life - INTERVIEW
If you want something
done, ask a busy person
Behind the Cheeky Chappie exterior there is an astute business
man who with a phone call can change the weather!
David Holmes was born the third of six
children at home in Ealing, South West London.
David knew exactly what time he was born
because his mother heard the theme tune from
Coronation Street coming from the next room.
David’s parents met when they
were at a Guide and Scout camp,
“at the time it caused quite a bit of gossip
because my mum was 23 and my dad was 16.
When they met my mum thought he was one
of the scout leaders but of course he wasn’t he
was just one of the scouts, anyway he asked her
out where eventually my mum ended up at my
dads having tea and this is when my dads mum
turned to my mum and said she was surprised
that she was interested in John because she
was 23 and he was only 16. After my mum
had finished choking on her sandwiches she
decided she liked my dad and they went on to
get married and have six children. My older
brother was born when my dad was only17 .”
Schooling was hard for David as his family
moved around a lot as his father had to do all
sorts of horrible jobs to make ends meet. This
took the family all round the country including
London, Dorset, a farm in Piddlehinton,
Yeovil. Banbury and so it goes on. David’s
connection with the island came about because
his mother’s Gran lived in Freshwater, this
meant that wherever David lived the family
spent time on the island visiting her.
“I attended at least 15 schools throughout
my childhood. The last school I attended
was in Twickenham, located at the end
of the M3 coming into London.
“I remember I spent the last 3 school
years looking out of the window
watching loads of Brain Haulage container
lorries go up and down the M3.”
David left school before he took any exams
as he was desperate to earn more money.
“I suppose this was the first indication that
26
perhaps I had entrepreneurial skills. I remember
when I used to sit in the class room watching the
Brain lorries running up and down the motorway
I thought to myself, there must be a lot of money
in the haulage business because there were so
many of them. I was always motivated by trying
to make a few bob, in those days I had to.”
David had so many after school jobs that
when he eventually left school he took a pay
cut, and on top of this his mum suddenly
decided it was time for David to pay rent, which
amounted to almost a third of his income!
When David actually left school he didn’t
really know what he wanted to do, although
he enjoyed art at school and because of
this he wanted to try sign writing.
“In those days the average wage was
£100 a week, however a sign writer could
earn £200 a day to signwrite a lorry, I
liked the idea of that and also the fact that
armed with just a car, a box of paints and
a mahl stick you could earn a fortune.”
David finally managed to get an
apprenticeship with a sign writer, which
unfortunately lasted all of half a day.
“I remember turning up on the first day, I
was left handed and the sign writer was right
handed. I was told quite clearly that this would
not work as the apprentices job was to fill the
letters in and because I was left handed, this
meant that I would drag my arm through the
lettering, I still am not sure to this day what he
meant, but that was the end of my sign writing
career!” From here David went off and did several
jobs, at 17 he worked for a funeral directors.
“By this time my parents had long since
divorced, Mum had re-married a Coroners
Officer. So I had a few years of him coming
home and telling us all about the business.
“I thought it was all quite interesting, I thrive
on crisis and drama, I remember he was always
on the phone breaking news that someone had
died or there had been an accident. So I went
and got myself a job in Shepherds Bush at an
undertakers. I liked the job, but I didn’t like
where I was, at the bottom! In those days you
would spend a year fitting out coffins, which I
hated. I am the sort of person that wants to do
it today, this minute. For instance, if I had a job
on a newspaper I would want to be the editor
not out covering Women’s Institute stories.
“So I left the job and thought to myself I will
squirrel that idea away, however I will do this one
day but not the way I was doing it at the time.”
Moving on from the undertakers job David
applied himself to a wide range of jobs. One skill
David had was “The Gift of The Gab” so he had
various sales jobs, one of which was selling cars.
“I got that job because it meant that I
could drive round in flash cars, so for quite
a few years I was always in a nice Jag, or
whatever the hot car of the moment was, it
was great fun but the money was terrible.”
For some reason David had always had
an interest in lorries, he thinks it goes
back to when his grandfather owned a
Scammell. So at the age of 21 David got his
HGV Licence and toyed with the idea of
going into the business of selling trucks.
“In the end this idea didn’t go ahead because
I realised you could earn quite a bit of money
working out of Heathrow driving artic lorries,
in those days HGV drivers were earning very
good money. I became addicted to it and I
actually stuck that job for a couple of years.”
By this time David was 23 married with
his first child and a mortgage. He had always
imagined he would make a lot of money.
By now David knew a bit about the haulage
business and went and got a job with Scania
the truck company as a sales person.
“I was very successful with Scania, in fact
I was salesman of the year. I stayed with
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