Technical Assistant Courses

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PTA Sound Transmitters Course No. 7, 7th March - 10th June 1960 (Contributed by Jeff Cant)

TA9 - 21 November 1960 to 24 February 1961 (Contributed by Peter Blunsdon)

Back row: Toney DJ, Adley ML, Whyman MJ, Roger Tone, Barratt RG, Empsall B (or Brian Hempsall?).

Middle row: Mallett ART, Hartson MW, Aldridge G, Warren PH, Boniface RW, Schoon DJ, Mercer WD, Derby MJ, Blunsdon PC, Cotton FT.

Front Row: Brown JD, Warner JR, Harper MD, Read AJ, Anthony J, Eves DH.

(Amendments provided by Roger Tone)
 

TA 1961 (PDF file).

TA15 -February 1963 (Contributed by Tony Crake)

Back Row: L-R. Dave Jowett, Pete Rowley, Richard Buckby, ??, Tony Crake, Geoff Parr, Colin Widger, Rod Viveash, Ben Newby

Middle .... Pete Lonsdale, Glynn Jones, Jeff Dalton ( prev. Bottomley),? Walsh,? Firkin, Richard Stibbons, John Lihou, Alan Caporn, ? James, Arthur Allen

Front seated.... Dave Fox, John Barker, Malcolm Hunter, Ray Bown, Bob Harrison, ? White ?, Derek Cornell, Pete Holman

Tony Crake says: "We had all joined on 17th Sept 1962 for the initial Induction Course at Evesham and reassembled in Feb 1963 for TA Course 15.  Probably correct to say this was the first intake of 'school leavers'".
 

TA16 - 1963 (Contributed by Jim Smith)

Back Row: Dick Wall, Jim Smith, T Phillips, G Williams, T Reston.

Middle Row: John Peacock, John Waters, John Ripon, Pat Tobin, J Perkins, J Muir.

Front Row: I Morgan, B Oddy, G Olney, A Whybrow, J Slater, J White.
 

TA18 - November 1963 (Contributed by Peter Wagstaff)


Back row: 2nd left Doug Gregg, 3rd Dave Yates, 5th Mike Ashton(?)

Middle row: 4th Mike Theaker, 5th Chris Gardiner, 6th Mike Kirby, 7th Pete Wagstaff, 8th Brian Haseler(?), 9th Eric Pugh

Front row: 3rd Noel MacDonnell, 4th Malcolm Carter, 6th Harry Burnham

Chris Gardiner writes "So far as I can see this picture is the total number on the TA course, it was not particularly large mainly because of the lack of practical facilities. The metalwork workshop was quite small necessitating the group to be split to allow everyone to have a go at filing and riveting bits of metal – this was about the limit of the training. Similarly, everyone had to be given time to “play” with the 7.5kW transmitter which was overseen at the time by Bill Dennay and a Mr Scott. I was always very upset that we were not allowed to run the transmitter at more than 5kW".

TA18? - November 1963 (Contributed by Roger Tone)

Roger Tone writes: This was scanned for me by Roger Smeathers (TV News 1964-1971). He wasn't sure if it was TA18 or C48, but looking at some of the people in a C48 photo on the VT Oldboys site I reckon it is the TA course. They must have been photographed in several groups because of the number of people involved. I've put names on the 'key' copy to the best of my knowledge. Brian Woodfield was a bit of detective work from another photo. The others were all known to me as they worked at AP.

Chris Gardiner writes "The [picture above] purporting to show TA18 part 2, I believe is not TA18. Could it be TO18 or a studio TA course? In November 1963 Evesham was bursting at the seams with TAs (both studio and transmitter), TOs and Direct entries as the BBC tried to increase its engineering staff to cope with the forthcoming BBC2. Although Wood Norton had its own accommodation at that time many students had to be housed in Hampton House in the town and bussed out to Wood Norton every day. In those days car ownership was still for the lucky few."
 

TA21 (Contributed by John Wingham)

Back Row: Graham Barrell, Keith Winnard, ?, ?, Graham(?) Perry, ?, ?, ?, Michael Dodds, ?, ?

Middle Row: ?, John Wingham, ?, ?, ?, ?, John Etchells, ?, Bob Jeans, ?, Peter Wood-Fisher, ?, Clive Walker(?), Colin Tyler(?)

Front Row: Overseas student, ?, Tim Allen, ?, ?, Peter(?) Rose, David Williams(?), ?, Graeme Smith, ?
 

Part of TA 21 (Contributed by Alan Baukham)

TA22 - 3 February 1966 (Contributed by Mike Jordan)

Back row: T.S.R.House, E.R.Thomson, C.J.Smith, Mike Jordan, Noel Foster, John Townsend

Middle row: T.K.Sin, Alan Cogbill, B.M.Sullivan, A.W.MacDonald, D.Duffell, Alistair Mitchell, Phil Rodway, R.M.Singleton, Harry Crossley, Ian Howlett

Front row: John Carter, Dick Thrussell, Gary Sylvester, Chris Ellis, Patrick O,Neil, Roger Pharo, Dave Hume, Ronnie Spencer

TA24 - September 1966 (Contributed by Tony Falla)

Back row: G.J. Spargo, John Leggatt, Peter Kirby, Peter Chart, Tony Heasman, D.M. Holden, Mike Greenwood, Colin Driver, Martin Hoffman.

Middle row: Paul Harrison, John Broomfield, John Sewell, Eddie Bagg, Tony Falla, C.L. Pratt, Peter Osborne, Ian Rutter, Denis Clark, Martin Sharp, Martin Ellen, Roger Snow

Front row: Tony Carter, Roger Farmer, Denzil Edgecombe, ?, Cedric Thipha, ?, ?, ?

Based on this list, contributed by Roger Farmer, other members of the course were: R. Hansraj, E.D.M.Reid, D.D.E. Georgestone, J.W. Wawaru, M.J.L. Beam.

If you can identify individuals, please make contact.
 

TA35 - January 1970 (Contributed by Peter Bettridge)

Back Row: ???; Chris Bielby; Peter Bettridge

Middle Row: ???; ???; David Dryden; Tony Emery; Andy Gibson(?); Chris Gill; ???; Mike Hancock

Bottom Row: Colin Nice; Alan Perkins(?); ??-----??

Other names (signed on the back of the photo are: J M Craggs, M P Goodwin, George Andrews, A S Challen (Tatsfield), Colin L Turner, T Paxton, P W Smith.

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