John Sansom's Classification Talk
John Sansom had a lifetime career as a Municipal Engineer. In general, if there was a hole in the ground, it was his fault. If it rained, it was his fault, if there was a need to blame...it was John's fault!
At 20 years old, John left the army after 3 years in the Far East and didn't know what to do with himself. As he was with the Royal Engineers, it seemed a good place to start. He 'articled' with a city engineer in Nottingham which was on the job training while taking some courses at the technical college to round out his education. Truly, he learned on the job from real engineers who were practicing and it was a great format to learn. Really, he first learned to draw and make tea.
John's first major project was working on a prestressed concrete road bridge in Nottingham in 1958. It was interesting work as there was no ready-mix concrete, they just needed to test and learn. He worked with some of the most famous engineers of the time and learned that the best crew included a bunch of Irishmen and one fat English foreman.
Moving from the bridge project, John then worked on a large sewage treatment plant for 1/2 million people. The foreman, Old Tommy, was 38 but looked 65 and the crew was made up of many convicts. The line up for payday included many wives as they knew the funds wouldn't make it home if they didn't "supervise".
Moving to the city of Norwich, John loved the old wall surrounding the city and their guard tower, although he got lost in the drainage/sewage system for a bit and couldn't figure out ho to get out....eventually finding his boss up a 60ft sewer drain.
In 1964, he arrived in Vancouver with $500, two suitcases, a wife & a baby. Originally starting at H.A. Simons working with pulp mills he learned that this wasn't the best work environment and after three months moved to Victoria, BC to work for James Clifford Garnard an ex-Corporal for the Royal Engineers who was disappointed with John's rank until he lied to say he was a lieutenant. Projects in Victoria included Clover Point which required a lot of discussion with envrionmentalists.
John moved to North Cowichan, which is a vast region, that had never had their own engineer before. John was the 1st and as he had to do a lot directly for that region, he learned a great deal. He was "their" engineer. He met some interesting locals including General Mearson who was a Canadian General who had met Eisenhower. Sir Phillip Livingston, whose mother was the first white woman to be born in the region, he was an Optician to George VI.
John worked in Delta with a great many developers who wanted a vast amount of work done and they typically were irate. John worked in Delta for 4 years before seeing the posting for the City Engineer for the City of Victoria. He applied and after several months of interviews, accepted the job. Essentially a dream job, John started in 1975 and two weeks after the city went on strike.
A few moments stand out, like when John was lowered down in a sewer to look at an issue at 3am (lowest flow time) and the police came by asking for ID. John said they could come right down to inspect his ID. Generally, John enjoyed working with all the people, the unions and the politicians over the years. Everyone was supportive.
Retiring at 60, John consulted for a while helping set up Sooke as a municipality and assist with View Royal, Colwood & Squamish. After consulting was done, John went to school and did a diploma in Humanities, French and did a Masters Degree in Administration.
It was his fault...and he was happy for it!