Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
Pebble Mill press officer, Chris Bates, after receiving his MBE from Prince Charles recently.
The photo above featured in the February 2016 edition of the BBC retirees’ newsletter, Prospero: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/mypension/en/prospero_feb_2016.pdf.
Sheila Brown sadly died on 14th April 2015, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. Sheila started work as a secretary in Personnel, and then later in the Press Office and PR department, organising visitor tours of Pebble Mill.
Sheila is shown in the right of this photograph, which was taken at the Friday Night at the Mill party in 2004. The party which marked the closing of the Pebble Mill building, prior to its demolition in 2005.
Clara Hewitt, Janet Collins, Margaret Barton, Sheila Brown. Photo by Ruth Barretto, no reproduction without permission
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Andy Bentley: ‘Remember Shiela well, she received an MBE if I remember right. Lovely Lady.’
Malcolm Hickman: ‘We used to take parties around the Mill, including parties of staff newly arrived at Bush House. Sheila used to organise the catering and for some inexplicable reason, there was always one or two bottles of red wine left over. A very sweet lady and an accomplished ballroom dancer in her younger days.’
Jane Ward: ‘Wasn’t she a keen ballroom dancer?’
Conal O’Donnell: ‘I remember Sheila very well- quite mischievous on her way & always good fun .I am sorry to learn of her passing.’
Julian Hitchcock: ‘What a lovely, funny soul she was: her very memory brings a warm smile to all who knew her. I do hope she enjoyed her later years.’
Tim Manning: ‘I’m so sorry to hear the news about Sheila; she was – as others have said – a lovely lady, and someone who cared deeply about Pebble Mill. And yes, Jane Ward, she was a very keen and skilled ballroom dancer; when I was directing a film for The Golden Oldie Picture Show, she loaned me all her trophies and lots of memorabilia.’
Marie Phillips: ‘Sheila was very kind to me when CIN was regarded as something of a misfit in the Press Office. Very very efficient. A well deserved MBE.’
Andy Caddick: ‘We used to have long chats on the No1 bus on the way to Pebble Mill. So sad, lovely lady.’
(The following article is taken from the Birmingham Post, 4th March 2014)
Tributes paid after former BBC journalist dies
4 Mar 2014 07:00
John Wood. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
John Wood, who had been suffering with diabetes-related problems for several years, rose to Chief Press and Public Relations Officer at Pebble Mill after starting his career with the corporation in London in the 1950s.
Former Birmingham journalist John Wood, who worked for the BBC for 25 years, has died, aged 83.
Mr Wood, who had been suffering with diabetes-related problems for several years, rose to Chief Press and Public Relations Officer at Pebble Mill after starting his career with the corporation in London in the 1950s.
He eventually retired from the corporation in 1983.
Educated at Aston Commercial School, Birmingham, he began his career as a trainee reporter with the Birmingham Post and Mail in January 1947 and later worked at the Cannock Advertiser and Wolverhampton Chronicle.
His daughter Kerrie Tillott said: “His spirit of adventure and passion for writing took him further afield and, at the very young age of 22, he left England for a job as a reporter on the East African Standard newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya.
“His service with the East African Standard included the whole period of the Mau Mau rebellion.
“He was able to carry out his National Service in the Kenya Police Reserve and later on in the Kenya Regiment, the King’s African Rifles.
“He joined one of the two reserve regiments of the Special air Service, the 23rd Regiment, in 1957 as a trooper, and rose to captain before retiring in 1972.
“He also served as a member of the Parachute Regiment.
“In 1970, he returned to Kenya, this time with his wife and family on secondment from the BBC, to take up a position with the Kenyan Radio and Television counterpart to the BBC, Voice of Kenya, in Nairobi.
“Upon his return to England in 1973 he went to Pebble Mill.”
After leaving the BBC, he worked as a freelance journalist, including spells with the Post and Mail and Walsall Chamber of Commerce.
John, who lived in Walsall, leaves a wife Elaine, two daughters and four grandchildren.
His funeral has been arranged for March 18 at Streetly Crematorium at 1.30pm.
http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/creative/tributes-paid-after-former-bbc-6767611
(Thanks to Andy Marriott for sharing this article)
The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:
Lynn Cullimore: ‘I worked with John in the Press Office – one of my early jobs in the BBC. John was a loveable rogue. He was kind and us girls whom he called “Woodie’s Angels” adored him. Always had his sleeves rolled up and a great friend of Phil Sideys who did same. Both journalists together. I send my condolences to his family and think of him fondly – so sad he is no longer with us.’