Lisa : It’s the 29th August 2018 and this is an interview with Mr Dixon at his home in Cowes and the interviewer is Lisa Kerley Mr Dixon, could we start by you telling me your full name?
Tony : Anthony Dixon
Lisa : And, what’s your date of birth?
Tony : 1932.
Lisa : And, where were you born?
Tony : Mayfield Road in East Cowes.
Lisa : And what are the names of your parents?
Tony : My Mother’s name was Mahala and my Father’s name was Richard.
Lisa : And, what was your Mother’s maiden name?
Tony : Fox.
Lisa : And do you know the years’ that they were born?
Tony : My Mum…well they were both born in the same year and that was 1896.
Lisa : So the house…you were born in the family home were you, Mayfield Road was the family home?
Tony : Yes.
Lisa : Did you have any siblings?
Tony : Yeah, there was six of us.
Lisa : And what number are you in the six?
Tony : Six.
Lisa : So you were the youngest?
Tony : Yeah, and the only one left.
Lisa : So what were the names of your brothers and sisters?
Tony : Eldest brother was Peter, then Joan, then Murray, oh, sorry I missed out the John Arthur Glanville who was a pilot during the War and was shot down and died. And then there was Lucy and me.
Lisa : Can you tell me a bit about the home that you grew up in?
Tony : Not a lot, because I’d only been born about 2 years and we were whisked off to Brighton and I started school there and then when the War started my mum got back onto people on the Island to see if we could move back to the Island and we got…managed to get back in 1940.
Lisa : So, where did you live when you moved back to the Island then?
Tony : East Cowes, Mayfield Road (laughs).
Lisa : Back to Mayfield Road?
Tony : (laughs) yes.
Lisa : In the same house?
Tony : Yeah.
Lisa : In exactly the same house?
Tony : (laughs) yeah.
Lisa : So where did you go to school then, when you came back to the Island?
Tony : I went to Whippingham School and then to Grange Road and then over to West Cowes. I’m trying to remember the name of the school now…no it won’t come to mind.
Lisa : So, could you…you were a very young boy then when the War broke out?
Tony : Yes.
Lisa : What are your kind of memories of that time of the Island? Do you remember the air raids and things like that?
Tony Well, there wasn’t a lot happened in that first year and we were back on the Island by the time anything happened. But I do remember the blitz of 1942, which was on Cowes and we were pretty lucky because Mayfield Road was probably only about three hundred yards long and there was one exploded bomb one end of the road and two unexploded the other end. So, if they’d gone off, I wouldn’t be here. Anyway, during the night I was pretty scared, and we sheltered in under the stairs and there was a soldier from the Barracks at…where the ack-ack guns were and he sheltered in with us. At the end of the first raid he suddenly realised we were under a gas meter. He said, “I’m getting out of here quick.” Well, he shot off but then the second raid came over and a lot more bombs came, and I remember being pretty scared and when…got up in the morning and a white patch of hair had appeared at the side. Anyway, Uffa had a place called ‘Twenty Acres’ which we thought we could move out to at Whippingham, but their roof was down as well. So Uffa got us all together and took us out to a farm friend he had in Calbourne and we stayed there for several weeks until we got back to the house.
5 minutes 36 seconds
Lisa : So, had the house sustained much damage?
Tony : No, just windows out and the main damage was further down the road. But it was a pretty scary time.
Lisa : So, you said that you sheltered under the stairs?
Tony : Yeah.
Lisa : Did you not have an air raid shelter in the garden there?
Tony : No, no they built one afterwards (laughs) which we used to go into at night, when the sirens sounded, but we never had another raid, so we didn’t use it that much.
Lisa : And, what about when you were at school if there was an air raid. Was there a shelter at school?
Tony : No, no, neither schools had air raid shelters. Although one was built near the main school in East Cowes, but we never used to go there ‘cos the War was gradually coming to a close.
Lisa : I wonder if I can ask you some questions about your family? Were your grandparents alive when you were a boy?
Tony : My grandfather was alive, but not my grandmother.
Lisa : Was that on your mother’s side or your father’s side?
Tony : On my mother’s side. My father came from Lancashire and he met me mother during the first War and he survived the trenches and he was gassed a bit at one of them and had to come back for repatriation. But then he went back again and managed to see the War out. And when he came back he asked my mum to marry him and there we are. But all his relatives were in Lancashire which we never really, in those days little transport was (…inaudible…).
