Left: Chatham branch and Paul Watt, Manager then Area Manager for Chatham and Canterbury, 1950s.
Right: Christopher McDowell. Below centre: Stephen Brewer. Below: Michael Brewer.
provided. One difficulty was that the two storage floors were below the shop area as the premises were built on a sharp slope. Ralph was given guidance by John Brewer, who had already been helping his uncle Basil at Dartford, and had valuable assistance from his brother Michael. As the business grew, a separate manager was required for Chatham, so Paul Watt transferred from Eastbourne. Others from Eastbourne like Melvin Newton and Bill Santer cut their teeth on branch work at Chatham, and went on to fill important positions in the Company. Family comings and goings
Two of the family departed during the 1950s and four arrived: Gordon, who had made his influence felt at Bexhill and was very popular with customers and staff alike, decided to retire abroad in 1954 and Charles Stimpson took over as manager. Geoffrey, who had launched Guildford branch and blazed the trail in that area was made a Director in 1954 but in 1957 his health began seriously to fail. He died in 1958, a great sadness not only to his family but to a large circle of staff and customer friends. Bert Rossiter, who had started at Eastbourne and was by then one of the longest-serving staff in the Company, took over as manager. As the third generation of Brewers became involved in the business, there was a tendency for it to form into two groups: Jack’s family and now Kenneth’s family. Stephen (in 1949)
and Michael (in 1950) had joined their brother John (made a Director in 1959), and Kenneth’s son-in-law Christopher McDowell and I joined in 1957. It is probably fair to say that until we all became Directors in 1964, most of the contact was between our fathers and there might have been a danger that the two halves of the new generation would make an uneasy fit; but thankfully later on that was proved not to be. Servicing the demand
When Christopher and I joined the Company in 1957 after National Service in the Army and RAF respectively, the impression I remember was that getting sales was one of the less important priorities. The huge demand from the public was on top of the traditional light and heavy Trade business, and of course there was the factoring to retail shops too. The highest priority seemed to be how best to handle the mass of orders. Competition didn’t seem much of a worry either. Work was full of projects, whether at Redhill, where Christopher and I started out, or at the fast-growing branches all around.
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