Dave Robertson: Fifty Years Remembered

Rely-a-Bell, the early years

When I left Holbrook school In Plaistow in July 1959 I started work at a furniture making company called Millwoods in Bow. Unfortunately it was seasonal and from January 1960 everyone there was put onto a 3 day working week until late spring. Having then discovering that this happened every year I sought employment elsewhere. I was discussing the situation with my neighbour Eddie Appleby and he arranged an interview for me at The Rely-a-Bell Burglar Alarm Company. I was interviewed by Ron Ruff and started work for 'RAB' aged 15 on 2nd May 1960, as a trainee mate based at their offices in Wilson Street.

My first day was spent working with Harry Gardner at a factory in Kingsland Road. In those days intruder alarms were called burglar alarms and the difference in the systems from then to now is extreme. I leant to wire and hardboard doors, tube and wire windows install aero and springs contacts (Kerry clips), fit pressure pads under carpets etc, all skills that have fallen into obsolescence. The systems were set from a lock block with a Yale type key and the communication with the Police was via an automatic 999 dialling, wind up record player!

I was an engineers mate for just over 2 years mainly working with George Hart, Ted Jobson and big Joe Eriera. I also had short spells with Stan Christmas, Les Allen and Nobby Wilkins. RAB also had a subsidiary company called Signal Alarms and I did some installs with Bill Took. The other engineers I remember were Frankie Abbot, John Colley, Roy Burnett, Joe Delaforce, Brian Wright, Terry Donaghue, Colin Ellis, Alan Plumb, Terry Salter, Roger Louis, Freddie and George Butcher, Ronnie Clark, Brian Green, John Penrose, George and Harry Guiver, Len Blewett and David Pennel.

I never got involved in service very much although I was a keyboy for a while. RAB held keys for customers and my job as keyboy was to be waiting at the office, ready to take the keys to the premises that had an activation, to meet the service engineer there. The service engineers I remember most are Dixie Dean, Brian Fitzpatrick and Bill Duvall.

I progressed to become RABs youngest ever installation engineer when I was 18 and remember having a couple of trainees, one being Bill Broyd and the other Dave Atkinson. Following the sad death of Sid Fabian, one of the surveyors, I was promoted to the position of sales surveyor at the age of 23. Cyril Thistlethwaite the Regional Manager and the London Branch Manager Arthur Bishop interviewed me for the sales position. Among the existing surveyors were Len Moxley, Harry Williams, John Colley, Roy Burnett, Stan Richards and Jackie Williams.

Burgot-Chubb Alarms

In 1969 Rely-a-Bell merged with Burgot and shortly after that Chubb Lock & Safe acquired the two Companies. The newly formed Chubb Alarms operated out of RABs offices in Wilson St and Burgots in Westbourne Grove. The new sales force as I remember consisted of the aforementioned plus Ray Welshman, Johnny Crane, Martin Flood and Derek Birmingham, split between the two offices. John Penrose and Malcolm Barry joined the sales dept sometime after that.

Other people I remember from those early days were Abe Cohen, Stan Groom, Len Blewett, Sam Hart, Bill Fulton, George Hinton, Bernie Harwood, Bobby Howard, Renee Crichton, Johnny Johnson, Mike Collier, Arthur Hyams, June Ficken, Mario in the stores and Mick from Micks café in Sun Street !

Chubb introduced some of their sales techniques and procedures which included index cards for regular contacts. For a while my immediate manager was John Redfearn and although I was the top salesman in the East office, John taught me a bit about nurturing contacts and structuring my day better. Up to then I relied on general enquiries, a few CPOs and insurance brokers and my fellow football team mates at Trinity FC, half of whom worked for the Commercial Union.

Insurance people I can remember from the early days are Peter Hutchinson, George Reeks, Ken Hockett, Mike Hunt, Jim Shave, Jim Bunyan, John Fuller, Eddie Potter, Len Hack, Ken Bristow, Henry Chatterton, Ken Bolton, David Dabbs, John Newbury, Dave Smith, Jerry Johnson Wally Farmer, Chris Weare, Brian Wright, Roger Houghton, Jim Jarvis, Dave Potter, Roy Bottomley, Robert Israel and Doug Barrett.

