A blinding duty

Former IP London Branch Chairman and Member of IP Council, Stewart Harris, has written a fascinating and readable autobiography. Harris served as a Navigator in Lancaster bombers during WWII, was shot down over Belgium and evaded capture for five weeks. Accused by the Gestapo of being a collaborator he was tortured and kept in solitary confinement for nine weeks before being sent to Stalag Luft III. He made the decision to stay in the RAF after the war, but a medical found that due to the malnutrition and other bad treatment he suffered during his internment, he was likely to go blind within ten years. After the war he moved with his wife and daughter to South Africa where he found work with Shell. Then followed a variety of oil industry related jobs in the UK until he set up Trident Oil, the first cut-price petrol retailer in the UK. This enterprise was successful until the oil crisis of the early 1970s put him out of business. However, never daunted, he continued in a variety of oil industry posts before eventually retiring at the age of 70.