05.07.2010

Sid Slater 1929 -2010

We have confirmed the news that retired crane veteran Sid Slater passed away on June 18th, he had been struggling with ill health for four to five years, although he played his last game of golf as recently as May. He leaves a wife - Ann.
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Sid Slater

Slater spent his entire career in the crane industry, starting out – so we understand - in the drawing office of RH Neal which was based in Grantham. Neal was acquired by Coles in 1959 and Slater would often recount how he, along with his colleagues was “interviewed for his own job” following the takeover.

The merger with Coles was probably a good move for him though and he moved into sales as technical sales representative for North East England becoming a sales executive for the same region and then area manager for Scotland and the North Est.

Coles was then acquired by Grove in 1984 and Slater became district sales manager for the North of England. In 1990 he left Grove and joined Krupp cranes in a similar role. He retired around 1994 – just before Krupp was acquired by Grove.

He loved his golf and was a long time member of the Chester le Street golf club, he is remembered by his work colleagues as “a solid citizen and a hard and diligent worker”.