Part 6 - Burnett in BP
Burnett in BP
Nothing for it now, I would have to see about applying for a job. Since my big brother seemed to be doing well in the oil industry I thought I'd also have a stab at that. I didn't want to join the same company so I did the next best thing and joined a company with the same initials as myself. I joined the British Petroleum Company Ltd. in September 1958 at the salary of £900 per annum.
After a few days indoctrination in London Office, the intake of probationers was sent down to Wales to Llandarcy Refinery for a month to be shown what oil refining was all about, and to give us some idea of what we might expect to be doing in the oil industry. This was also my first experience of the Welsh people.
I was billeted with a rather crabbit Old Welsh woman who was a bit of a misanthrope. She hardly spoke two words to my face; any correspondence we might have was carried on through the medium of the refinery personnel superintendent. On the three Sundays I was there she played hostess to what was presumably an itinerant preacher whom she treated to lunch. I say "presumably" as I was never introduced to him and throughout the whole visit they conversed in Welsh, even when we were all seated at table. I didn't believe that they had no English; it was just an example of boorish chauvinism and not the best of introductions to Wales.
On one occasion when a bunch of us probationers were refreshing ourselves in the bar of the local hotel, we were invited to a party at a nearby house by some girls, the first real hospitality we were shown in the principality. I think they just wanted to leaven the local males with some alien talent. Anyway the local boys who had also been invited insisted on talking among themselves in Welsh though in view of the glances in our direction they were obviously discussing the incomers. Well at least the girls made us welcome though that may just have been to show the local lads they weren't the only fish in the sea.
The end of the Welsh visit eventually came (none too soon for the majority of us) and the group were dispersed round the country, some stayed at Llandarcy (God help them!). The others were dispersed to Kent, Sunbury and Head Office. Myself with three others were sent to Grangemouth. The others were Charles Chapman, Gerry Challis and another whose name escapes me. Gerry was always addressed as "Dr" Challis he having done some research at Imperial College though as far as I am aware he never did present his thesis. Gerry came from the London area and his one real claim to fame was his ability to impersonate Tony Hancock, in fact better than that, at the drop of a hat he would recite great screeds of Hancock scripts. In those days of course Hancock was The Comic of the era.
My first digs arranged for me by the Grangemouth personnel department were a bit of a disaster. I was made to share a room (something I hadn't done since Cardington in the RAF). My roommate was a warder in Polmont Borstal. His alarm used to go off at 6am; he would switch on his bedside light and immediately light up a cigarette and lie there smoking. Room sharing was bad enough but having to inhale someone's cigarette smoke first thing in the morning was just too much. Within a week I was back in the Personnel office begging for a change of digs. My next landlady was a gem. Her son had recently gone off to Canada and she just felt the need for some young blood in the house. Accordingly she had phoned up the refinery to ask if they had a nice young man in want of a home-from-home. I was given the spare room and shared breakfast and dinner with her and her husband. They treated me just like one of the family. Once again their name escapes me. It was forty years ago, for goodness' sake.
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