Articles

REMEMBERING JACK PARTRIDGE OUR FORMER PRESIDENT:

Jack Partridge 1920 – 2012 : Tribute from Chairman: George Illingworth

Jack Partridge, President of the Midlands Meccano Guild, died suddenly on 9th June at the age of 92. I and a number of his Meccano friends attended his funeral in Ilkley, Yorkshire. The church, of which he was still an active member, was almost full clearly illustrating the positive influence he has had on so many people. Right to the end Jack was a great traveller, particularly by rail. As you know he attended our Midlands Meccano Guild meetings in Baginton, and also a number of other UK Club meetings, but this was nothing compared to the annual trips he made to the CAM meeting wherever it happened to be in France. Jack was a founder member of the MMG, invited by Esmond Roden to his house in Cheltenham, along with Ernest Chandler, David Goodman, Bert Love and half a dozen others. They were to form what was to become the first of many Meccano Clubs in the UK. Jack was very nearly a member of the Nickel generation as he received his first Meccano outfit in 1926, when it had just turned Dark Red and Green. Over the years Jack brought a number of fine models to MMG meetings. Many of them were clocks containing complicated mechanisms which he revelled in although these were relieved by the occasional railway locomotive. In later years his model-building reduced and carrying models around became more difficult but he was always very interested to discuss the details of the various models others had brought along. Throughout his life Jack was also very willing to keep up with changing technology and had no difficulty mastering the techniques of model building with VirtualMec on a computer. He was able to bring to the Meccano World his very varied expertise gained in a lifetime in engineering. A career autobiography, introduced by Pat Briggs, was printed in the NMMG Newsmag 118 – November 2010 celebrating his 90th Birthday. Click for the article From that we learn that he started working for the Post Office Engineering Department in Northampton in the late 1930s installing some of the early automatic telephone exchanges. In 1940 he joined the Royal Air Force working on Radar which was then cutting edge technology. As well as the UK he served in Africa and in India where he married an RAF Nursing Sister. Following demobilization he re-joined the PO Engineering Department, became a lecturer in their training school and studied for an external University of London degree. After leaving the Post Office Jack worked on the air traffic control radar at London Airport and then moved to Oxfordshire to work on atomic energy at Harwell. Living near to Henley-on-Thames brought him to Geoff Wright’s shop and back into the Meccano world. Jack will be fondly remembered by many for the friendly guidance and encouragement which he offered in the most gentlemanly way. I personally greatly appreciate the support he has given me in the last few years as our President.