TRIBUTES have been paid to a popular man who worked at the BBC Wood Norton site in its heyday who has passed away at the age of 89.
Another link to the period was broken with the recent death of George Dawson who came to Evesham, setting up home in Hampton with wife Diane in 1986, when he became the, much respected, Finance Director for the entire BBC site.
He spent a lifetime in BBC service having started during the Second World War as a messenger.
George made a successful career, working his way up the BBC through management training. Before arriving in Evesham he had for several years been Finance Director at the BBC Transmitter Site at Brookman Park, near Stanmore.
His former secretary, Wendy Luckhurst summed up his time there and said: “George was a pleasure to work with and will be remembered with affection”.
Ann Robinson, a close colleague from that time, who had kept in touch, said: “We all remember George with great affection. We had ten very happy years at Brookman Park.
“George was always a gentleman and a caring and devoted husband to Diane,” she added.
While at Brookman Park he travelled as far afield as Ascension and the Gilbert and Ellis Islands in connection with the, then worldwide, long and short wave transmitter services, so important, in the days before satellites and digital technology.
This was not George’s first connection with Wood Norton.
Much earlier he had been responsible for moving the BBC’s invaluable archive of bakelite recording disks to the safe custody of the underground storage, safe from German bombs during the war.
A brief interlude, for National Service in the RAF, saw George maintaining Lancaster bombers at RAF Cranwell.
He once flew in one on an airtest and this sparked a lifetime interest in aviation.
This even went as far as both Diane and George taking a hot air balloon flight over the Vale of Evesham.
Following his retirement they both became valued members of the Vale of Evesham Historical Society, spending many hours in the Almonry helping to organise displays and cataloguing the artefacts.
George served as a committee member for many years.
He was also a stalwart supporter of the Probus Club of Evesham for more than 22 years. He attended his last meeting at Evesham Rowing Club in good heart, just four days before his death.
The couple enjoyed cruising, most memorably sailing to San Francisco and the USA west coast, to celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary.
The cremation took place on Tuesday (July 19) at Redditch Crematorium and was attended by a large gathering.
His ashes will be interred in Hampton Churchyard on Tuesday, August 9 at 10.30am.
