Listers
I heard today that the man who drove the first TR2 imported as a
demonstration/evaluation
car into Canada, Drummond Phillips died yesterday at the age of 92.
He was appointed in 1952 by Sir John Black as Sales and Marketing Director of
the Canadian
importer in Toronto.He was also part of a specialist team charged with the
responsibility
of manufacturing Triumph Tens, Vanguards and the then new sidescreen TR. The
objectives
were to use the Toronto base as a manufacturing springboard for the North
American
market.
Plans were far advanced, the assembly facilities largely in place when price
reductions
both in Canada and the US for US manufactured products made the project
unworkable.
Drummond returned to England in 1958 with his wife and daughter and was
appointed Sales
Director of Standard's Personal Export operation in London (where I later
worked) and
stayed there until the Leyland take-over. He then relocated to the south of
England and
ran a Triumph dealership until his retirement. A quiet spoken man, he had an
immense sense
of humour and a veritable fund of stories but I have sadly not been able to be
in his
company for a long time. He died peacefully yesterday in hospital and is
survived by his
wife Edna (Sir John Black's former secretary) and their only daughter Penelope.
I thought I'd let you know. There are now very few people from those early post
war days
at Standard Triumph and even fewer from the late 1930's. Drummond was one of
the latter
group and Edna is very possibly the only one now still alive.
Jonmac
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