I got a job at Surrey Typewriters. It was here I found I could sell things! I ended up virtually running what was then, the 'new' Electronic Calculator Division. I also learnt a lot about 'surviving in a business world', from the greatest of salesman Trevor Dean.<br>  </font><p>  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="751" height="258"> <font face="Arial"> <img border="0" src="images/forge.jpg" align="right" hspace="11" alt="The Forge Poynings Sussex" width="275" height="175"></font><p> <font face="Arial"><b><font size="4">Into Vehicle Recovery</font></b><br> Although the first part of my life (and then the last part of working life) were involved with electronics, my 'true love' has always been vehicle recovery and all the remarkable people in the industry. </font><p> <font face="Arial">I attended my first breakdown with Forge Garage of Poynings down in Sussex (with whom I was working through my holiday), in the summer of 1965 and become hooked (no pun) on recovery vehicles. <br> <br> Right is a picture of the first 'breakdown vehicle' I ever drove, well over forty years ago (aged 19). Since then I have driven everything from a Mk1 Land Rover, up to a Ford Transcontinental, towing almost everything including a damaged, but fully loaded petrol tanker! <br>  </font></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="751" height="328"> <p><font face="Arial"><font size="3">From that turning point  on, I spent every spare moment nights and weekends, as a 'part time' recovery driver. My speciality being working the Kingston Bypass, and if you knew the bypass  when South Lane was still a crossroads, you will understand what it was like. Still I lived through it and sadly there were some that did not. </font></p> <p><font size="3"> <img border="0" src="images/fk.jpg" align="left" hspace="8" alt="Sweet Felicity (we both have had a Good Life)" width="179" height="164">First I 'part timed' for <strong style="font-weight: 400">Windmill Coachworks, (then in East Molsey opposite the police station).</strong> Next I joined<strong style="font-weight: 400"> Instant Service Garage, in that most famous of suburban roads - <i>The Avenue Surbiton</i> (never did get to meet </strong> </font>Felicity Kendal <font size="3"> <strong style="font-weight: 400">though). It was interesting 'fighting for work', in those days when only a few motorist belonged to one of the 'motoring clubs'</strong></font></p> <p><font size="3"><strong style="font-weight: 400">Finally I joined Cambridge Coachworks</strong>, on the Cambridge Road Kingston. To start with I was an evening controller, However I was asked to join them full time around 1971 and became the manager. </font></p> <p><font size="3">While the Coachworks side was expertly run by Wally Pells, the coachworks could not survive without its trucks looking for work. It was then that I decide to start<strong><span style="font-weight: 400"> </span></strong> <strong style="font-weight: 400">National Rescue, firstly as a division of Cambridge Coachworks, although of course in the end it would swallow the coachworks up.</strong>.<br>  </font></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="751" height="2224"> <p><font face="Arial"><font size="3"> What followed, were probably  the best years of my life. We did not have much money but I loved the work, even if it was 'non stop' 24Hrs a day. </font> </p> </font> <p> <img border="0" src="images/trucks.jpg" width="760" height="231" alt="Vintage breakdown and Recovery vehicles"></p> <font face="Arial"> <p><font size="3">The incredible joy and </font> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; ">camaraderie,</span><font size="3"> of working with those recovery drivers and police officers I knew at that time, will remain with me forever. They were all characters and I have not meet their like since. Nor do I expect to, because today our behaviour would not be 'politically correct'.</font></p> <p>If any of you read this: Jaws, Phil the Gypsy, Snake, Sunshine, Alan the Poet, Trio, Trigger, Stitch, Grisly, Chunky and so, so many others - Thanks for all the fun we had.</p> <p><font size="3">If you have time, please read my <a href="http://www.vehiclerecovery.org/">Recollections of Vehicle Recovery</a> (also link on the main home page), to get a feel for those incredible times. It seems imposable today to believe that such things happened then, but happen they did and you can see some of the photos to prove it. </font> </p> <p> During the time at Cambridge Road Kingston not only did we start National Rescue, we also broke in to CB. To be part of the legalisation of CB in the UK, we converted an old wooden hut (on the front of the coachworks) in to a Shop, and called it The Rabbit Rabbit Hutch (were we the original nerds?). </p> <p> <img border="0" src="images/cb.jpg" width="760" height="481" alt="The Rabbit Rabbit Hutch with nerds!"