As you will read elsewhere on this site, 'today's' recovery industry really started during the seventies. Anybody who is in the industry now, who was not part of those early days, may have problems understanding just how different things were, just forty short years ago.

Those who were around then, will no doubt recall similar incidents, events and people, because my story is by no means unique. What was happening in Kingston, was also happening throughout the country.

To understand the 'way of life' back then, you must first remember motoring was also very different. For example, the Fire Brigade were not the professional rescue service they are today. All over the country, the police force 'unofficially' relied on the 'passing' recovery truck, to sometimes 'help them out' at the scene of an accident. This could be anything from 'dragging the causality clear', to using their breakdown kit, to cut trapped drivers out. 

With such a close relationship, it is fair to say  most coachworks monitored the police radio system, just to make sure they would be 'passing' at the right time. Of course they did not do this entirely because they were public spirited, it was also a way of earning a living for most, and for some (myself included), it became a way of life. 

Motoring organisations, only really consisted of the AA and the RAC. Membership was small (by today's standards) and importantly, you were not covered for accident recovery. This meant that a coachworks would get most of its calls direct, and not mainly from 'the clubs', as it is today. Accidents were much more common then, than they are today, a tribute to the road safety innovations of recent years. 

National Rescue's Kingston office alone, handled around five to ten RTA lifts a day. Unlike most of the guys working in the 'real' emergency services, a recovery driver would be dealing with accidents 24hr's a day, seven days a week.

Above we are cleaning up after Ringo Starr's little accident. Where he (and the lovely Barbara Bach) somersaulted over the Robin Hood roundabout at some speed, in his Mercedes.   

Most of my early years were spent working the A3, mainly along the Kingston By-Pass. The first real recovery company I drove for, was the legendary Windmill Coachworks, of Molsey and later Staines. Next was Instant Service of Surbiton and then Cambridge Coachworks (they were in Cambridge Road Kingston). Before long I was promoted to Recovery Manger there and when I became a director, I formed National Rescue (because some TV puppets had pinched the name I really wanted - International Rescue).

Ultimately this developed into The National Rescue Group and at our peak, we grew to have single Depots in Devon, Middlesex, and Sussex and more than one Depot in London, Surrey and The Midlands.

Helping the police with their inquiries
Because in those days all accidents were reported by the various police force's Traffic Divisions, you soon got to know the 'coppers' who were always dealing with the same accidents as you. Lets not kid ourselves, I remember the odd 'brown envelope' floating around, when traffic cars popped in to see my governor, but that was they way of things in those early days, but it was not as common as some papers would have had you believe at the time.

The reality was, that you often became friends with the police. Because you both worked together in very hard, dangerous and often unpleasant conditions, it was impossible not to get to know some of them. In the event of an RTA with people trapped, it would be the recovery vehicle driver who often did the cutting free. I remember we carried far more cutting gear than the brigade did back then. For three years I drove a Bedford CF fitted with a large compressed air cylinder, just to power all my cutting gear. At the other extreme - I have lost count of the number of times I have held one end of the tape for a PC, or Skipper, while he measured the skid marks.

Below is a photograph I took, showing some of TDV's finest dealing with a PolAcc (back in the days before that had to be called PVC's (Police Vehicle Collisions) just in case it prejudices a claim!).

In the case of a rollover with derbies all over the road, it would be the recovery operator, police and fire brigade who would often help the council clear up. As a rule we all worked together as a team, to get things done more quickly and get the road open again (Today's HATO's please note).

There was little sticking to a duty roster, or doing it by the book - perhaps the book was still being written!. For sure roads were opened much sooner than they are today. and that in turn saved lives.

The nature of the job attracted some unique personalities, both in the police force and amongst the recovery drivers. Most of whom  would not last five minutes in today's 'highly trained' and 'politically correct'  job. That said if I had to face a modern major emergency, I would be still be happier, to have any one of those 'unique individuals' beside me, in preference to today’s highly qualified, extensively trained, politically correct, carbon copies. 

Names
One of the great compulsions of that time, was to give everyone nicknames, both the police and your fellow drivers. Some that I remember were - 

Hyphen - Had a hyphenated surname
Needy and Greedy - perhaps best left! 
Jaws - because he had a big mouth (and a big heart). 
Sunshine - because he would ask everyone he meet 'all right Sunshine?'. 
Jim the Snake, because every job he was given, he would try and slip out of doing. 
Spot - His name was Mark and that was the only nickname we could think of for him.
Four on the Trot Bot, He claimed it was a card came, but perhaps we won't go there.  
Oscar Ripple - A young PC who was caught admiring himself and his uniform in the mirror. 
Leroy - Something to do with the fact he was more often than not, covered in black grease? 
Doctor Death (you had to see him dressed in his leather motorcycle gear walking out of the mist at 2am). 
JPG Just Passing Geoff, (always just happened to pass a few moments after an RTA had happened (What Radio?).
3M's There were two PC's both called Malcolm on the same relief - but this one had a slight stutter hence MMMalcolm. 
Lofty Norman - A big man in all senses of the word. (I recall that he laughed at everything because that was his defence against the tragedies he saw each day).  

The job at times could be very upsetting. Remember there were no compulsory seat belts, or skid lids back then, much less motorbike training. Some of the carnage we saw was awful and this caused a 'sick humour' to be needed and often practiced, just to get everyone through the day.

Off duty you often played and occasionally drank together, as well. One of the best 'off duty' events I remember was the Met Police Raft Race, organised to raise money for the Falklands Fund. The pictures on the TDV website tell the story better than I can, and the surviving policeman and recovery drivers who were there, will no doubt have there own memories of the event.