Lisa : So your grandfather, what was his occupation?
Tony : He as a Rent Collector for one of the Council’s. Of course, in those days the Councils were all split up into different areas and I think he was the East Cowes Collector. But he was a lovely old chap and used to teach me to play crib.
Lisa : And where did he live?
Tony : He lived in the house opposite us, the other side of the road called ‘Barona’ and he actually owned all the houses that…and he owned a couple down, further down in East Cowes. So, we, sort of were reasonably comfortable.
Lisa : Did he have any connections to the sea or sailing?
Tony : Yeah, when he was younger, he was in John Samuel White’s shipyard as a boat builder and he went off to sea for a bit and came back and then, I’m trying to think, on the other side of the family they came down from Lancashire and my great grandfather and then grandfather they got taken on at Osborne House and helped carve the Durbar room, so he was pretty proficient in carpentry and so-on.
9 minutes 57 seconds
Lisa : And what about aunts and uncles? Did you have a sort of extended family as you were growing up?
Tony : No, not really, I mean we had Uncle Uffa and there was an Aunt Alfreda.
Lisa : And Uffa was your mother’s brother, Alfreda was her sister?
Tony : Yeah. My Aunt Alfreda never got married so there was no connection on from that although we did have cousins further down in East Cowes which I don’t remember much about except Uncle Harry who was an old man and on crutches cos he’d lost a leg, that’s about all I remember (laughs).
Lisa : So your own father, he was a Lancashire man, moved down to the Island and married your mother. What was his occupation?
Tony : He was an Insurance Agent. That’s why we had to move off the Island because he was posted up to the Brighton region. But when we came back, he got a job in John Samuel White’s as a Wages Clerk, so he saw the War out…well he saw his life out doing that.
Lisa : And, was John Samuel White’s in those days, was it a big employer of local people?
Tony : Oh, magnificent, I think there was two or three thousand people.
Lisa : And in those years when your father was working there, what kind of things were they building?
Tony : They were building Destroyers and all the little boats, Mine Sweepers. In fact, I think they had a submarine shed that they built some subs in the 1st World War, but in the 2nd War they was all military stuff.
Lisa : So they were building things which were very important for this country in the War?
Tony : Yes, which is the same as Uffa was, he was…he designed and built the Airborne Lifeboat.
Lisa : Yeah, do you want to tell me a bit more about that?
Tony : The Airborne Lifeboat?
Lisa : Yeah
Tony : Well is was a twenty-three-foot boat that had inflatable bags and used to be dropped by parachute from the air to the shot-down crews of the Bombers who were taking part in raids over the continent. And they got enough petrol to get them back to the North Sea but a lot of them crashed in the North Sea and they only had little rubber dinghies which automatically drifted them on the tides back to the Holland coast, so they’d get picked up and made Prisoners of War. But with the Airborne Lifeboat they could drop the boat near the dinghies, they’d get in what was a little motor sailing boat and they motored back to English shores. And, quite a lot of airmen were saved.
Lisa : So Uffa was responsible for the design of that boat. Did he manufacture them as well?
Tony : Yes, he did. He had his own boat building yard.
Lisa : And where was that?
Tony : That was at West Cowes near the Police…near the Duke of York. It was next door to Clare Lallows Boatyard, so he had quite a number of staff working there during the War. I think about sixty or seventy people.
Lisa : And about how many of those boats were made, do you know?
15 minutes 1 second
Tony : Hundreds. He was the main supplier of all the plans that different yards round the country…they were building, well literally hundreds, I should think about seven or eight hundred about.
Lisa : And, this was during what time? Do you know when about he came up with this idea?
Tony : It was round about 1941 or ’42. ‘Cos of his connections with the fourteen-foot international dinghies before the War which were very popular, Lord Brabazon, who was then the Minister for Aircraft during part of the War. He was a pal of Uffa’s and Uffa went up to London and sold him the idea of the boat and he told Uffa to get an idea out within a month and if it looked any good he could carry on developing. Which is what happened.
Lisa : And you were a very young boy at that time weren’t you. Did you ever go to the Yard and see any of the work taking place?
Tony : Oh yes.
Lisa : You did, can you tell me a bit about that?