></p> <p>One of the hardest things about running a recovery operation, was the paperwork. Each day you could undertake a large number of lift and tows. Everything is done as quick as possible, but this means the paperwork, becomes a poor second.</p> <p>I ended up writing a computer program to do all the invoicing and soon found other recovery operators, needed something like it themselves.</p> <p> <font size="3">So in 1985 myself and a genus called Ian Lane, started <strong style="font-weight: 400">Motor Trade Software. </strong> A software company producing programs for the motor trade and vehicle recovery operators. I was MD of that company, until we sold it, in 2002. </font></p> <p><font size="3">My only brother <strong style="font-weight: 400">Geoff</strong> worked for <strong style="font-weight: 400">BT</strong> as an engineer, but like me spent his spare time around the recovery scene. In 1982 he joined me at National Rescue full time and when I left to expand Motor Trade Software in the nineties, he took over and run The National Rescue Group until he retired in 2008. His son Martin now runs it today.</font></p> <p>Part of the expansion I left NRG to undertake, was to launch a new company Mobile Tracking Systems Their main products were vehicle location devices and guess what? Their largest customer sector, was the UK's Recovery Industry and it was for their use we developed Turbo Dispatch. Much has been written elsewhere about this and how it changed the industry for the better, therefore I don't intend to dwell on it here. If you have an interest in it, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_dispatch">Wikipedia page</a> will give you a good background. </p> <p>The two MTS companies, grow to provide the majority of software and hardware, that is used by the Recovery Industry. I was amazed in 2001, when it was calculated, that 93% of all vehicle recoveries, subcontracted by all the UK Motoring Organisations, were sent over the MTS data network! </p> <p> When I first drove a recovery vehicle back in 1965, I could never have guessed that I would be associated with vehicle recovery for the rest of my life. <p> I also could not have guessed that at the end of  my active career (forty years later), 'The Good and the Great' of the industry would to my eternal pride, make me a Fellow of The Institute Of Vehicle Recovery. <p> <img border="0" src="images/ivraward.jpg" width="740" height="396" alt="The Institute of Vehicle Recovery Green Flag Trophy awarded to Andy Lambert FIVR"><p> Then in 2006 The Institute sprung one of the biggest surprise of my life on me, when during the annual dinner, I was awarded  this incredible Green Flag Trophy. <p> This lifetime achievement award, was given to me for the contributions my peers thought I had made to the recovery industry. It is a couple of foot long and so bloody heavy, you need a full size flat bed to get it home.<p> When I finally retired in 2007 I thought it was all over and I could get away from Recovery Vehicles, but again I was honoured to be asked to become the fourth  trustee in RISC UK (The Recovery Industry Support Charity), along with my old mates Brian Hagen, Tom Johnson and a new friend Debbie Hewitt. <a href="http://www.riscuk.net">Read about RISC</a> <br>  </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </div> <p> </p> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="772" height="2602"> <tr> <td height="19" width="996"> <p align="center"><b><font size="4" face="Arial">My Personal Life</font></b></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="987" height="390"> <p align="left"> <font face="Arial">My first marriage ended in 1982, probably like so many others, because of the pressure  of work. I remarried a few years later.  My second wife, the lovely Christine comes from the Sunbury area, where she lived until we were married. She went to Kenyngton Manor School and then worked for Airfix / Crayon, both at Sunbury and Staines offices. </font> <p><font face="Arial">We become a couple in 1982 as a result of circumstance totally beyond our control, or at the time our desires. </font> </p> <p><font face="Arial">Christine has done a little amateur modelling and her natural good looks and charm, complements one of my favourite hobbies - Glamour Photography. This has resulted in three Glamour Calendars, some pictures in a couple of lingerie catalogues and for a short while, her own Glamour website.   </font> </p> <p align="center"> <font face="Arial"> <img border="0" src="images/wild_cat.jpg" align="center" width="750" height="633" alt="XK8 looking good as well as the driver"></font><p align="left"> <font face="Arial">However, don't let her looks fool you, she is a competent business lady and home keeper. She helped me raise my first daughter Sandra and presented me with a second one called Caroline in 1984. She became a Director with myself, in the MTS Group. She then successfully managed the MTS Group with me (she might say despite me) until we sold the companies and retired. </font> <p align="left"> <font face="Arial">Next to the family, her big love is her collection of pussy cats. She currently has four  real ones and a couple of hundred model ones. She even sometimes got to drive my 'British Racing Green' Jaguar CAT (shown above) during the eight years it was my daily transport.  <br>  </font></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" height="2137" width="996"><font size="3" face="Arial"> My own interest are varied, although they tend to be with mechanical things. I seem to be able to take nice photos and have a large collection of unusual pictures from my years in recovery, some of which you can reach from the main home page.<a href="../albums/index.html"><img border="0" src="images/glamour.jpg" align="right" hspace="6" alt="One of the thousands of glamour picture I have produced" width="280" height="243"></a> </font><p> <font size="3" face="Arial">As already stated I enjoy glamour photograph, although I am only really allowed to use my wife as the model. You can see some examples of my work in the <a href="../albums/index.html"> Picture Album</a> section  (this can also be reached from the main home page). </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Arial">Many of my pictures have been published on the internet, including  some of my pictures of the recovery of the warship Mary Rose. <br> <br> I also enjoy making home moves with my SVHS and more recently Digital Video systems. I have just started playing with HDV. </font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Arial">After some twenty years as a SWL (Short Wave Listener), in 1972 I passed my Radio Amateurs License and hold the callsign <a target="_blank" href="http://www.g8her.com/">G8HER</a>. If any 'fellows' read this - best 73's.</font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Arial">Boating has formed a large part of my life as well, with most of my boats being moored in the Solent. You will find some pictures of them in the hobbies picture gallery.<br>  </font><p></p> <p> <b> <font face="Arial">Brooklands</font></b><font face="Arial"><br> <font size="3">For the last twenty two years, I have also been working as a volunteer for Brooklands Museum. Myself and a team of very special guys and the odd girl (some have been very odd), have been responsible for transporting most of the museum's major exhibits. This group is known as the <b>B</b>rooklands <b>R</b>ecovery<b> E</b>ngineering <b>A</b>nd <b>S</b>alvage <b>T</b>eam, or BREAST for short. </font> </font> <p> <font size="3" face="Arial">I have long since lost count, but the number of aircraft road transportations I have been involved with, must have exceeded one hundred by now. This includes aircraft as big as the Viscount <a href="http://www.vsp.org.uk/">Stephen Piercey</a> and as special as Concorde. </font> <p><font size="3" face="Arial">The volunteers are a unique bunch of people and you never know just who you are working with on a project. </font> <p> <font face="Arial"> <img border="0" src="images/jb.jpg" align="right" hspace="6" alt="Capt. Jock Bryce OBE" width="120" height="150"><font size="3">On one occasion I was unloading the cockpit sections of a Valiant 'V Bomber'. Quietly watching me was an 'old boy' cutting the grass. After an hour or so he had finished and come over to where we were having a break. </font> </font> <p> <font size="3" face="Arial">We chatted for awhile and he seemed to know a bit about the V bombers so I asked him if he had worked on them. "No" he replied "not really, but there are a lot of other volunteers here who did if you need to ask something" he added. </font> <p><font face="Arial">In the months that followed I got to know this