Employment Past

I had a sift through my VHS tapes earlier today. I used to have hundreds, literally and they covered every wall. Now I probably have a little under a hundred. I found some very old tapes, some more than 20 years old. There were certainly some gems amongst the recordings - holidays when I was young, parties and weddings. There was video of people loved then and loved now who have sadly passed on. They all brought back memories. One tape in particular contained a recording I made in 1990 at one of the company's first summer parties. Back then I was quite the amateur videographer and often travelled with my video camera recording all that I could. Back then in 1990, I was a new member of staff at a fledgling company called Churchill Insurance. Not long before, the company had been known as Meridian Insurance but this was changed in favor of the new brand. There was no dog back then, it was just the word 'Churchill' with a red line underneath and the words 'online to serve you'. Churchill's success in its early days was attributed to its technology, which was second to none. Its systems, its daring use of Kray servers, were the heart of the company and were nursed day and night by a small team of developers and operations staff.
Back to the video and it was good to see so many former colleagues, many of which were there at Churchill's birth. They literally formed the foundations and the pillars of the company and little did they know back then just how great it would become. I have fond memories of my time there. I was with the company from 1989 to 2005, forced out by redundancy thanks to the nasty man that is Fred The Shred and his evil RBS empire. RBS had bought Churchill a couple of years before, netting Martin Long (Churchill's Chief Exec) around £60 million.
My fondest memories are of the times I would have to literally retrieve our network engineer Richard Cauldwell from a nearby hotel at 10 in the morning escort him to Churchill House to fix a problem. He'd normally be drunk or hung-over from a session the night before. I recall also the day Alan Bowers, then the head of IT, was killed in a car crash. I remember hearing the cries from his loyal development team through the thin partition wall separating them and the computer 'bunker' I was in at the time. I recall with sadness hearing the news not long after that Richard Cauldwell had been killed in a snorkeling accident while on holiday. Those early days of rocketing success were certainly marked with tragedy.
It would be just a few years until Churchill became Bromley's largest employer. Bromley was and still is Churchill's home. A ball would be held each year in June for all staff. The venues would grow in size each year to accommodate the growing numbers and a regular event would be the 'blowing-up' of a mock Direct Line telephone, much to everyone's enjoyment. Yes, they were good days and days I look back on with deep fondness.
Good days indeed and how different things are now. Back then, I had no worries about putting petrol in the car or just going for an afternoon drive. I would buy things I didn't need and know that the bank account was looking after itself. That's what it was like. I was in a good job with no worries. Back to reality and with my memories, anyone would think I'm at retirement age. I'm not, I'm only 38...
I found a load more videos today... I'll write about what I discovered soon.