Tony : Well, as a small lad, I mainly remember the wonderful smell of sawdust and wood in the Yard, cos they were all wooden boats and it was…and Uffa used to show us round and all that was being built. And then in 1947 Uffa got me in there as an apprentice in the Drawing Office.
Lisa : Ok, so when you were at school, did you have an idea of what you wanted to do as a job?
Tony : Not really. When I left school I applied to Mew, Langton Brewery for a job and it was in the office with the boss. I think I was offered twelve shillings a week, something of that order. And when Uffa got to hear it he said, “No you’re not going there, you’re coming to work for me” (laughs) and I was on seven and six a week. But I had no option.
Lisa : And were you happy about that? Were you happy to work for your Uncle?
Tony : Well, I didn’t really know any better and, yeah, it was quite good fun in the Drawing Office, drawing up the plans and things of Uffa’s boats. When I started, he’d just designed the Flying Fifteen, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but it’s a very popular boat and still being built today round the world. And he … a few …a bit back he’d met Prince Phillip at one of the Sailing Club doo’s and they got talking and he persuaded Phillip to come back and sail in the Flying Fifteen which he did, and I never met Prince Phillip then, but we could see him out the window and that was wonderful really. Anyway, the Duke liked the boat and so Uffa persuaded the council to get the people of Cowes to put together and buy a boat for Prince Phillip which was called ‘Coweslip’ and they won a great many races in that.
Lisa : So was that one of the first boats that you helped with in the Drawing Office?
Tony : Yeah, well it had actually been finished, but Uffa called it the Flying Family he had a Flying Fifteen and then he had a smaller one called the Flying Ten and Flying Twenty Five (laughs), so I helped to draw quite a lot of those.
20 minutes 24 seconds
Lisa : And did you sail in any of them?
Tony : With my brothers and brother-in-law we built our own Flying Fifteen, but I’d be honest, I really never liked sailing much. Uffa had taken me out early on, on a very windy, rough day when I was about 10, and I held onto the gunnels like ‘one-oh’ and didn’t really like it. But Uffa used to try and get me back into sailing and I did take one or two boats out. One in particular, which was being built for a guy called Douglas-Home who was the nephew of Lord Howden Home, who was our Prime Minister at one time. And, just finished the boat and Uffa said, “Come on, you must go out and race ‘cos the Flying Fifteens out there.” So one Tuesday night, I sailed the boat and that was a very strong wind and I got up to East Bramble buoy and tried to jibe round it but the boat wouldn’t respond and I hit the buoy head on and that took about 18 inches off the bow which was just short of the foresail where the…so we managed to limp back to Cowes and Uffa who hadn’t been able to go out in another boat. We went over the ‘Duke of York’ with my brother and Murray who’d raced our boat…and Uffa turned up and Murray said to him, “Tony retired from the race ‘cos he hit the buoy.” And I got a lecture from Uffa saying, “If you hit a buoy don’t worry, just carry on racing ‘cos it makes it look better with more boats.” And Murray turned round and said, “Uffa you haven’t seen the bloody boat” (laughs). Anyway, instead of…I thought he’d have kicked up no end, Uffa got his best craftsman on and remoulded the stem ‘cos Dougie-Home was coming down that next day and when Uffa told him I’d taken the boat out, Dougie-Home thanked me for taking the wrinkles out of the boat (laughs). But then later on when I’d…’cos I really liked playing cricket, I sort of said to Uffa, “Look I don’t really want to go sailing, I want to play cricket.” He said, “That’s alright, that’s alright.” And he picked the phone up and he rang Hampshire Cricket Club and got me over there for some practising and that was good of him.
Lisa : So just going back to being a young apprentice then, how many years is an apprenticeship for?
Tony : Er, five or six years, so when we got …when I finished my apprenticeship Uffa called me in and said, “I can’t really afford to keep you on any more, so I’m afraid you’ll have to go” and I got a job in John Samuel White’s small boat Drawing Office, where they were building and designing inshore Mine Sweepers. So, that’s where I stayed there until I was called up and went into the RAF. I put down to go in the Navy but there was no openings, so I ended up being a Radar Mechanic in the RAF and posted to a place called Dishforth in the middle of Yorkshire which was just outside Ripon. So, I finished the National Service up there, then came back and, of course, stayed on in John Samuel White’s until they started to go downhill and then I moved over to British Hovercraft and worked on their big Hovercraft that went from Dover to Calais.
