I became an Administrative Principal in the Civil Service in 1950. I did have a technical and engineering background which was then, and still is, unusual for administrative civil servants. When the post of Head of the Shipbuilding Division fell vacant at the beginning of 1971, I was put into it. I obviously knew nothing in detail about the shipbuilding industry, but within a few months I was confronted with the collapse of UCS, which overwhelmed me and to some extent overwhelmed the government. I held the position for nearly five years until December 1975 when I retired.

When I took over at the beginning of 1971, the situation that I encountered was that there were three companies or groups of companies, which had already had substantial help. One was Harland and Wolff, which always had special importance because they were the largest employer in Northern Ireland. This and the general problem level of unemployment in Northern Ireland worried the government enormously [and that substantial numbers of British troops had already been committed from 1969 to hold back the tide of sectarian violence]. Therefore, Harland and Wolff were given special government financial assistance [funding to cover losses of £10 million at October 1970 and the rescheduling of a £3.5 million loan], with the government holding a substantial shareholding [47.6percent costing £4 million]. Subsequently, in 1975, the government acquired the rest of the shares, and a government director on the Board. I was very much involved with the Northern Ireland Ministry of Commerce in looking after the interest of the Government as a shareholder.

Things were rather similar, but not so important politically, in the case of Cammell Laird [at Birkenhead] where they were again reconstructed [just before the General Election of 1970, the Cammell Laird Group of companies had announced that it was ten days away from liquidation] with government help. Cammell Laird's engineering interests were separated, and the shipbuilding side was kept going by a substantial amount of Government equity capital [through the Industrial Reorganisation Corporation] and loans, and a government director on the Board.

The third was UCS, with yet again, a government director on the Board. The SIB was still extant. If it had any money left after what it did for UCS, and I am not sure that they did, it was supposed to help the whole of the industry.