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Colin Matthews - Webmaster, Trinity-XPN Website

I left Trinity at the end of the 5th Year in 1979 with 7 'O' Levels and a CSE. Not wanting to take my education any further, I then applied to join the Police Cadets and after taking, and passing, the entrance examination had a change of heart at the eleventh hour and decided not to go down this route. At the time, I was working on a part-time basis at my local newsagents in Stanwix which was owned by Cumbrian Newspapers. I had initially started work there as a newspaper delivery boy some 3 years earlier doing both a morning and evening newspaper round each day before moving on to marking up the rounds and working behind the counter.

Through working at Stanwix News, I became familiar with the wholesalers, John Menzies who supplied daily newspapers and magazines to the shop. After deciding a career in the Police was not for me, I wrote to Menzies enquiring if they had any jobs available. Initially, there was no response but, after a couple of weeks, I received a 'phone call from Jim Rooney, the branch manager, asking if I was still looking for a job as he now had a vacancy for a magazine packer. I attended an interview later that same day and on Monday 6th August 1979 my career with John Menzies commenced.

After spending just over 3 years in Carlisle branch, working on both the day shift (packing magazines) and the night shift (packing newspapers) and generally learning how the business was run, I was invited to Edinburgh to see the Regional Director, a man by the name of Bill Blair. I thought I was going to be offered a position on the Management Trainee Scheme but, to my surprise, I was offered the position of Assistant Manager at the Whitehaven branch. I eagerly accepted and on Monday 22nd November 1982 took up my new position. As Whitehaven was only a 45 minute drive from Carlisle, I stayed in rented accomodation and came back to my parents house in Carlisle most weekends (usually with a few bags of washing for my mother to do !!).

I spend two and a half years in Whitehaven before being invited up to Edinburgh again by Bill Blair, this time to be offered the position of Manager at Berwick Branch. Bill explained that Berwick was the smallest branch in the Scottish Region and that one of the quirky things about it was that the Manager had to start at 4.00am and pack papers - that didn't bother me and on 8th July 1985 I started my new role in Berwick. As a result of taking this job, I also took ownership of my first Company Car - a Ford Fiesta 1.1 which meant that I had to sell my beloved Ford Capri 1.6 (and yes, you did notice a slight difference in power!!). I also decided that it was time to invest in bricks and mortar and bought my first house, a two bedroomed semi in Tweedmouth.

After just over a year in Berwick, I was invited up to Edinburgh to see Bill Blair again. After telling me that my hair was looking a bit too long and suggesting that perhaps I should get it cut, he offered me the position of Manager at Dunfermline Branch. After determining the exact location of Dunfermline (as I hadn't a clue where it was) I accepted and started on 18th August 1986. This meant that I had to move house and after selling in Berwick, I bought a three bedroomed semi in Crossford which is a village just outside of Dunfermline.

Two and a half years later, I went to see Bill Blair yet again, this time to be asked if I wanted to become his assistant ie. become Asst. to Regional Director based in Edinburgh. I duly accepted and started working in Regional Office on 2nd May 1988. On this occasion, I did not feel it was necessary to move house (a decision I later regretted after many hours of being stuck in commuter traffic from the Forth Road Bridge into Edinburgh). This job was very different to what I had been used to and involved a fair bit of travelling - visiting branches across Scotland and even Northern Ireland. I still remember my first visit to Belfast where Bill Blair and I took the first flight of the day from Edinburgh to Belfast City Airport with return tickets for the flight back later that evening. At about 4pm it became clear that the job we had gone to do was going to take longer than we had anticipated so Bill, in typical fashion said "you stay overnight and finish this off tomorrow and I'll go back home tonight as planned." I arranged to be booked into a Hotel in the city, and upon arrival discovered that not only did they want paid for the room before I got it, they did not serve meals!! So there I was, wandering around Belfast not having a clue where I was or where I was going, searching for somewhere to eat and looking for somewhere to buy a clean shirt and a toothbrush !!

In May 1989, I went to watch my first “live” F1 Grand Prix – the Monaco GP in Monte Carlo. Having been an armchair fan of Formula 1 racing for years this was a dream come true, and I enyoyed it so much that I became hooked and since then have been to a total of 23 Grand Prix and visited 12 different circuits : Silverstone (UK), Hockenheim (Germany), Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), Monza (Italy), San Marino (Italy), Magny-Cours (France), Monaco (Monte Carlo), Estoril (Portugal), Cicuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Montreal (Canada), Sepang (Malaysia) , A1 Ring (Austria) and the Crcuit de Catalunya (Spain).

In September 1989, I was asked to go over to our Head Office in Rose Street to see Iain Callaghan the Wholesale Director. Iain offered me the position of Assistant to the Wholesale Managing Director, which included being Assistant to him as well. It wasn't a difficult decision and on 2nd October 1989 I started working in Head Office. At this time, I also moved house from Crossford to South Queensferry which meant I no longer needed to drive into work each day as I could just get the train from South Queensferry (Dalmeny) right into Edinburgh Waverley, then a five minute walk into the office. Working with the two most senior Directors of the Company was a huge challenge and I entered a steep learning curve. It was hard work and long hours but well worth it. During my time at Head Office I was given the opportunity to visit the USA to look at automated packing processes in New York and Buffalo which was great fun, even more so when I tagged a few days holiday on the back of this trip and travelled to California then back to Florida.

In February 1994 I moved to Norfolk to take up the position of General Manager of the Norwich Branch, taking over from the retiring Peter Smith. Within weeks of moving to Norwich I purchased a Season Ticket for Carrow Road to watch Norwich City in the Premiership - unfortunately the opportunity to see teams like Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and the like was short lived as Norwich managed to get themselves relegated that season. It was at this point in my life when I started to take an interest in Genealogy and began to research my family tree. To this day I continue to work on tracing my ancestors with a fair degree of success, with my blood line traced back to 1730 so far. Norwich was a great place to live and the weather was fantastic. I spent three very happy years there before returning to Edinburgh in October 1996 as Area Manager responsible for the North and East of Scotland. Early 1997 saw me move to Linlithgow which is located about 12 miles west of Edinburgh and in 2004 I moved to Broxburn.

Following a Divisional re-structure in October 1998, my role at Menzies changed and I became Assistant Regional Operations Manager for Scotland. A further re-structure took place in January 1999 when I took up the role of Business Analyst – Northern Region, still based in Edinburgh, a position that I still hold.

I’ve got loads of things that keep me busy when I’m not at work. As mentioned earlier, Genealogy takes up some of my time, as not only do I research my own family tree, I act as administrator for the following Mailing Lists :