Modern Automatic Alarms

The National Supervisory Council for Intruder Alarms (NSCIA) was formed in 1971 and the following year me and John Colley followed Arthur Bishop and Ron Ruff to Modern Automatic Alarms. At that time MAA were primarily Midlands and Oxford based, with a small office in London and had just moved from Arlington Road in Camden to Highgate Rd in Kentish Town. The MAA hierarchy, as far as I can remember, consisted of Dennis Smith, Keith Hamner and Mike Hawker.

Arthur and Ron were brought in by MAA to grow the business in the South and under their stewardship I became the London Branch Manager in 1974. We opened a Central Station (run by Bunny Warren) and a showroom. The Company was rebranded in the mid seventies with the introduction of the distinctive chain link logo and shortly after that the name change to Modern Alarms Ltd. At that time MAA had 17 branches including one in Scotland (Motherwell) and one in Belfast. The London office was relocated in Queens Road Peckham and I had the joys of driving through the Rotherhithe tunnel twice a day.

Moderns parent company Automated Security Holdings (ASH) acquired Brocks Alarms and ran them separately for a while before merging them under the Modern Alarms name. This coincided with the Company relocating the London branch once again, this time to a self contained building in City Road.

With the integration of Brocks offices the number of branches increased to around 25. I became the South East Regional Manager which included London, Southampton, Brighton, Maidstone, Southend, Oxford and Luton. Can't remember when exactly, but around that time Arthur and I recruited Steve Neville, a Young surveyor at the Dominion Insurance Company, to be our Insurance and Police Liaison manager.

I had formed an association with David Dungay of the Barbican Lock & Safe Company and he introduced me to some of the Lloyds Underwriters. When Levys closed Barbican L & S we started a Physical Security Division, run by David and including Linda Gentle in the office and Malcolm Lee out in the field.

Obviously with the people already at Moderns, the organic growth and the merger with Brocks there were a whole raft of new colleagues and friends made over those years; too many to remember them all, but here goes:-

Ron Cotton was the MD of Brocks and became Moderns National Accounts Director, Ray Le Monde Brocks Ops Manager left shortly after the merger, Mick Shipton became the London Admin Manager, John Truss, Ian Mcnab, John Shipman, Dave Newbury, Dick Bridge, Bernie Atkinson, Jimmy Oughton, Don Winchcombe, Bobby Love, Mick and Barbara in Accounts, Denis Crawley, Derek Benham, Jim Clark, Johnny Brown, Malcolm Plant, Steve Steeds, Frank Harper Senior, Frank Harper Junior and some time later Frank Harper Junior Junior!

The above were London based and across the branches I remember Kami Raufi at the Letchworth distribution depot, Brian Austin, Tony Simmonds, Andy Rees, John Gibbons, Tom Ellis, Ian Rogerson, John Hedges, Dave Newbury, Dave Charnley, John Shipman and further afield Martin Machin, Graham Maddison, Colin Hill, Peter Gundry, Danny Dunsmore, Peter Taylor. Roy Cooper

I became the UK Sales Manager around 1981 and in 1983 was appointed to the Modern Alarms board as Sales Director.

IFSSEC now IFSEC

Among my fondest memories of those days are those spent entertaining at IFSEC, initially at the Royal Lancaster Hotel and subsequently at Olympia. Most UK based Police and Insurance people and National account customers who visited IFSEC arrived at the Modern Alarms hospitality suite for a drink or two or more. Even our competitors were welcome, to as we put it, see what they had to try to compete with. Our barman was always Don Winchcombe and I am sure that most regular visitors will remember him. I had an arrangement with Don in IFSEC week, if I rubbed the side of my nose when I asked for a gin and tonic he gave me just a tonic. The idea being that I could last the whole day without falling over, it didn't always work, but I do remember staying upright on the odd occasion.

The Windsor Horse Show

I also have great memories of the various showjumping events which Moderns sponsored at the Windsor Horse show and Olympia again. Windsor in particular was a unique opportunity for Moderns to say thank you to the Police, Insurance Companies & Brokers as well as major customers. The Queen was a regular attendee as was Prince Phillip, who also competed in some of the horse & cart races!