unassuming and gentle man better and found out that indeed he had not <i>'worked' </i>on them. He was in fact Capt. Jock Bryce OBE, the test pilot who had first flown it, along with the 'first flight' of the Varsity, Viscount, VC-10, Vanguard and BAC 1-11. <br> Talk about respect! <br> <font size="3"><br> Below you can see NRG's Brooklands Belle lifting a nose section on to A3 TUG. The Belle was the last recovery vehicle I was involved in constructing and I designed it in such a way, there was not an aircraft job it could not handle - It was ok with road vehicles too of course ;-)  I also own myself a very impressive AEC Militant Recovery vehicle called <a href="http://www.millytant.com/">Milly</a> and a Sun crash tender, both of whom now live at Brooklands. </font> </font> <p align="center"> <font face="Arial"> <img border="0" src="images/lift.jpg" alt="Some Recovery Trucks Loading a Viscount forward cockpit to go to Brooklands" width="750" height="426"></font><p align="left"> <font face="Arial">My proudest 'Brooklands' moments were during 2004, when with the aid of a fantastic team. I planned and executed the movement of the Brooklands Concorde DG from Filton Bristol, home to Weybridge. </font> <p align="left"> <font face="Arial">I will not go into the politics of what happened about 'who got what' Concorde here, but all I will say is - </font> <p align="left"> <font face="Arial">While the world's TV watched her sister going down the River Thames on a barge, held their breath as major roads were shut, and applauded as it arrived (a couple of million pounds later) in Scotland. We just quietly got on with the job and with the aid of many old friends from the Recovery industry, brought our Concorde home in bits, down the M4. </font> <p align="left"> <font face="Arial"> <img border="0" src="images/concorde.jpg" width="750" height="395" alt="Picture starting with the day we first saw the Concorde aircraft at Bristol and ending a few months later when we cranned it off at Brooklands. One day, you should ask me about that jumper!"></font><p align="left"> <font size="3" face="Arial">If you do look at the aircraft recovery picture (link on the main page), you may start to wonder why the vast majority of aircraft recoveries, are undertaken in such foul weather. For those that don't know it is because my good friend Julian Temple (Curator of Aviation at Brooklands Museum) organises it that way, to make it more interesting for us! Lastly for those that don't know - Yes it is that bloody jumper again. It brings me luck and I have been wearing it for difficult museum recoveries, for almost twenty five years.! <br>  </font><p align="left"> <p></p> <p> <b> <font face="Arial">Sixty years young!</font></b><font face="Arial"><br> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.familylambert.net/60/index.html"> <img border="0" src="images/60.jpg" align="right" hspace="6" width="300" height="290" alt="The first of the sixty vehicles in one day!"></a>Having mentioned <font size="3">the Brooklands Museum this is a good place to place a link to a big surprise event, that took place there in September 2006. </font> </font><p align="left"> <font size="3" face="Arial">It was a couple of days after my sixtieth birthday and unbeknown to me, some very good friends and a group of my relatives, decided to see how old 'Leadfoot' Lambert would get on driving (or travelling in), sixty odd vehicles in just one day and had been planning these surprise for some nine months.</font><p align="left"> <font face="Arial">I was collected by my daughters (complete with a wheelchair) at eight in the morning. The wheelchair was to be the first set of wheels, out of the sixty items they had planned. </font> <p align="left"> <font face="Arial">I then spent the whole day driving or travelling in different Road Vehicles, Bikes, Hovercraft, Boats and even Aircraft. </font> <p align="left"> <font face="Arial">You can see an assortment of them by  <a target="_blank" href="../60/index.html">Clicking Here</a><font size="3"> and also get a good understanding of the pain they put me through that day (but which I would do again tomorrow without even thinking).<br>  </font></font><p align="left"> <font size="3" face="Arial"> <br> <b>Andy Lambert  (Fareham 2008)<br>  </b></font></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="20" width="996"> <p align="center"><font face="Arial"> <a target="_top" href="http://www.andylambert.com">Return the main home page</a></font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </div> </body>