It was October 1941; I had left school with a reasonable Schools Certificate and a school friend suggested I try to get an interview with the Engineer in Charge of the "H" Group Transmitter at our hometown, Hastings. The school friend was Denis Curd who was already working there. He went on to a wonderful engineering career that embraced OSE3 (Overseas Extension 3, i.e. Rampisham), 200 Oxford Street and, finally, Bush House.
My interview with the E.i.C. was quite friendly. I was introduced to the transmitter - a Series Modulated Tx 100 watts, the Crystal Drive, the Re-Broadcast Receiver the phone to London Control Room and the log book. Then I met the Boss. He was "Dixie" Dean, a pre-war senior engineer at the Washford, North Somerset Transmitter. He was in shirtsleeves and sat on the edge of his desk, swinging his legs, made a few jokes and then asked me if I knew Ohms Law. Actually I did, and on that he sent off an application form with his recommendation. It was as easy as that!
In a fortnight I received an official letter from Mr. P. A. Florence, the chief Engineer, which I still have and treasure:
'Dear Hayward. I have pleasure in offering you the post of Youth (Transmitters) (Under Training) at the weekly wage of £1/7/6d plus 3/- Cost of living Bonus....'Three months later I was sent to Bristol for a short training course under a Mr. Smith followed by a further 'hands on' course at Maida Vale and then onto Shift D in the sub-basement of London Control Room. My Senior Control Room Engineer (SCRE) was Bobby Howes who had a great sense of responsibility and wicked sense of humour. The Senior Maintenance Engineer (SME) who was in charge of the smooth running of the operation on his shift was Charles Challis. I was not quite 17, yet Charlie had implicit faith in youngsters like me, and the women staff who had been brought in on war service, to run the show with old pre-war hands like John Mills, Mr Coote, "Cally" Callaghan, Mr Boyle and others.
Of course, we made the odd mistake. I accidentally put a burst of 1100cps tone on to the Home Service programme. Every phone tag on the board dropped; every internal and outside phone in the place rang and there were screams from the operator in Home continuity. Charlie and Bobby went ballistic and I was sent on a sobering journey in the lift to the eighth floor to explain myself to the E.i.C. London, Mr Bottle - a fierce gentleman who, I was told, still came into work every day in a dark suit and Bowler hat. We tried not to make many errors!
After three years of LCR, I went into the Fleet Air Arm. I returned and was re-instated as a Junior Maintenance Engineer (JME) in the Control Room at Aldenham House, home of the Arabic and Latin American Service. There I changed my category to become a Junior Programme Engineer (JPE) and transferred to Drama Unit at BH Portland Place where duties included spot effects for editions of "Mrs Dale's Diary".
From there I went to Plymouth as a Studio Manager, then to Bristol as the External Services Producer (West). Then came a brief spell in television under Grace Wyndham-Goldie, directing a few of the last editions of "The Brains Trust" with Bernard Braden and a few of those terrible Barry Bucknell D.I.Y programmes!
It was then back to Bristol as Talks Producer running Radio 4's Archaeology "Origins", "Any Questions?", "Any Answers", etc. I was seconded to UNESCO as instructor to Arabic production staff and trained programme staff at Tanzania and Malawi. I finished as radio producer and Deputy Editor, Bristol, retiring after 42 years service in 1982.
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The following was written by one of Roy's sons, Glynn.
After D Day in 1944, Roy was attached to "War Report" (under Malcolm Frost) and operated the shortwave transmitter at BH that was in touch with our radio correspondents who were following the troops as they penetrated France. His War Service was with the Fleet Air Arm and he returned to the BBC after V.E. Day to Aldenham House in Hertfordshire - home to the Arabic and the Latin American Services. Here he changed from "maintenance engineer" to become a studio manager and was transferred to London Drama Unit, serving its major drama plays and, inevitably, "Mrs Dale's Diary"!
On promotion to Senior S.M. he was sent to the West Region's busy studio centre at Plymouth where he assisted in radio productions and also reported for Radio News Reel in Devon and Cornwall. He was later attached to TV Talks Dept at Lime Grove under Grace Wyndham-Goldie and directed a few of the last programmes in the series "The Brains Trust" when Bernard Braden was chairing the programme. He also directed some of Barry Bucknell's DIY programmes.
Roy liked the complex and exciting nature of TV production but he was very committed to radio and he returned to Bristol to take up the post of External Services Representative for the West Region and spent several years getting programmes from the West Country into our Overseas services.
In 1960 he was seconded to U.N.E.S.C.O. to assist in a training project at Radio Omdurman, Sudan, where several radio staff of the Arabic Member States in the Middle East were taught modern techniques in Radio Documentary production. The following year he was invited by Tanzania to train all their new staff in radio programme making - and, again, the next year, he was doing the same for all the new staff in Malawi after the country's Independence.
Back in Bristol, Roy was closely involved with the early tests and experiments of Local Radio and was in charge of a special investigatory experiment for a local station on the Isle of Wight. In Bristol he produced many radio programmes over the years - documentaries, talks, "Any Questions?" and "Any Answers" ; even Regional editions of "Woman's Hour" but perhaps his speciality was to continue the West of England's long tradition of covering archaeology as a subject of public interest that had been started in the Bristol output in the early 1950s. Later, the annual series, "Origins", presented by Malcolm Billings, visited many parts of the world where there were significant archaeological discoveries to bring to the listener's attention. Amongst them were included the discovery, after searching for more than 25 years, of the unrobbed tomb of Philip, father of Alexander the Great in Salonika, Greece and from central China, the first radio coverage in the world of the discovery of the Terracotta Warriors at Xian, China.
Roy retired in 1982 as Deputy Editor, Radio after 41 years service.
In Plymouth he had met and later married Glen and they celebrated 53 years of marriage. His passion for photography earned him an Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society and he published a book on photographic techniques. He also contributed many articles to Newspapers
Roy will be greatly missed by his loving family. - Glynn Hayward.