26 minutes 15 seconds
Lisa : Where was British Hovercraft based then?
Tony : East Cowes, but used to be called Saunders Roe but they’d moved out of aircraft and gone into Hovercraft.
Lisa : Yeah, about how many people worked for British Hovercraft then, in those days when they were designing that…
Tony : About 1500 I should think, ‘cos they had a big yard down on the river and we were up near Osborne House in the Drawing Office. They had a terrific amount of people, ‘cos they had their test tanks as well that people used.
Lisa : And, you were working in the Drawing Office side of things then?
Tony : Yeah, yeah. But then an opening came up to work for Vosper Thorneycroft and we opened the Drawing Office in Cowes with, I think about, 40 Draughtsmen and Tracers. And I managed that for them until 1976 when they told “you could either go over to Southampton or leave the firm” which I did and then I went on my own going into different places as a solo Draughtsman. Then as well as doing that, I opened a bookshop in Cowes called the ‘Book Cabin’, I don’t know if you remember it? (laughs). That was quite good fun. I was also working for Uffa part time, weekends and so-on, really right through until he died.
Lisa : So, what other things were you working on Uffa for?
29 minutes 9 seconds
Tony : Oh, lots of things we designed and built these…well Clare Lallow built it. It was the boat that John Fairfax rowed first across the Atlantic in and Uffa based the design on the airborne Lifeboat, so it was unsinkable. He was the first…John Fairfax was the first man to row that way across the Atlantic. So that was quite interesting, then after he’d done that, he persuaded Uffa to design another boat which was a two-seater for John Fairfax and his girlfriend and they rowed across the Pacific, which was some feat, but they did it. So that was nice being involved with that. In fact, I think the first Britannia’s still in the Museum somewhere. Whether that’s in Cowes or…cos I think they’ve just re-opened the Museum haven’t they? Yeah.
Lisa : So, the Isle of Wight was responsible for the design of quite a few of these important types of vessels.
Tony : Yeah, well mainly Uffa was, yeah.
Lisa : And you’ve been part of that in terms of your contribution to that over the design and the drawing. Have you kept any of your drawings from those days?
Tony : Yeah, when Uffa died he’d left me all his plans. I’ve got a load of them in the garage which my wife keeps moaning about (laughs).
Lisa : In your career, did the type of drawing that you did change in any way at all?
Tony : Well, yeah, ‘cos the CAD machines came in and computers and I was a bit old hat then and I couldn’t really get to grips with them. So, I just used to hire myself out to the people who needed a Draughtsman, rather than someone who could work the CAD. So, luckily I lasted out till I retired.
Lisa : And who taught you as an apprentice?
Tony : A very good friend who, his name was Dave …David Helmer who was the Chief Draughtsman when I started there. And he taught me a lot …at 16 I think, I could do these things.
Lisa : And in those days I guess it was pencil and paper?
Tony : Yeah (laughs) or inks. We used to draw a lot on what they called linen which was a roll and an ink pen which was quite a craft actually to … ‘cos you had a special pen for drawing the lines and then you had like an ordinary pen for printing the stuff up. I’ve got quite a lot of those in the garage and they’ve lasted for years.
Lisa : I find it fascinating how you get from the drawing to the actual thing that you create, the thing that you build.
Tony : Yeah, well you have to draw quite a few drawings and detail up everything there is on the build, ‘cos the craftsman who then picks your drawing up has to know exactly what to build.
Lisa : And did technology change in terms of the building of the boats themselves in your career?
Tony : Yeah, I should think the biggest change was when the GRP boats came in, the plastic boats if you like. The construction would be totally different. It would all be done off outside and then literally plastered back into the boats. Your detailing work was a bit different then.
Lisa : It’s nice that you mention those first childhood memories of going into the Boatyard, being the smell of wood.
Tony : Oh yeah, yeah, I loved that, I still do, yeah. You can’t beat the smell of people planing the wood and sawing, yeah, wonderful.
35 minutes 2 seconds
Lisa : Are the racing boats not made of wood any more at all?
Tony : Oh yes, some people…but they sort of cost quite a bit more to build in wood, but you do have people who really loved the old type of construction.
Lisa : And, where can you get a boat like that built these days, do they still do that kind of thing on the Island now?
