The following sad news was received from John Barker on 1 February 2023:
I rang Trevor yesterday only to be given the sad news from his wife Judy that Trevor had died the day before on the 30th January. I knew that he had been unwell for a while now. I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago and he said that he couldn’t do hardly anything which was very sad for Trevor as he had always been very active. Judy had warned me when when I last spoke to her that his days were limited, which was sadly true.
Funeral details can be seen here.
Trevor was born on 21 December 1943 and joined HMSO in 1966, moving to Norwich and working as PB10 in Print Procurement Marketing and other areas pre-privatisation.
John Barker adds: I first met Trevor when I was transferred to St. Stephen’s Parly Press from Works HQ in the mid-60s. There were from memory six technical staff and our duties were ordering jobs for the factory to produce. Within a couple of weeks of my being there Trevor and I got on very well. We both found the compositors quite hard to get on with at times. Some years later Charlie Bowdler who was the NGA Union General Secretary told me that the Chapel at St. Stephen’s was the one that always gave them the most trouble.
About six months after I was transferred there we went to the IPCS London’s AGM. This was the union that looked after the technical office staff. Trevor and I were both fed up that the officials did not stand up to the NGA, SOGAT and NATSOPA. Both the Secretary and Chairman resigned on the spot, so we were forced to take over. Trevor as Secretary and me as Chairman. We had not intended to take over these roles, but we did not have much option. This made it rather difficult for the office as there would have been three of us in the same room as IPCS Committee members, as Les Pettet was the Treasurer.
They, therefore, moved me back to Atlantic House. Trevor joined me a little later and went into Print Procurement. We used to meet most days and often went for a walk around the Holborn area. We sometimes bumped into the Controller, Clifford Baylis who used to greet us with the following words. “What are you two chaps scheming about”? We would just laugh and admire his Buttonhole, and talk about gardening. Like us, he was a keen gardener. Trevor put a lot of effort into sorting out some of the union problems that a lot did not want to get involved with.
Not only did Trevor do his weekday job at HMSO, but at weekends he used to help a roofer going around sorting out problems for people. A year or two later in 1976 he and his friend re-roofed my house. He took a week’s leave and I helped in the evenings and took the odd day’s leave as well. They made a very good job of it and it is still good nearly 45 years later. I worked out the number of tiles required. About half of what another firm quoted me was required and I had about 100 left over.
Trevor was also a very good electrician. I rewired my house, but couldn’t sort out one of the tricky problems. Trevor came around and sorted it out for me. He could have turned his hand to anything practical and we remained friends after he moved to Norwich. He usually came to London reunions and after he retired from HMSO and TSO he took a job at Tesco because he needed to keep himself occupied. He told me he enjoyed it because he didn’t have any responsibility and could just go home and relax, but at the same time meet people. I attended his funeral on 27th February by the virtual method on the internet as I couldn’t get to Earlham. It was a lovely service and Trevor would have been proud of his son Matthew who gave a very nice tribute to his Dad.
Rest in peace Trevor. We will miss you.
Thank you, John. A thoughtful tribute for Trevor. He would have appreciated your kind words. Good to hear that the funeral went well. Reg.