I am not sure that the Stewards and regular horsey people appreciated the fact that me and Steve Neville used to arrange sweepstakes, which often resulted in a big cheer when someone knocked a fence down! I think that the riders were under some sort of obligation to show their faces in the sponsors' marquees and we mingled with the likes of Harvey Smith, David Broome and Nick Skelton.

I remember one occasion when Prince Phillip came into our sponsor's marquee and walked up to me to shake hands. Fortunately a fraction of a second before I was about to try to stick my hand in his, Raymond Brooks-Ward appeared from behind me to greet him. Raymond's son Tim Brooks-Ward joined us in a Marketing and Promotions capacity and although we came from vastly different backgrounds I found him to be great fun and as you would expect, a real gentleman.

The Winchcombe Trophy

Arthur Bishop and John Harris thought it a good idea to have an annual golf match between Modern Alarms and Shield. It was played in the format of ten a side originally with singles matches drawn out of the hat. A bit like the Ryder Cup but without Americans running across the green. Don Winchcombe supplied a trophy, it was good competitive golf and involved dinner, presentations and some drinking. It went on from the mid seventies untill the late eighties and even continued after Honeywell bought Shield from John Harris and Mike Cahalane. I think I was one of the few people that played in them all.

The 98% Club

It must have been about that time when me, Steve Neville & John Colley were in the pub after an ABIS meeting (I think it was in or just off the Minories). About 9 o'clock we looked around and noticed that the only people left were from the security industry, the insurance representatives having left early, to go home to count their money.

Mike Cahalane came over and upon discussing this point, suggested that us alarm people should have a get together every Christmas. We decided that qualification meant 20 years in the industry (Steve being allowed dispensation because he drank like he'd been in the industry for 20 years), that's how the 98% club was formed.

The oft quoted statistic of the Police was that 98% of all alarm calls were false ones. A strange way of putting things across, because had there been many more burglaries the industries false alarm rate would have looked better! If I recall correctly the first 98% club get together was held at the Mr Toad restaurant on a boat on a canal in Bow. The men only nights continued for some years and there were trips to France earlier on for several years. The 98% Club annual get together became a Ladies night with around 150 people at its peak, now it seems to have run its course and has faded away.

The Boulougne Six

The best thing to come out of the 98% Club for me was the friendships formed on one particular trip to France. Six of us being Keith Avey, Paul Thistlethwaite, Stevie Gardner, Kevin Dodge, George Mullaly and myself played cards non stop to France and back with a short break for a meal. We decided that we would call ourselves the Boulougne Six and this subsequently became the B6 and friends. The initial number has now spread to also include Gerry Johnson, Dave Spiers, Dave Smith (ex CU insurance), Peter Terry and Peter Glenn. Only the B6 know who the friends are and who are the actual B6, confused, don't worry so am I.

The Par Club

I introduced a sales incentive scheme based on each individual surveyor's target. It was called the Par Club and somewhere around 20 top achievers and their partners accompanied me and Arthur to 5 star hotels in Cyprus on the first year, followed by Gran Canaria in the second year. I shall never ever forget the first evening in Cyprus when after a meal and too much wine, every single person on the trip did the conga through the restaurant and along the promenade, chased by the proprietor who thought we were doing a bunk.

The incentives company that I used to arrange the awards supplied gold lapel pins, in the form of the Modern Alarms chain link logo, for all of the winners, does life get any better than that?

The incentives company also took me and my wife on inspection trips to 5 star hotels in Rome and Malta at their expense. We had to try various restaurants and clubs that we could take our Par Club winners to in the next year, an extremely tough job, but someone had to do it!

Clarion Security

I left Moderns in 1988 to form Clarion Security Systems Ltd with John Hedges who was my South East Regional Sales Manager. We were based initially in Weston Park, Crouch End in North London and then at the Lea Valley Technopark in Tottenham. We obtained NSCIA accreditation, which in 1991 merged with the SSI to form NACOSS.