Tony : I don’t think so, no. I think that’s specialised around the East coast more. They seem to love the old boats on the East coast.
Lisa : So the Island sort of lost a bit of that building heritage then?
Tony : Yeah, yeah, although I think there’s still a few Yards around, but I don’t get involved now, getting a bit too old for that.
Lisa : But, when you talk about the number of people that were involved in the various different Building Yards, there’s probably nowhere near like that number now?
Tony : Oh no, I mean we were with Lallows ‘cos they used to build next door as well, so it was a lovely little area to work in. And you had the ‘Duke of York’ pub about 10 yards away (laughs).
Lisa : And was that frequented then by the workers?
Tony : Yes, yes (laughs). You used to pop over and have a quick one.
Lisa : So, how much, you know, just off the top of my head I’m thinking about the Flying Fox for example. How much would a boat like that have costed in those days?
Tony : A Flying Fifteen in…when she was first built, I think they were £190. Hello, my hearing aids gone (laughs).
Lisa : What would that be in equivalent money today then?
Tony : Ooh, £190, I should think about £5,000. You know, they’re a specialised boat but the Flying Fifteens are right throughout the world and they have international racing with them, so they’re 60 years on and they’re still being made which is rather wonderful.
Lisa : But it must be an excellent design to have lasted that long and still be popular today?
Tony : Yeah (laughs). But talking about cricket, Uffa used to play cricket out on the Brambles Sandbanks and when the Hovercraft came in Uffa used to persuade the Hovercraft people to take the teams out in the Hovercraft and play on the Brambles Bank. When Uffa died we still kept it up and I managed to persuade Colin Cowdrey, the ex-England cricket test Captain to come down and play on the Brambles Bank. So, that was great fun.
Lisa : Was that an annual event then?
Tony : Yeah, it used to…they still play cricket on the Brambles in late September I think it is. Yeah, but good fun.
Lisa : Is that when the tide is low enough to actually go out there?
Tony : Yeah, But it’s not flat sand, it’s all ripples, so the ball can do anything on it (laughs). But Colin Cowdrey, I think he wrote an article for the ‘Field’ about cricket on the Brambles. In fact, I think I read just recently another cricketer had been persuaded to go out there.
40 minutes 20 seconds
Lisa : So do you remember any other fun and games about working for Uffa?
Tony : Other than he was such a character, you know, whenever you went out to dinner with him to a restaurant, he seemed to just take the restaurant over and get everyone singing and listening to his stories (laughs).
Lisa : Where did he live in your childhood?
Tony : He had a number of houses, he had ‘Twenty Acres’ which I mentioned before, which was at Whippingham. He had a place out at Niton which was quite a big place and I think about 30 or 40 acres of land out there. Then just after the War he took over an old warehouse in Cowes and got his blokes to re-new it and build it up and called the ‘Commodores House’ and that’s where he lived from then on. The ‘Commodores House’ is open to the water on three sides so typical Uffa he had his own Quay for the Flying Fifteens and so-on. It was nice when the Duke had come in and Prince Charles would come in with him. And I remember Prince Charles when he was, I should think, about 8 or 9 and he’d never really known about cookery or anything and he didn’t know how potatoes were prepared so, or tins were opened, so Uffa sent down to get some, load of tinned stuff and potatoes and the Duke would make Charles peel the potatoes and open the tins. My step-daughter who was a nurse well up in the NHS, she went up to Buckingham Palace for one of the parties, ‘cos she’s in the higher ranks and there’s a photo of her there with Prince Charles came round and asked her and she mentioned that her mother was married to me and Prince Charles says, “Wow, he said I remember that.” He said, “I remember when I was about 10 years old, Uffa used to say, “Now come on, you’ve got to drink two glasses of champagne before you go out racing” (laughs). He said, “I was only 10” and Joanne, my step-daughter said when she mentioned the words ‘Uffa Fox’ his face went into a beaming smile. So, she was quite chuffed with that and to think that there was a photographer taking the photo.
Lisa : He obviously had quite an effect on people.
Tony : Yes, he did (laughs).
Lisa : So, looking back on your career, what would you say was the most enjoyable time? Or the most interesting thing you worked on?
