Roy Machin

Roy attended Loughborough Technical College between 1949-1954. He was at first keen to follow his passion and undertake a course of studies in aircraft design, but was advised that post war the country needed to be rebuilt, and needed civil engineers more than aeronautical engineers.

While a student he earned money as a machinist at a stream roller manufacturer based in Loughborough.

At the end of his studies he went to a talk delivered at college by Douglas LTD who were looking for civil engineers, and thought he would apply as had no idea what else he wanted to do with his qualification. He was successful, and joined the firm shortly after graduation.

On 10^th October 1957 – Roy was employed as a contractor at the Windscale Nuclear facility, Cumbria, when it caught fire – all staff were directed into one of the other nuclear facilities to wait for the all clear. He describes this event as at the time confusing, and only afterwards was he frightened when the potential consequences became known! Thankfully there were no short- or long-term health effects from this event – which was lucky as he was never tested for radiation poisoning.

In 1960, while working on developing the Abbots laboratory site (Queenborough, Isle of Sheppey), he met Ann Newman working behind the bar at Harty Ferry Inn. At the end of her shift he gave her a lift back home on his motorbike. They were married on the 9^th December 1961 at Sheerness Registry Office, Isle of Sheppey, with a reception, appropriately, at Harty Ferry Inn!

After working and living on site for four years, Roy and Ann made their home in Tamworth, Staffordshire, where their two children – Andrew (1965) and Susan (1967) were born.

In July 1983 Roy received a B.Sc. degree from Loughborough University of technology to replace his Diploma awarded in 1954.

Roy retired from British Lift Slab, a division of Douglas Ltd in 1991. When asked, what was the highlight of his working life he said that He was most proud of a car park he helped to design and build in Kendal, Cumbria – not because it was a good car park, but because of the technical challenges involved on the site.

Roy had always enjoyed robust health, however this started to decline over recent years, exacerbated by the pandemic. His COPD (probably a result of both smoking, and working on site) limited his mobility, and he was diagnosed with mixed dementia.

After admission to hospital three times in the past year with chest infections, Roy went, in October 2022, to live with his daughter in Moray, Scotland. While his health initially improved, he sadly passed away peacefully in his sleep on 27^th November 2022 – aged 94 ½.

Roy was predeceased by his wife Ann (1998) and survived by his children Andrew and Susan, and grandson Ru.