[TR] Missing Randall Young in more ways than one

keithstewart at bell.net keithstewart at bell.net
Thu Aug 13 15:50:20 MDT 2020


Thanks for this meaningful response John. As always, you have covered this topic in not only a meaningful manner, but also a heart-warming one.

 

Cheers

Keith

 

From: John Macartney <John.Macartney at Ukpips.org.uk> 
Sent: August 12, 2020 5:02 PM
To: andrew uprichard <auprichard at uprichard.net>
Cc: triumphs at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [TR] Missing Randall Young in more ways than one

 

I too greatly miss Randall’s fascinating and proven techniques on old Triumph ownership and maintenance. Very few people who populate the email lists run by Mark realise there are about five remaining former Standard Triumph employees who are merely “watchers” on the lists and never make contributions of their own because their memories of how and why things were done the way they were when the cars were new, are now seriously jaded with the passage of time. I have no hesitation including myself in that group for the simple fact that my own memory is seriously letting me down. It will continue to do so through the onset of vascular dementia.

 

However, Randall amazed all of us with his expansive knowledge of techniques and options of safe and reliable shortcuts to keep the cars running and as “Coventrians” we thought we should accord him some form of honourable title that had a particular Standard Triumph flavour. 

 

Together and as a group of Old F****s, it fell to me to inform him his new and very unofficial title which was The Marquess of Ivy Cottage. He accepted and sent us (through me) a most modest and touching letter of thanks. 

 

Now, many if not all of you, will have no idea of the origin or import of the ‘title’ so I’ll explain. When the Standard Motor Company moved to its site at Canley, a Coventry suburb, the only building which could house the myriad non production issues was a former three storey house that was covered in Virginia Creeper that everyone mistakenly called ivy. 

 

For a few years, Ivy Cottage was the only place in the company where one was likely to find answers to all sorts of questions. Even in my day in the 1960s, if you asked a colleague a question he or she couldn’t answer, the reply was usually on the lines of “that’s a rum one, our kid. Best go to Ivy Cottage for yer answer.” 

 

Of course, by that time, Ivy Cottage had gone through many different admin functions but ‘best go to Ivy Cottage’ was the lingua Franca within the company to get your issue sorted out somewhere else. 

 

So you see, Randall’s endless responses to what must have seemed to him to be tedious and repetitive in the extreme, were dealt with in the best company tradition and with appropriate nomenclature.

 

I know without any doubt that Randall *was* that essential backup that so many listers sought and there’s no doubt in my mind that our decision as former employees to bestow that title on him, was entirely just and in no way misplaced. 

 

I miss his contributions already even though I’ve been Triumph and fFerguson tractor-less for nearly two decades. I’ll give google images a thorough caning for an image of Ivy Cottage so all of you can see where the Marquess had his official company seat. When I find what I want, I’ll post the link for you to do a click through and see for yourselves.

 

Jonmac

At the Battle of Waterloo, 1815:

Lord Uxbridge:  “By God, Sir - I’ve lost my leg”

Duke of Wellington: “By God, Sir - so you have!”

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/triumphs/attachments/20200813/166ee3d8/attachment.htm>


More information about the Triumphs mailing list