Site under Construction
ENGLAND 1926 TO 1955.
City of Liverpool from New Brighton
CANADA 1955 TO 20??

Niagara Falls in the Spring. Ontario. Canada
In February 1955 I emigrated to St.Catharines, Ontario, Canada, to take up a position at Foster Wheeler Ltd. in their engineering department.
Originally both my wife Elsie and I were due to sail together a few months later, but Foster Wheeler asked me to fly out straight away, and they would pay the difference for me to fly over. It was my first commercial flight, having flown once before in an Airspeed Oxford while in the Air Cadets during WWII. The flight was in a Constellation, a four engined propellor engined plane, with a stop over in the frigid February air of Goose Bay to refuel. The flying time was around sixteen hours from Prestwick to Toronto. At Toronto I was met by a representative of Foster Wheeler who drove me to St.Catharines to a rooming house on Academy Street. The next morning I caught a bus to the office to commence work.
Three months later my wife sailed from Liverpool to Montreal aboard the Empress of Scotland, and I drove up to Montreal the day before in a 1952 Hillman Minx I had bought in order to meet her off the boat. The day I drove to Montreal and a few miles along the highway the car engine died, and I suspected lack of fuel, although the tank was full. I had tools with me, and took the top off the carburettor and found a clogged needle valve which I cleared. The problem solved I continued on my four hundred mile drive. Petrol was $ 0.29 per Imperial Gallon at that time. A couple of dollars filled the tank, and I was being paid $ 70.00 per week as a draughtsman. Things were much cheaper and taxes much lower than in England, where my salary was twelve pounds ten shillings a week at the time of leaving in 1955.

Brian & Elsie. Married 25th.July,1953 in West Derby Church. Liverpool, England.
The photo was taken on board our favourite cruise ship to date. The Celebrity "Constellation".