We had some financial difficulties and John and I discovered that we knew the Security business but we didn't know much about running a business. After refinancing and Johns departure I was joined by my then brother in law Deryck Bottomley and over the next few years by Derek Lacey as Finance Director, David Spiers as Sales Manager and Dave Smith as Engineering Manager.

The Cops and Robbers Golf Society

The City police had a get together at Bishopsgate nick every Christmas and invited people in the security industry to come along as their guests. At the 1993 soirée I got chatting to Fred Field who was a Met Police CPO, at Leyton I think. Fred and I were always promising each other that we would get together for a game of golf but hadn't managed to sort anything out. He suggested that we should form a society to encourage liaison between the security industry and the police Crime Prevention Officers.

True to his word he rang me early in 1994 and we met up and agreed to form the Cops & Robbers Golf Society, with him as Secretary and me as Treasurer (appropriate for one of the robbers). Fred, being a CPO had learnt how to make himself disappear when necessary and this blossomed into him performing many other magic tricks, so much so that I nicknamed him ‘Marvo' which stuck. He was a member of the magic circle society and entertained me and other friends on many occasions.

We had 11 people at our first society day including me and Marvo. Sadly Freddie died earlier this year and when I went to see him just before Christmas he told me how much he had enjoyed the Society and I promised him that I would ensure that it continued.

The C & R GS has its first meeting this year on 10 May at Stock Brook Manor and three further meetings throughout the year. We are having a Freddie Field memorial day in October at Orsett Golf Club.

The Fullstop Era

After about eleven years of Clarion's existence we were approached by Gerry Johnson, a friend of mine from Chubb Alarms, who had been tasked with seeking acquisitions. The money was attractive and after putting the thought into our heads Gerry departed from Chubb and we eventually sold to ADT. I semi retired and assisted my eldest son Doug to form and run Fullstop Fire & Security Ltd, based in Exeter.

In June 2003 when I realised that I didn't have enough money to see me out (unless I died fairly soon or spent my money like Ian McNab) so I formed Fullstop Fire & Security Systems Ltd with Neil Barber, who had at that time had around 20 years experience in the Security Industry.

Fullstop started life in Wood Green; courtesy of office space provided by my old friend Pat Riley and his son Kevin at Eurotech's premises in St Michaels Terrace, next door to the Gate Pub, ah location, location, location. When I say courtesy of, I meant at an exorbitant rent, but I suppose someone had to help support Pat and Sue's extravagant lifestyle. By this time NACOSS merged with the ISI to form the NSI and no sooner had we achieved NSI Icon accreditation then they renamed it NSI Systems Silver. I think that I must be one of the few people who have been a Director of a Company when they have achieved NSCIA and NACOSS (Clarion), NSI ICON, NSI Systems Silver and now NSI NACOSS Gold recognition.

We moved to self contained offices in Enfield in July 2008 and in October that year we purchased Crisdan Security from Chris Fussell. Funnily enough the Dan in Crisdan was Danny Spalding, son of Ian Spalding, who I had promoted from engineering to sales when I was London regional Manager for Moderns.

Now I am past the state retirement age but I am enjoying the success that I am achieving with Neil in London and Doug in Exeter and have no thoughts of retiring in the foreseeable future.

I would be delighted to receive emails (dave@fullstoplondon.co.uk) from anyone who worked with me or recalls names of any Rely-a-Bell, Chubb Alarms, Modern Alarms, Clarion, Insurance or Police people that can be added to the ‘fifty years remembered' page on the web site. These will be added, with an acknowledgement of the sender noted on the web site.

I will be having a celebratory drink and buffet in Central London on 21 May from 12 noon onwards at The Wall Bar, 45 Old Broad Street, EC2N 1HU Tel 020 7588 4845. I extend an open invitation to anyone who knows me to come and meet old friends and of course buy me a drink! Let me or Natalie know if you will be coming along.

I know that the contents of the above are only of interest to a few people and I also know that there are lots of other people that I should remember, every time I was about to send this to our Web site provider, I remembered somebody else! I had fun trying to recall events and in what order things happened, feel free to email me and put me right. Dave Robertson