Keith Atkinson
Keith belongs to: The Doxford Engine Friends Association
Keith served his apprenticeship in various departments at Doxford's, leaving in 1959. He spent time at sea with the Bank Line working through the ranks to become Chief Engineer Officer. Keith has spent the last 20 years working in marine consultation and surveying.
Keith was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 9 March 2006. The interview took place at Sunderland Museum and lasted 29 minutes and 57 seconds.
His father
"My father, he was an electrical engineer"
My father, he was an electrical engineer, mostly attached with, early days he had a radio shop in Sunderland, in Blandford Street, a radio house, and he used to supply all of the school broadcast systems and he used to repair radios and gramophones, as they were in those days. He kept going quite nicely until the recession of course, and unfortunately he wasn’t able to compete, compete with the bigger stores who were able to offer unlimited credit, and so he was more or less forced out.
From that point he then studied which was something strange for him because he left school at, I think, 14 without any academic qualifications whatsoever, but he put his head into the books and he studied fairly hard and joined the lower ranks of the Admiralty and worked his way through the various grades of the Admiralty until, until he became an electrical, electronic overseer in charge of the new building, new warships on the Tyne. So he was in charge of the areas such as the coordinated gun control with radars and the like,and the astec systems and what have you.
And as a kid, when security of course was a lot less than it is now, I, I used to go along with him on the full speed, full powered trials on these ships and get spoiled rotten sitting on the after deck of the, of the ship whilst it was ploughing along at 30, 35 knots very nicely, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, you couldn’t do that sort of thing now. I don’t think you’d get anywhere near the vessel.
But, yes, he worked through that, and he, very good, he was a chap who could turn himself to most things, and I think for a father, it was very useful having someone like that because a lot of the, a lot of the skills that he had was automatically passed on to the kids.
Keith has 12 memories in the memorynet:
His father
- Uncle Ted
- Starting at Doxford's
- Asbestos
- Finishing apprenticeship and going to sea
- First voyage with the Bank Line
- Returning to work in the North East
- The value of a Doxford's apprenticeship
- Skills and experiences from Doxford's apprenticeship
- The atmosphere at Doxford's
Apprenticeship certificate- Doxford's reference
Use this form to add your comment to the memorynet: