To all fellow preservationists. Please find below an e-mail I sent to members of Strathclyde Fire & Rescue Preservation Group prior to their Annual General Meeting in November 2010 to try and resolve the situation regarding the return of items of my equipment they have in their storage facility at Linwood.
To the members of Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Preservation Group.
It is now two years since I resigned from Strathclyde Fire Brigade Preservation Group. During that time I have been trying to reclaim my equipment from your storage facility at Linwood, but without success.
Most recently three of your members collected a Duluge Set from my property and I informed them that I wish to re-establish contact with SFRPG with the aim of having my equipment returned. I have heard nothing since.
As I explained to Eddie Gray, Kenny Couborough and Davie MacAusland, this is a situation that can be resolved easily and quickly and without both parties incurring hefty legal fees. I have returned items that I had in my possesion to SFRPG – the list ran into pages, and yet to date I have received nothing in return, hardly a fair, honourable or morally just situation.
I have been collecting fire brigade memorabilia for most of my adult life and long before a preservation group was formed. I wish to stress that at no time was my collection loaned or gifted to another group. I would now like to reclaim that property and draw a line under this whole episode. Perhaps someone will raise this matter at your forthcoming Annual General Meeting and hopefully a satisfactory resolution may yet be possible.
It is my belief that members were told to ignore my e-mail.
According to one of their committee members it would appear that I have little or no chance of ever getting what is legally my property returned to me. Wrong, I will never give up the fight to reclaim my equipment as SFRPG have no right whatsoever to retain my property.
For a preservation group to behave in such a manner is appaling but this is unfortunately part of a campaign of orchestrated vileness directed towards me. I have also had equipment removed from my appliance (NHS 196) by members of SFRPG when it was in storage (with approval of Inverclyde Council), in the old fire station in Greenock within the Municipal Buildings. They (SFRPG) decided I had no claim to the Coventry Climax Light Portable Pump on my F8 and decided to remove it from the vehicle, an act that involved moving my vehicle to gain access to the pump. The pump was then taken to Johnstone Fire Station and stored there, this being despite having their own storage facility at Linwood, was this done to conceal the act from the rest of their membership? I contacted Strathclyde Police and reported the pump as missing. The officer I spoke to said the the act of moving my vehicle was technically ‘Taking without Consent’. I also contacted Strathclyde Fire & Rescue to inform them of the removal of my property. After several days the pump was located. Strathclyde Fire & Rescue then stepped in and had the pump taken to Cowcaddens Workshops where I inspected it for damage which apart from some paintwork damage, was intact. SF&R then returned to pump to Greenock.
I must emphasize that at no point was I contacted beforehand to discuss ownership of the pump, had I been given the opportunity and the courtesy, then ownership could have been established and this pityfull and shameful excercise avoided.
I found this whole episode pathetic and rather sad in that someone who had devoted a large part of his life establishing Strathclyde Fire Brigade Preservation Group could be treated in such a disgraceful manner. I was offered no apology from the Preservation Group or indeed from Strathclyde Fire & Rescue for the conduct of the Preservation Group that uses their title. The people involved in sanctioning and taking part in this dispicable act should have done, and still should do the honourable thing and resign from the Preservation Group, or have been made to resign for bringing the preservation movement and Strathclyde Fire & Rescue into disrepute . In my opinion those involved in this act should hang their heads in shame, they have done themselves, Strathclyde Fire & Rescue and fire service preservationists everywhere, a great disservice.
As if to add insult to injury, later that year members of SFRPG tried to have me removed from the Committee of the Fire Heritage Network UK for no other reason than to vent their personal hatred of me. Their attempts were unanimously defeated.
The fire service has been my life. My father and two uncles were also members of the fire service. I was born in the old Central Fire Station in Glasgow and later served in the Glasgow Fire Service and then Strathclyde Fire Brigade. It will take more than the efforts of a few vindictive individuals to have any impact on my enthusiasm and love for the history of the fire service.
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Tonight I posted a notice on SFRPG’s guest book but I realise it has odds of a snowballs chance in hell of being published, the message read…………………
Remember and let the general public know that not one item of equipment belonging to Bob Wright and being held in the Linwood storage facility, has been returned to him despite the fact that he has returned numerous items to SFRPG. Hardly a fair situation.
As a member of the fire service preservation scene for nearly thirty years, I can only endorse what BobWright has written above. Differences of opinion regarding the priorities and direction of the preservation group cannot justify the ongoing childish behaviour of certain controlling individuals within the SFRS Preservation Group. Those silent members of the group should consider whether they wish to endorse, by their silence, such actions.
Hopefully one day the’ll grow up.
Keep up the good work Bob.
Thursday 21st April 2011.
Further update. Today I received another letter (unopened)that I had sent recorded delivery to SFRPG Secretary Martin Savage. The letter was marked “Return to sender unsolicited mail, incorrectly addressed” The address to which the letter was sent was to the home address of the group secretary.
