Finlayson Brothers Foundry

This image was selected by a participant in the Robinson Oral History Project.

‘It was sort of in the blood a bit, that I wanted to be in engineering of some description. So I called into Finlayson Brothers looking for a job round town… A week or ten days went by and I got a phone call to come see them again… They said well, we’ve looked into your case and what your Grandfather did and Dad’s brother did as blacksmiths and fitters and everything around Devonport. I was offered a job in the fitting shop. I had to, first three or four weeks, be the cleaner. Keep everything clean, and all the bits of steel away and the floor swept, things like that. The two brothers, Jack and Ken Finlayson, ran the show, and Ken looked after the fitting shop and the boiler’s shop. One day he said I can give you a job out in the welder’s shop, an apprenticeship as a boilermaker / welder. And I jumped at that, I said “That’ll do”. I was twelve years there with Finlayson’s.’
— Bill