Tony : Well, I really think the apprenticeship was, ‘cos it was all new, creative. It’s ‘cos we…Uffa designed quite a few boats for Fairey Marine at Southampton and the Firefly was one of the boats and the International 14 footers they built, one called the Swordfish and then the Atalanta which was a little cruising boat and I helped draw up all of those. It was good fun, yeah. And David Helmer was a very good teacher. Yeah, it was all good.
Lisa : Do you feel that you’ve been lucky to have such a long career and worked in different places on different things?
Tony : Yeah, you know I do think people who worked at the same place for their life, they get a good pension, but they don’t really get the excitement of doing various things and not all totally the same thing, but designing and bits, yes…
Lisa : And, you said that you’d had the chance to move to Southampton with Vosper’s, but you wanted to stay on the Island.
Tony : Yeah, yeah, well Uffa had died by then and it seemed, you know, I could make a living from selling his drawings and the ‘Book Cabin’ was good. That was wonderful when the…in Cowes Week when they used to have the big Cup racing and all the different nationalities came in and they all wanted charts, so we had the book shop. We had a good…good thing with Camper Nicholsons in Southampton that we could order a chart and they’d send it across on the Hydrofoil as it was then. And we had a very good market for charts and associated books. We used to make a lot of money in Cowes Week and we had lots of parties (both laughing).
Lisa : Did Cowes Week change through your lifetime from your memories as a young boy?
Tony : Yeah, yes it did, yeah ‘cos for years the Duke used to come for Cowes Week but now he’s not coming it don’t seem quite the same. But we used to have some magnificent parties, ‘cos we used to have a new book signing when the authors from America and that would come over and I remember one year we had a double…a book with double-author in so they were very well know and we had piles of these books and Mumm Champagne were in town and the Players girls were…cigarettes, were there. They’d supply champagne for the party, and I remember we…there was a magnificent party and we’d had loads of champagne, but we ran out and I happened to mention it to the champagne bloke and within 10 minutes he’d brought more cases of champagne in (laughs) yeah, excellent.
Lisa : Happy memories of that?
Tony : Yeah, (laughs). Course, we had a few left over, I told the bloke, he said, “Oh, just keep them” (laughs).
50 minutes 8 seconds
Lisa : So how long did you have the book shop for?
Tony : About 10 years I should think, yeah. But then we sold it on but the people who took it on gradually stopped selling marine books and into others, and it was never the same again. And in the end I think they just had to pull out because they weren’t making any money.
Lisa, Ah, that’s a shame…so, perhaps you could show me some of your photographs
Tony : Well, they’re Uffa’s actually…
Lisa : They’re actually Uffa’s are they, ok?
Tony : Well, you know, the Airborne Lifeboat…
Lisa : Yeah, let’s have a look
Tony : See how it….when Uffa first designed it they had the boat on parachutes, and it came straight down like that. But it broke its back on impact, so they sent up to Farnborough test tank and said what’s the best angle for that to come down. So, they worked out an angle and it used to come down and hit the water and bounce back up again.
Lisa : So, he worked on a few prototypes did he before he got to the final…
Tony : Yes, yeah, but it all happened pretty quickly.
Lisa : So these are pictures that are in a magazine from the ‘Yachting World’.
Tony : And that was one called Fly…that’s the Flying Fifteen.
Lisa : Was everything made on the Island, were the sails made …?
Tony : Yes, oh yes
Lisa : …on the Island as well?
Tony : Yes, they were big sail makers, Chris Ratsey, Ratsey and Lapthorn
[lots of rustling of paperwork]
Tony : Just out of interest, that was the book that showed the…how to…
Lisa : So this is the little booklet that would have been inside in the boat?
Tony : Yeah, with directions of how to rig the sails.
Lisa : Who would have written that?
Tony : Uffa.
Lisa : Uffa did write that…
Tony : (laughs)
Lisa : Oh, his name’s there. “You’re in a Naval Airborne Lifeboat which is a small addition of the buoyancy worthy rowboat that in past years travelled thousands of miles of ocean so she will carry you safely through storm and sunshine (Tony laughs). But though in addition she is self-righting and self-bailing. You must use her correctly and this book is to tell you how to do this”. (Tony laughing). That’s wonderful, isn’t it?
Tony : [more rustling of paperwork]. I’ve got so much stuff.
Lisa : This is a wonderful archive…pause…he obviously knew that you’d look after it all well.
