49 years with same firm

Press, 1 April 1989, Page 9

49 years with same firm

By

TOM METCALFE

After nearly half a century working for the same company, Mr Bill Paterson admits he sometimes thought of changing jobs. “I handed in my notice a few times but always got a few bob extra to stay on,” he said. Mr Paterson retired yesterday from Patton Refrigeration, now based in Sydenham. When Mr Paterson joined the firm in 1940 at the age of 16, it was called G. E. Patton, Ltd, and was based in Barbadoes Street, near the Imperial Hotel site. He had attended Papanui Technical College, now Papanui High School, and began work as an apprentice sheet metal worker.

Since then he had done “a bit of everything” with the company, he said.

He left Patton’s in 1945 for several months, but only to train as a soldier.

He had wanted to join the Army earlier but the refrigeration industry was an essential service during the war and his enlistment was appealed and delayed by the company. He trained as an infantryman and was on final leave before going overseas when the war ended, he said. “The Japanese heard I was coming and gave up,” he joked yesterday.