Sad really considering that the group I set up way back in 1995 would never have been involved in such tactics.
SFRPG have equipment in their storage facility belonging to me and I want it back, why is this not happening?
Fairness and equality? I will let anyone reading these post make up their own minds.
Update on my continuing struggle to reclaim my property from Strathclyde Fire & Rescue Preservation Group.
I sent a registered letter to the Chairman, David Adam, of the above group dated 7th February 2011 in an effort to resolve the situation of trying to get what is legally and morally my equipment returned to me. Using the Post Office’s online tracking facility I saw that the letter was being ‘returned to sender’. I also copied the letter to the Chief Officer of Strathclyde Fire & Rescue. That letter was received at SFR Headquarters, Hamilton but as yet I have received no communication from SFR.
The actions of David Adam are yet another example of efforts he is prepared to go to ensure that my equipment is not returned to me. Please note that I will not lessen my resolve until all my equipment, personal and other is returned to me. I will lobby all and sundry to ensure that the everyone is made aware of this ongoing and unfair situation. At some point the preservation group will have to apply for accredition and I will make it my business to ensure that authority is made fully aware of the fact that the preservation group has equipment that belongs to me and are steadfastly refusing to return my property.
As a former colleague of Bob Wright in the early 1970’s, I know Bob to be an open, honest and trustworthy individual of the highest integrity. I’m also acutely aware of Bob’s own personal and family Fire Service heritage going back many years – he’s steeped in the Service.
Over many years, Bob has collected a vast amount of fire service memorabilia and historical artefacts at his own expense; these items are among his most treasured possessions and are now being withheld from Bob by the Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Preservation Group – for no apparent good reason.
As a former fireman in the Glasgow Fire Service, I believed we all behaved (towards each other at least) in an open, honest and trustworthy manner. It’s therefore disappointing to read that Bob Wright is being denied his own property by a group whom I would anticipate to be equally open, honest and trustworthy.
I don’t know what politics, if any, may underlie this unfortunate situation. What I do know is that the good name of the Service is being tarnished through these unfortunate circumstances.
It would be most helpful if the Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Preservation Group would, through this website, give precise reasons why they are refusing to return those items of which Bob Wright is clearly the legal owner.
Should the Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Preservation Group believe they are entitled to retain these items – why not come out into print now? Let’s hear the Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Preservation Group point of view.
Above all, let’s have clarification, an amicable resolution and an end to pointless acrimony.
Over to the Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Preservation Group for constructive comment.
Thank you Matt for your reply.
It’s a great pity that group are acting in such a childish manner. I founded the group and for many years it was a great organisation but eventually people with a different agenda came in and so did the rot. Jealousy played a huge part and I was seen as a threat to the personal ambitions of some. A whispering campaign followed further undermining my position. My wife was also subjected to some unpleasant comments.
The last AGM I chaired was a sham. A senior management officer from SFR was in attendance but I was not even informed that he had been invited or would be attending. Etiquette and common courtesy were sadly missing or deliberately ignored. Lousy or what? I wouldn’t even have been surprised if some form of meeting had been held prior to the AGM but without my knowledge to discuss tacticts. As the AGM progressed the secretary ordered a fellow preservationist of many years standing to leave the meeting simply because he aired his own beliefs which were contrary to that of the secretary. What a shocking way for that person to be treated especially as he is one of the key players responsible for establishing and promoting the preservation movement in Scotland. His charity work within the disabled community is also legendary. I was at that point still Chairman of the group and as such responsible for the conduct of the meeting, but at that time the coup d’etat was in full swing.
What I experienced at that meeting was an underhand, disgusting and orchestrated display of politics and personal ambition. As a consequence I resigned that night and left them to it. Since then many have followed in my wake.
As a former member of the fire service, I find the treatment Bob Wright has received from the Strathclyde fire and Rescue Preservation Group quite disgusting. If any of the so called members read this I can only hope you’re not firefighters, because if you were, you would recognise the honor and trust that exists amongst firefighters world wide! The faith we put in each other when the bells go down is second to none. The fact that you may not be in the brigade anymore doesn’t change anything, honesty and trust are some of the pillars that society is built on, when this goes we may aswell give up all hope of a democratic and fair society. People who go around taking items that don’t belong to them are better known as…. thiefs. If you knowingly withhold items that don’t belong to you could be called theft or handling stolen goods. There is a simple way to resolve this situation in an adult way without getting into any legal wranglings!! Someone who knows Bob in the group can accompany him whilst he collects the outstanding items of his that the group still hold. He’s not after taking items that don’t belong to him, he just wants what is his! He has given back items that he had in his possession without resistance. Come on be reasonable! contact Bob and do the decent thing. Get this sorted now. I can’t believe Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service are supporting a group who behave in this way. Maybe the CFO should have a word in the group’s chairman’s ear. The disprepute this would bring on the brigade if it went public would be embarrasing.