18.02.2022

Ian Michael Gamble 1941-2022

We have received the sad news that UK access and plant hire veteran and mentor Ian Gamble has died.

He passed away on Tuesday at the age of 81 having suffered from ill health for more than 15 years, most recently with cancer.

Ian Gamble was truly a one off. The term ‘character’ simply does not begin to do him justice. He was responsible for far more company success stories than just those that he managed or that bore his name and he rarely took any credit but was happy to provide all manner of support and advice and see the fruits of his success - accolades were just not his thing. He is perhaps best known for having founded and managed general rental company Gamble Jarvis until selling the business in 2005.
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Ian Gamble

Gamble started his business in 1960 at the age of 19 when he purchased his first piece of kit, a JCB backhoe loader, although he had grown up in a family business F.L.Gamble & Sons. His father Frank had built his own crane in the 1950s for contract work erecting barns on farms in southern England. He then teamed up with Mike Sadler to create Gamble & Sadler Crane Hire, which was eventually sold to Hewden Stuart, by which time it rand around 160 cranes and had revenues of £12 million. Young Ian however, was never involved in the day to day crane business, he was more interested in doing his own thing and and he established his own plant hire company which became Gamble Jarvis - the Jarvis being Paul Jarvis.

One story he apparently used to tell nervous entrepreneurs was that having collected his first machine he had to stop several times on the way home with it to be sick, such were his nerves over having made such a major investment without a plan. Anyone who knew him later would be hard pressed to believe that. Perhaps it was a way to reassuring a nervous young entrepreneur that had done the same thing, that all would work out well? It would certainly have fitted his character.

In the early 1980s, Gamble spotted the growing potential for aerial work platform rental and bought a number of Economy (later Snorkel Economy) scissor lifts from the UK dealer Access Sales, a division of Kato Cranes - now Kranlyft. Over the next few years, Gamble Jarvis became a major regional access rental company, while also running a wide range of general equipment including telehandlers.

Gamble sold his business in 2005 to a group of investors who, it turned out never had the wherewithal to fund or manage the business and it failed, owing Gamble most of the deferred acquisition price.
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In addition to running his own business, Gamble helped or encouraged numerous other entrepreneurs to set up their own operations, either with direct funding or simply by offering advice and mentoring. He always seemed to have time to help others. The two following examples illustrate the nature of the man:
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Ian Gamble on a factory tour in California, 1989

When in 1989 Alan Russon of Access Sales/Kato Cranes’ had the idea to set up his own business as a dealer to import Skyjack scissor lifts from Canada into the UK. He turned to Ian Gamble for advice and support to start the business. When Skyjack took over that business in 2000, Russon started up again within Gamble Jarvis, but trading as Russon Access, to import the Liftlux range of heavy duty scissor lifts. When Gamble Jarvis was sold in 2005, the new owners quickly dropped the access operation and Russon, once again in partnership with Ian Gamble, set up a new business. Around the same time JLG acquired Liftlux leaving Russon Access without a product, so it switched to Holland Lift, becoming the UK distributor.

In another example Gamble helped Facelift founder Gordon Leicester by providing advice and knowledge etc. Leicester had purchased a Simon truck mounted platform in 1985 to carry out some work on a hotel in Brighton. When it was completed, he wondered what to do with it. Sensing the opportunity to lend it to others for money, but knowing nothing about equipment or the rental business, Leicester went to see Ian Gamble, who ran the leading rental company in the area. Although he had never met him before, Gamble invited him in and spent a great deal of time with the young entrepreneur - who was roughly the same age as he had been when he purchased that first machine - giving him plenty of tips on how to get into the emerging access rental market. He even gave Leicester his first rental contract there and then. Armed with all this advice and secure in the knowledge that he had a mentor, Leicester started up his company Facelift which became one of the leading truck mounted platform rental companies in the UK, later adding self-propelled machines, before being acquired by AFI in 2019.

Ian Gamble was a larger than life character. His rugged features and massive smile reminded people of the well known British comedian and star of countless ‘Carry On’ films, Sid James. Gamble loved life and lived it to the full. Even after he became ill, he continued smoking his “50 a day” and enjoyed his whisky, not to mention chocolate cake, which tended to show on his physique. He was apparently called ‘Grandpa Belly’ by his grandchildren.

In the few days before he passed away his wife, Maggie, observed: “I knew he was really unwell this time because he stopped eating his chocolate cake.”

Ian Gamble was one of the rare individuals who could always bring an instant smile to your face no matter how bad things were. His smile would light up a room and you really couldn’t be miserable when meeting him. Gamble always seemed to have time for you and had a wicked sense of humour and a great laugh!
Other people from the industry have summed up Gamble best, such as: “He was always an absolute legend, I would have walked through hell for him,” commented one. Another said: “It is so so easy to say nice things about Ian.”

“Ian was always so supportive, I referred to him as Daddy Gamble.”

One story recalls a visit to the Aichi plant in Japan. “We had attended a series of dinners with different Japanese executives over the week. At the last dinner before we flew home, Ian stood up and gave some sort of thank you speech in some sort of made up sounds that sounded like our Japanese hosts, complete with gestures mimicking the speeches he heard over the previous few nights. He did it with such charm and wit that, rather than offending his hosts, they saw the funny side of it and what he was trying to do and received an ovation. He became something of a legend with everyone wanting to meet this ‘Gamble San’.

Ian Gamble was a true legend, and the industry has lost one of its major characters.
He leaves behind his wife Maggie and children Julien, Emma, Nicholas, Jamie, Robin and Michael.

Ian Gamble's funeral will be held at Worthing Crematorium, Kingswood Chapel, on the 3rd March at 10:00
Address: Horsham Road, Findon,
Worthing, West Sussex BN14 0RG

We will update this over the coming days if we receive more input and photographs.