Helping the police with their inquiries (part two)
One of the great 'on duty' recreations, was when you were waiting for your next job and a police car chase came up on the radio. Because it was your colleagues (and some times friends) in possible danger, it was not unknown for one or two recovery vehicles to join in the chase!  If it was a slow evening, any interesting call could have as many recovery trucks as police cars respond! 

I can remember one night (in the early hours actually), helping to round-up some horses, who had escaped from a field near Chessington. This was done by three teams of two PC's with home made lassos clinging to the back of some four wheel drive recovery vehicle, chasing the horses across the fields. All this accompanied by abuse and free advice, shouted by a couple of ambulance crews, who had turned up to watch the fun.

The ambulance crews would often play host to both us and the police, at the hospital (usually in the early hours). After a particular long, or difficult night time job. We would congregate at Kingston Hospital's Causality department and take refreshments from the lovely nurses.

One of the best things about those days was there was no rules to work with. We knew nothing about gradients and number of turns on the winch drum.  All we did know was that if the vehicle did not want to come back over the bank - you got a couple more guys to help you turn the winch handle, until it did.  Try finding that under ISO9002. 

When winching a heavy load, a good man could hear the tension in the cable. He could feel the crane move, listen to the PTO and engine's note and he know exactly when he was on the limit. Sadly, that is a lot harder today with all the hydraulics plumbing and safety cut-outs. I am not saying today's way is worse, just that it is not so much fun!

Airbags and things
My first introduction to air bags was when we were given a rollover near Esher, which just would not come up without them. I had to buy some off Chris Cox (C and S Motors) that moment and wait while they were delivered.

The instruction (and full training on their use), was given by Stuart (Chris's partner) 'there and then', using the causality as an example!!! Today of course you would need to first go on a two day training course

This picture (above) is of that very day and taken from the late Alan Thomas' book Wreck and Recovery. The Reflective Jackets, Protective Glasses and Crash Helmets always worn today, must have been taken off, just a moment before the photo was taken!

You can clearly see the mops of black hair Stuart and I, had back then! Below is the three of us at a trade show in 2005. Note Chris still trying to persuade me to finally pay him for those airbags.

A Three Fag Job
The cost of any recovery was always based on the maximum price you thought you could get away with. I found this very unsatisfactory and developed a much better and more scientific way of pricing jobs. This was based on the number of cigarettes I smoked during the recovery. A three fag job was thought to be a particularly hard one and would have been charged at fifty quid a fag i.e. 150 pounds.

The vehicles we used were nearly all home made, being designed and built at the coachworks we were working for. There were some odd exceptions like the ex-army heavies, such as the legendary Diamond T and the big Leylands. However, on the whole we built them between shouts. A good feature was copied by all the other guys on the ground and then often improved on. Once that happened we would copy it back again.

We operated mainly Ford Transits, fitted with V8 Zephyr engines (hence the diesels engine front panels). I remember one of the local competition Windmill Coachworks run an Austin Champ, but fitted with a full tune Healy 3000 engine. 

The lifting was always done by crane, usually a Harvey Frost but there were other makes, notable Mann Egerton. A good man could 'chain lift' a brand new car using just a block of wood and the back seat from a 'write off' mini or 1100 (for padding) and then tow it a hundred miles without ever putting a mark on it.  

Expansion
As I said earlier, when we started the company was called Cambridge Coachworks, but we decided to rename the recovery side National Rescue. Around this time I was blessed with having two very good friends, with recovery vehicles. One was John Dyos of Sunbury Salvage (the famous dismantlers with the Gyrocopter aircraft on the roof). The other was Bob Hunt of Langley Vale Garage. Two better mates a guy could not hope to find. 

Between the three of us we formed an alliance and agreed to help each other. The  alliance worked well, until sadly John moved on to other things. However as far as Langley Vale is concerned, it is still in place today, nearly thirty years on. 

National Rescue continued to expand driven by a conviction that the Driving Hours regulations, would be applied to Recovery Operators, as well as General Haulers and by the early nineties the National Rescue Group had all these depots  up and down the country:
Birmingham (2 depots)
Corby
Gatwick
Epsom
Kingston
Leatherhead
Okehampton
Shepperton
Brooklands (Weybridge).   

During the late nineties a change of direction was decided on and the company contracted.

Today the original company is owned by my good brother Geoff Lambert and his son Martin Lambert. It has now streamlined and concentrates mainly on Car and Light Commercial recovery. Birmingham Depot is now owned and operated by Kim and Peter Coles and they have again streamlined to concentrates on Car recoveries. With such a rich heritage, it is likely that both companies will be serving the public for many more years.   

The First Clubs
Because we needed to find things to do with the fleet until the next accident or 'shout' came in, we started to look for alternative forms of revenue. In the early seventies we were approached by Red Rovers to become a breakdown agent for them. This was soon followed by National Breakdown. You can read all about these clubs in the history section of the site.

These Yorkshire based clubs had spotted the need for a more comprehensive but flexible cover, than the existing clubs (AA / RAC) were offering. By the end of the seventies there were a string of clubs  we were working for and our fleet had to change to cater for this new type of work.

From out of these motoring organisations came some great supporters of the industry. Many also become good friends over the years. People like Bill Diegutis, Brian Hagen, Tom Johnson, Bryan North and Ernest Smith.

Around 1973 we had built our first transporter and by the late seventies the great salesman Doug Maltby of Easylift, had convinced us to the Scandinavian idea of a 'Speclift' was the way forward. 

The realisation that the industry need to regulate itself caused us to join the first UK association AVRO towards the end of the seventies. Training of staff was very much 'on the job' the only real books on the subject being the great Bill Jackson's  We The Professionals and Ron Grice's - Vehicle Recovery. 

Ron's book starts with the classic line - "Nowadays, Vehicle Recovery is a very important business: it is even almost respectable" and that's exactly what we thought of ourselves back in the seventies!