Three Men - 150 Years At Irvine Dockyard

From: Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald dated Friday 9th January 1970

THREE MEN - 150 YEARS AT IRVINE DOCKYARD

Three employees of Ayrshire Metal Products Ltd., Irvine, with a total of 150 years service in the firm - Alexander Cowan, Andrew Aird and James McInnes were presented with cheques on Tuesday of last week to mark their retiral.

The cheques were handed over on behalf of the management by Mr James Miller the company secretary. Before handing over the cheques Mr Miller said that the retiral of the three colleagues each of whom had joined the company?s staff half a century ago, was a unique occasion.

They had joined the firm in the heyday of the shipbuilding establishment, he said.

Mr Aird, 14 Burnside Place, Irvine, joined the firm in 1918 as a tradesman?s boy. He became an apprentice shipwright about two years later and started serving his time on the day the very first trawler was launched from the dockyard.

MAINTENANCE

The outbreak of World War II found Mr Aird at Ardrossan Dockyard where he had to stay until the end of the war. After returning to Irvine he left for a short time to work at the Ailsa Dockyard, Troon, but returned to Ayrshire Metal Products in 1961 to work in the maintenance department until his retiral.

Mr Cowan, 38 Annick Road, Irvine, joined the firm in July, 1918, on the staff of the time office. In 1920 he started his apprenticeship as a shipwright.

During World War II Mr Cowan also worked at Ardrossan Dockyard. He returned to Irvine in 1945. In 1959 he was transferred to the fabrication department where he worked until his retiral.

HEAD OF TEAM

Mr McInnes started at the yard in November, 1920, as a caulker. He progressed so quickly in that field that he soon became head of a caulker team. In the shipbuilding days some of the tradesmen worked together as squads and were paid together and not as individuals, explained Mr Miller.

Mr McInnes had the distinction of being the first Captain of the firm?s golf club.

The thanks of the three men who received the cheques was expressed by Mr McInnes.

At the presentation Mr David McGeachie, convener of shop stewards, represented the workers who, earlier in the day, had made their own gifts to their retiring workmates.

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