Roger Lyon retires from BINDT: Roger reflects and does a bit of name dropping
26/01/2012
This feels a bit like déjà vu, having already retired from RWE nPower in 2009. Having served 12 years in the Royal Navy, my first involvement in NDT was when my uncle, Ron Burgess (who worked alongside Ron Halmshaw (Past President) in the Woolwich Arsenal), persuaded me to attended the Lloyd’s-approved course on industrial radiography, run by the Kodak School in Pinner, north London. I did quite well for a novice, but that was largely due to the training school being run by John Grimwade (Past President) and tutors Peter Forsmen and Alan Clark (the A Team). I then had to look round for a job, but as there was very little call for a ‘gunner’ in civvie street, I headed for GKN Kent Alloys where I was successful in securing a post as an industrial radiographer working for Ralph Couchman (Founder Chairman) and Ray Miles.After three really good years at Kent Alloys, I briefly worked for Palatine Radiographic Services, a predecessor to CET Medway, before I moved to ASME vessels for a further three years. Finally, my big break came when I was offered a Third Engineer’s job in the CEGB South East region, based at Littlebrook Engineering Centre. I had become very passionate about NDT and it was very pleasing to see that the CEGB treated its NDT personnel like engineers, as everyone should do. In the following 30 years, I was able to vigorously promote NDT within the various departments I worked in; I am still doing that now and will continue to do so in the future.
Having served seven years in the South East region, I transferred to the South West region, where I worked for Malcolm Russell for four years before moving to Swindon (thanks to Margaret Thatcher) to become Section Head, NDT, National Power. Over the following twenty years, during which time I worked for Harry Harper (Past President), I survived five redundancy programmes and reached the grade of what we used to call Principal Engineer. I finally (well, I thought it was finally) retired on 31 March 2009.
In parallel to my day job, I had been active in The British Institute of NDT, starting off in the PCN Technical Committee and then as Chairman of the Certification Advisory Board, Chairman of the Certification Management Committee, Chairman of the SANDT Advisory Committee, Member of Council, Vice President, President Elect, President – pause for breath – Member of the Industry Committee, MQ&E, ECWG, Executive Committee, EFNDT and BINDT/ICorr Policy Group.
On 1 April 2009, I was offered a job with BINDT, which I accepted and which turned out to be a really good decision as I was able to continue vigorously promoting NDT.
At all stages of my career I have promoted NDT to the highest level of engineering, which is where it belongs. I wanted to continue doing that, but there comes a time when your private life takes precedence and so I have decided to call it a day. I would like to thank all of my friends, colleagues and fellow members of staff for the valuable support and friendship they have afforded me over the years, particularly since I became a member of staff at BINDT. I think BINDT is a great organisation providing a valuable service to the public, industry and its members, and with the latest influx of staff including a new CEO, I am confident about the success of BINDT and anyone who is associated with it. Good luck and may phased array be with you.
By the way, you haven’t seen the last of me yet!
