26.07.2024

Trevor Churchill 1939 – 2024

We have received the sad news that veteran UK based crane operator Trevor Churchill has died. He passed away last week at the age of 84, and would have been 85 in September.

Churchill started his working life as a stone mason, entering the crane industry in 1967 when a friend of his who worked as an operator for the recently established crane rental arm of Richards & Wallington plant hire - on Wharf Road Tyseley, on the south east side of Birmingham - persuaded him to join him as a crane driver.

In those early days operators had to be prepared to drive just about any crane in the fleet, and Churchill would have started off operating something like a Hydrocon or small Coles lattice truck crane. However before too long he progressed to larger cranes and operated one of the 'flagship' 100 ton Coles Centurion lattice truck craned, the world’s largest mobile crane when launched in 1963. He also operated on of the first 125 ton P&H 9125-TC lattice truck cranes to arrive in the UK.

He stayed with the company through a period of acquisitions, and its rebrand to BCHC - British Crane Hire Corporation. He also had the ‘opportunity’ to drive one of the few Clark Cosmos 755 telescopic truck crane, that were built. The Cosmos cranes featured a low slung, racing car inspired chassis cab and joystick crane controls in the superstructure. Many of them were apparently built incorrectly, with the slew ring welded off centre and as a result were prone to overturning. It happened to Trevor while lifting a boat into or out of the river Mersey, He ended up in the river sustaining some very serious injuries, not to mention the intestinal challenges of taking in large amounts of filthy river water.

After some time in hospital, he ‘got back on the horse’ and went back to work. His son Glenn followed in his footsteps joining him in 1975 as an apprentice mechanic as BCHC. And in fact, the two worked together for a while on a 140 tonne Demag, with Glenn helping his father out with the heavy rigging as he struggled on account of his injuries.

When BCHC closed down in the early 1980s Trevor Churchill became a truck/ heavy haulage driver for a while, before joining Baldwins for a short while and then Sparrows, followed by a couple of years as crane operator on the offshore oil rigs.

Back on dry land he was persuaded join Interlift part of the Al Jaber group, when it pulled out of the UK he moved to Ainscough Crane Hire and along the way operated 300 tonne Liebherr, and a 500 tonne Demag, most of his life was spent as a heavy crane operator. Somewhere along the way he was badly injured while changing a tyre on a big Demag.

Eventually his injuries got the better of him and he was obliged to retire early, going on to nurse his second wife through six years of dementia until she passed away. He dedicated his final decade to improving his property and enjoying the odd game of golf, until he simply couldn't get out of the house.

In the words of his son Glenn: “My dad was a member of the old guard of experienced operators that worked by the seat of their pants in machines, that by today's standards were prehistoric to say the least but, which pioneered today's technology.” I was only a child when he started out in the lifting industry, but I remember fondly my summer holidays travelling around the country with him in the ‘suicide cab’ of old Coles strut jib cranes to work on motorway construction projects country wide. My father was a proud man and ‘did not suffer fools lightly’ he was dignified to his end and will be missed by many of us.”

He leaves behind his first wife Brenda, and sons Glenn and Mark. His funeral will be held on the 5th of August at 14:00 in Southport Crematorium, 159 Southport Rd, Scarisbrick Southport PR8 5JQ. In lieu, please make donations to cancer research.