Tony : (laughs) yeah. That’s another one of…there’s one showing…after they’d rigged up in the rubber dinghy and that’s a Flying Fortress which had crashed and there’s the boat and there’s the little rubber dinghy.
Lisa : Oh you see it’s not quite on the water yet is it, it’s mid-air…
Tony : Yeah, there’s so many…[continuing looking through paperwork]
Lisa : That looks like a painting…
Tony : Yeah, I think that was Cuneo he…I forget what his first name…a famous artist who worked for the Air Ministry during the war and he painted the…did a painting of that which hung on Uffa’s wall for quite a number of years. Anyway, I’m not sure what you want to see [lots of rustling of paper]
55 minutes 11 seconds
Lisa : Because you’ve got such a lot here haven’t you?
Tony : All different…there’s one with the boat underneath.
Lisa : Oh yes, you can actually see the…
Tony : [lots more rustling of paperwork]…I don’t know what I’ve got myself sometimes (both laughing). That’s another view of that Flying Fortress I think… There’s a close-up, and there they are getting out of the rubber dinghy. I think the photo is showing more than I can explain. Anyway, that’s the Lifeboat.
Lisa : Yeah, so you’ve got quite a few photographs of the Lifeboat, are these other boats that…?
Tony : Well, dinghies and canoes [lots of rustling of paperwork], that’s the construction…that’s how they started off with the moulds…
Lisa : Yes, and this is in the yard in West Cowes?
Tony : Yeah, yeah.
Lisa : What was it known as, the Yard?
Tony : Uffa’s Boat Yard (laughs).
Lisa : Uffa’s Boat Yard (laughs). Did it have his name on the outside then?
Tony : Yeah, it was Uffa Fox Ltd.
Lisa : Is it still there now?
Tony : No, they built…took it down and built flats there. [lots more rustling of paperwork]. I’ve got so many but oh, that was when he went to America with the Sliding Seat Canoe…
Lisa : So he’s receiving some kind of a trophy there…
Tony : Yeah, he brought back…he won every race and brought back about three different trophies from America.
Lisa : Yeah
Tony : I’ve got so much, I…[lots of rustling of paperwork]. What have we got over here?…
Lisa : That looks like a Hovercraft to me…
Tony : That’s Colin Cowdrey going in…
Lisa : Oh, this is going out to the Brambles.
Tony : And, there he is on the Brambles and that’s the pilot of a Hovercraft and that’s Ray Wheeler, I don’t know if you’ve heard of him? I don’t know’ what that is…a reproduction of beacon photo I think. This is West Cowes and this must be at Castle Point I think, it shows all the different boats that were…
Lisa : I wonder if that’s Cowes week?
Tony : I bet it was.
Lisa : And, a lot of boats there. When did Cowes Week first begin, do you know?
Tony : No, as far as I know eternity.
Lisa : And this is a letter…
59 minutes 41 seconds
Tony : I think that was from one of the…oh what’s this? Oh, I think that was from Peter Scott because he used to race in the 14 footers. ‘Description of Prince of Wales Cup 1946’. Yeah, that’s Peter Scott writing to him…with an account of the race I think.
Lisa : Portraits…
Tony : Yeah, that’s just Uffa’s…[lots of rustling of paperwork]…that’s him in…
Lisa : Uffa? Great photograph isn’t it?
Tony : That’s the Drawing Office, with all the…
Lisa : Yeah, so this is where you started out your working life?
Tony : Yeah.
Lisa : You must admit, there’s a lot of rolls there (laughs) was it well organised?
Tony : No, but he knew where… And that’s him riding Frantic, his horse.
Lisa : Have you got any photos of you and him together?
Tony : I don’t think I have, no, unfortunately. [more rustling of paperwork]. That’s Uffa as a choirboy.
Lisa : Where was the Drawing Office then?
Tony : In the ‘Commodore’s House’. I don’t know if we’ve got any more views of…that’s him in Italy. I think that’s…
Lisa : There is a family resemblance, do people say that?
Tony : Yeah, when we used to walk down the street together they thought that I was his son (laughs).
Lisa : So, when you started out in the Drawing Office, was it here in the ‘Commodores House’?
Tony : No, at Uffa’s Boatyard.
Lisa : Oh, was that in the Boatyard?
