When this story of the “Rogers clan” opened in these columns last week it dealt with Floormanager Pat Rogers and his wife, sister-in-law and Jimmy Innes, who married the daughter of Pat’s sister-in-law. That may sound very complicated, but it all boils down to the fact that Floormanager Rogers has three relatives working with him in the rubber factory. There are two more in the leather factory, one in the garage and the eighth in the food stockroom.
It is in the food stockroom that Harry Ambler (right) works and Harry is the husband of Sybil, Pat’s sister-in-law, who was mentioned last week.
Their son, Brian, is an apprentice mechanic in Bata Auto Service and Adam Fedorcio and Wladyslav Witkowski complete the list.
Harry presents a remarkable example of adaptability, and of settling down cheerfully in new surroundings, new companions, and new work.

Few people are happy going from one industry to another after spending 30 years in the first. That is what Harry did. For 30 years he was in the textile mills in Bradford, doing several jobs, mainly combing and cleaning wool ready for treatment. He served in the Army during the war, and, when he came out, Pat suggested that he should come to East Tilbury. “I had been so many years in the textile industry that I could not imagine myself - a Yorkshireman - doing anything else,” Harry told Bata Record. “But I came to East Tilbury, took a fancy to it, and settled here. So did my three daughters.
“My first Bata job was on the textile-rolling machine - an appropriate one, considering my knowledge of textiles - in Dept 301. After that, I served for 12 months in stock control. I was one of four people, who went, as required, to any stockroom.
“That was not so very many years ago, but the stock side of the factory, as well as the production side, has grown by leaps and bounds, and organisation, always a highlight, has become more acute than ever.
“Now I work in the food stockroom, where I have been for the past four years.
Organisation, also is the keynote of supplying Bata shops and the hotel with food. That is where I take it after it has been ordered, delivered and allocated. On deliver and preparation - according to what is asked for - the food is weighed and checked in the store. When it is taken “over the other side” (the shops and hotel), it is re-weighed and rechecked.
“To deal expeditiously with such a vast quantity of food consumed by British Bata undertakings keeps Food Buyer Peter East, Stock keeper Mary Mason, and the food staff constantly busy.”
Harry has been with British Bata for seven years, and thinks the Company provides an ideal start in life for young people who want to get on. “I would not stay here if I did not like it,” he said, with typical Yorkshire sturdiness, “and I do not want to go back north now.”

Brian Ambler (left), son of Sybil and Harry, is an apprentice motor mechanic in the British Bata garage, and is in his fourth year, assisting at repairing cars, and doing small repairs himself. Aged eighteen-and-a-half years, he studied at Grays Technical College twice a week.
“It is interesting work,” he said to Bata Record, “and I received excellent practical training. My idea is to become a motor engineer.”
He has always been facile with his hands, and could deal with other things besides cars. His hobby is, and has been for several years, model making, and he has constructed several realistic-looking model planes and ships, on which he mainly concentrates.

“Now I am finishing a two-foot cabin cruiser,” he said, “powered by a diesel engine and fitted for radio control. I hope to enter it in the Bata Arts and Crafts Exhibition which I read in the Record is to be revived next year. I do everything to the models myself - including the painting, rigging and fitting, and I am always busy with them when I am not studying. When I was younger, I did scale models from kits of parts. Now I am more creative.”
A good, steady worker, Brian came to the garage straight from school, and is a quick-on-the-uptake assistant to the mechanics who service and repair Bata vehicles and cars which use the Auto Service.

Adam Fedorcio (left) is a clicker in Dept 405, where he is one of the most efficient workers. He came to East Tilbury in 1947, and attended the weekly school run by Horace Hall, lasting instructor in the leather factory. He was keen to know his job, and was a ready pupil, quickly learning how to perform more than one operation in the leather factory.
A native of Poland, Adam has vivid memories of how his country was invaded first by the Russians and then by the Germans, and of how he escaped after he had been taken prisoner.
“The Germans took me, and many of my fellow countrymen, prisoners,” he said, “and I escaped from a railway train. The Germans herded us together in cattle trucks, and I remember jumping from the train as it reached the last station in Hungary on its way to Germany. For a long time, I worked on a farm, but eventually I was detained by the police, because I had no identification papers.

“I then served in a Polish army under a British commander, and was very happy and well treated. He was a friend to all the soldiers, and invited us to come to England after the war.
“I came to this country not long after the war, and soon read about British Bata. I thought I would like to work for the Company, and was pleased that my application was successful, as this is a happy place, with interesting work, good conditions and friendly people. I married Winifred Ambler, daughter of Arthur and Sybil Ambler, and have a happy home.”
To most British Bata workers, Adam is best known as a doughty performer at field sports - javelin, discus, shot-putt.
“I have been interested in field sports for may years,” he said, “and joined the branch of Sokol when it was formed at Bata Hotel. I am a certificated physical training instructor, and a member of the international federation of P.T. instructors.
“I take classes of Bata Technical College students twice a week, and I am also P.T. teacher to Palmer’s girls school, at Grays.”
Adam is versatile with his hands. His hobby is miniature photography, and he derives hours of pleasure from a 35mm camera of a famous name. He takes it everywhere, and, in his own words, can get crystal-clear reproductions of anything from portraits to landscapes.
He also knows how to mend clothes, and repairs most of the garments which he and his son wear. “I was apprenticed to a tailor in the days when my country was happy and peaceful,” he explained.

Waist lasting-monoliths in Dept 442 is another son-in-law of the Amblers, Wladyslav Witkowski (right), who married their daughter Margaret, a former worker in the staff department. He, also, is a native of Poland, and was a prisoner-of-war in Russian hands. Like Adam he served in a Polish army under British command, chiefly in Persia and other places in the Middle East.
After the war, he wanted to come to England, and duly arrived. Having heard about British Bata, he applied for work at East Tilbury and was successful.
“Do I like it at East Tilbury?” he said, in reply to a question. “Yes, I am very happy in my work, and find that, like most other English people, they are really warm and friendly, and soon get rid of their famous reserve. “
Both he and Adam are naturalised British subjects.