It was not past skill as a shoemaker or an association with shoemaking which first brought John Jarvis to British Bata, but the need for a job when he was released from a German prisoner-o-war camp.
He was so happy at his work as a mixer of rubber compounds on the Banbury mixers in the rubber factory that his wife, Irene, although whe had never been out to work before, felt she would like to work there too and so she joined the rubber factory workers.

It seemed only natural to them both that their daughter, Eveyn, should want to come to British Bata when she left school and she is now a linker in the hosiery factory.
John Jarvis is a competent worker in Dept 301, where he feeds the big Banbury mixer with rubber, chemicals and fillers, and he has been a Bataman for eight years."I like helping to prepare the rubber materials which make so many Bata shoes so well worth buying." he told Bata Record. "The work is interesting and well paid, and the fellows here are all really good chaps. I am on shift work, and find no difficulty at all about that - if anything, the different times of beginning and ending make the job more attractive."
John began to in terest himself in Bata Fire Brigade soon after he came to East Tilbury and is now one of its keenest and most conscientious members, having joined six years ago. He considers that British Bata offers excellent opportunities for young people to start work, and to build for themselves a steady, happy career.
"Here in the mixing and pressing rooms," he said " we have every encouragement , and we all appreciate very much the fine new bathroom, with hot and cold showers, rooms in which to change in and out of working clothes, and other facilities provided by the Company."
During the war, John was a prisoner for three years, being captured in the Western Desert, and taken to Italy. He and others escaped, but after wandering about the country for some months, were betrayed to the Germans.

Irene (left) has been a Batawoman for four years, working all the time in Dept 331, first on joining fronts of sex-eyelet boots, and then on cementing and rolling fronts. Happy and cheerfully philosophical, she works with a steady competence.
"My husband told me he was happy here," she told Bata Record, "and I thought I would like to come. I was engaged, and have been happy ever since. I could not wich for a better place in which to work, nor for a friendlier lot of girls and women to have as workmates. We are all a happy family."
"And I am very glad that Evelyn is a Bata worker. For young people, especially, this is a splendid place to start an interesting career, and I feel sure she will succeed. This is the first time I have been out to work, and I have never regretted it."

Irene does not think that full-time work with British Bata is too strenuous for a married woman with a small family, or even with a large one if some members of it, as is often the case, also work with the Company. "I find companionship, as well as interesting work, in Dept 331," she said, "We all have a job to do, and it is much better to be happy at it than otherwise. I take the rough with the smooth - although there is not much 'rough' at East Tilbury, and that opinion goes for my husband and daughter, as well."

Evelyn, a lively platinum blonde, agrees with her mother. She is 15, and works in the hosiery department, where she is on a linking machine, to operate which needs nimble fingers and high degree concentration. She possesses both these attributes in good measure. She came to East Tilbury last September, and is already a competent linker.
"My father and mother were so happy with British Bata that I thought I would like to come too, and I have never regretted the decision," she said. "The work is interesting, and the girls in the hosiery department are cheerful and friendly. I hope to stay here for a good long while."
Evelyn came straight from Hassenbrook Secondary School, where she was a member of the school dramatic society.
She is still interested in dramatic work, and is also a keen dancer and reader of adventure stories.