Harland and Wolff - Shipbuilding and Engineering Works

If the number of men attending his retirement presentation can be used as a judge of a man's popularity then Senior Foreman Hughie Long of the Joiners Shop was the most popular man In the firm, for when he retired after 50 years service with the Company on 13th April 1978 there was a massive turnout of colleagues and friends from all over the yard. Hughie started work with the Company in June 1929 and one of his earliest recollections is that of a virtually empty Joiners Shop during the hungry years of the '30s. He can also remember nearly 1000 men working away at ships fittings and the construction of Bombay, Hereford, and Stirling bombers during the war. In presenting Hughie with a crystal decanter and wine glass set, to mark his retirement, Manager Norman Watson, said that throughout his service Hughie had always been co-operative, loyal end ready to do any job given to him. "My only regret in his leaving," he added, "Is the experience he will be taking with him."