Less than three years after footwear production had started at East Tilbury, a young man who wanted a shore job after having been for six years a cook for the Orient Line, started in the packing section of the despatch department. He is still here, but now works in the leather factory, where he spent most of his 20 years unbroken service.
He is Eric Mosby, and, on behalf of his fellow-workers, Bata Record tenders to him congratulation on reaching his fiftieth birthday yesterday.
A native of Borwick, Yorkshire, Eric soon proved himself adaptable and efficient, and was appointed, first a checker in the refinishing department, and then an instructor in the leather factory school. He is now a waist-laster in Dept 421.

“He has done most lasting operations”, said his brother-in-law, Foreman George Haxell, “in various departments, and has been on this work for several years. In the war he was a cook in the Merchant Navy. When he wanted a job ashore after leaving the Orient Line, he applied to Bata probably because I and my brother, his brother-in-law, were here.”
Like many other Yorkshiremen, Eric is reluctant to talk about himself, and said he did not want publicity. His wife, Lilian, has worked in the leather factory for seven years and is now in Dept 471. “I do not want to say anything about myself,” she remarked, “but you can put down that Eric is the best husband in the world.”