Tony : Because in 1946, I think it was, at 47 he was selling his Boatyard and was building…renovating the ‘Commodore’s House’.
Lisa : Ok.
Tony : [rustling of paperwork]…got so many of them…oh, that’s at…forgot to tell you he used to have a Floating Bridge and that’s him in the Floating Bridge.
Lisa : That’s actually in the Floating Bridge?
Tony : Yeah.
Lisa : So he bought an old Floating Bridge?
Tony : Yeah, moored it up at Whippingham and he bought the raw materials in from one end and launched it out off the seaward end.
Lisa : Yes, he looks quite a young man in that one, doesn’t he?
Tony : That was him making a speech at my first wedding (laughs)
Lisa : Unless you label these photos…
Tony : I know…
Lisa : You’re not gonna…the information will be lost won’t it?
Tony : Oh, there’s some of his trophies…
Lisa : Yeah.
Tony : That’s one of him when he wasn’t very well and he came down…and Prince Charles was so far behind in the racing, Uffa dressed up in his bed clothes (laughs) you’ll like getting in…
Lisa : (laughing).
1 hour 5 minutes 14 seconds
Tony : That’s him winning the…when he won the Prince of Wales Cup… That’s him in the Floating Bridge (both laughing). And that…I don’t know who that was, but one of his customers. Oh, there’s the ‘Commodore’s House’.
Lisa : Aah I see, yep. As you say, open on three sides
Tony : And then that’s Puckaster at night where I mentioned he had a place…he had his own butler and cook (laughs).
Lisa : That’s his horse?
Tony : Yep, that’s…[paper rustling]…oh dear, I never realised I had so many of those…Oh, that’s Eammon Andrews and Peter Scott when Uffa was on ‘This Is Your Life’ and at the end of the programme they brought on the crew of the first airmen who were saved by the Lifeboat. They had Medina Yard.
Lisa : Oh, that’s wonderful…and what kind of boat is this here?
Tony : I think that’s a boat called the Star class which Uffa didn’t design but they got him to build it. That’s the ‘Commodore’s House’. Oh, there’s another one…
Lisa : Oh that one’s in the book isn’t it? That’s in the biography.
Tony : Yeah, that’s right
Lisa : So is your sister June, who wrote the book?
Tony : Yeah.
Lisa : And you helped her as well didn’t you, because you’re acknowledged in it…there really are some wonderful photos here.
Tony : That’s Joe Porter who designed a lot of the old racing power boats for S.E. Saunders.
Lisa : (laughs)
Tony : Medidating (laughs).
Lisa : Didn’t he have some of his best ideas in the bath?
Tony : Yes…that’s the ‘Commodores House’, theoretically, where he thought of the idea in the bath and sketching in the Flying Fifteen, but I think that was a put-up job
Lisa : (laughing) A birthday cake?
Tony : Uffa and Yvonne and there’s Yvonne and Uffa. Must have been a Christmas…now there he is with a load of Scouts at the boat show 1961.
Lisa : Was he the Sea Scout master at one point?
Tony : Oh yeah, I didn’t tell you about his trip up … well you could have read it in the book I expect, a trip to…nearly up to Paris, yeah…
Lisa : I wonder what the parents said when he brought them back?
Tony : They ignored him, the ones that were on the Sea Scout Committee resigned and they sacked Uffa (laughs).
Lisa : It was quite a serious incident then?
Tony : (laughs), yeah, well that was in 1921 and there was no phones or anything then. Just after the 1st War, there was no way of contacting anyone, only by letter (laughs), so, he was 3 to 4 days late getting back, people were thinking the worst. That’s ‘Ankle Deep’, that was near the end of his life. He was still designing, he designed that…and built her then had a few trips out in her and then he died.
Lisa : Well, thank you for showing me these
Tony : I’ve got so many here…
Lisa : (laughing) What would be good is if I could take….I’ve brought a scanner if I could scan one or two of the photographs to go with the recording. Would that be ok?
Tony : Yeah
Lisa : And, then what I’ll do I’ll just write a little list of what I’ve scanned; you’ve got so much, I would only take a few and then I can write a bit of information about the photographs.
Tony : Yes, right
Lisa : Thank you
Tony : Ok (laughs).
Interview ends
1 hour 12 minutes 6 seconds
Transcribed March 2019
Chris Litton
