My first memories of Frank were in the first week of my apprenticeship with Alwyn Isherwood Ltd. in the first week of September, 1955 at the age of 15 - having left school at 14 years of age.  Frank was in charge of TV Room 1 with Peter Hauxwell and several others.  I was placed in TV Room 2 with the late Eric Youhill  and the late Tony Stokes.  George Crossland was Service Manager.  George, Frank, Peter, Eric and Tony were all City & Guilds Qualified TV Engineers.  This was a large number of qualified engineers for a small - but rapidly growing - firm which dealt with 'Brown Goods' - Radio, Television - &  'White Goods' - Washing Machines, Refrigerators, Small Appliances and Electrical Contracting.

Radio was, of course, well established and the late Dick Simms, the late Jim Wales and the late ? Stan Pearson ran the Radio Department.

TV was growing rapidly - having 'taken off' with the Queen's Coronation in 1953.
There were several 'Improvers' - almost qualified - such as Duncan Thornton, David Exley, Jim Whittaker and the Late Trevor Pearson.  There were also many 'Outside Engineers'.

Below these were about eight young apprentices - myself included.

The grounding provided by the likes of Frank Rayner stood us ALL in good stead for our future careers at Isherwood's and beyond.  We all owe a debt of gratitude and were indeed fortunate to be 'in the right place at the right time' with the 'right team leaders' - though the 'team leader' expression hadn't been invented then !

Frank maintained his interest right up to the last stages of his illness.  Indeed he requested that IF WE WISHED we were all welcome to visit him at his granddaughter Liz's house where he had to move as his illness progressed.  George Crossland travelled from Wales and stayed with June & I for a couple of nights.  George, myself and Ian Lindley intended visiting Frank on Saturday 20th June but, unfortunately, he was too heavily sedated to see us.

Frank's interests in Electronics continued long after his retirement and included his use of his 'confuser'.  My last email from him was on 28th April to inform me he intended attending the funeral of Bryan Dickens which, unfortunately, I could not attend as I was suffering from Flu (men don't get colds !).
This was despite his own illness which he had informed me of in an email on 26th March - at that time he had been diagnosed with 'The Big C' as he called it, a month or so previously.  Though Frank & I used emails, we also kept in touch by telephone occasionally..

Unfortunately Ian Lindley & Partner Susan will be abroad on holiday and cannot attend the funeral but send their apologies and condolences.
They will be thinking of Frank on Thursday 9th.

I hope that George Crossland will be fit enough to stay with June & I again in order to attend the funeral.  With luck he may come up on Wednesday since he  'got lost' for several hours on his last visit HERE AND also on his return journey HOME !

George also tried to attend the cremation of our late colleague 'Bert West' in Huddersfield and, though he found THREE crematoriums, he didn't find the right one so unfortunately missed the service.

Mel Ashton, Outwood, Wakefield.