MLA EXPO PREVIEW
A Locksmith ’ s Journey
My journey started at 10 years of age ….
» MY DAD , JOHN GOLBY , WHO GREW up in Camberwell South London , joined the family building and decorating business in 1950 . Two years later , he was off to Egypt ( Suez Canal ) for National Service . Serving as a Dispatch Rider , which suited one of his passions of riding motorcycles . His other passion , dancing , having to be put on ice .
When his commanding officer discovered he was a builder , he asked him to build his living quarters on the base , which put dad in his good books as such ! On dad ’ s second year of service he developed pneumonia due to the freezing nights in the desert . He was told to walk two miles or so to the medical tent , from there he was transported back home , where fortunately he made a full recovery and returned back to work in the family business .
During dad ’ s building career he met up with Roy Saunders who had a Locksmiths business in Peckham , near to dad ’ s home . For those too young to have known about Roy , he was very well known in the 70s / 80s for being the world ’ s best safe cracker and led a very interesting life . Roy had also served in Egypt for his national service and was the same age as my dad .
Dad became very interested in Locksmithing . So , in 1977 , when I was just 10 years of age , I would go with dad to visit Roy for Locksmith tuition , where he taught all aspects of repairing and rekeying locks etc . In 1978 , we opened a Locksmith shop in Bexleyheath , Kent , where we lived and , dad being the incredibly hard working and determined man that he was , worked long hours to succeed with the business . He even carried on working when he slipped a disc carrying a sheet of plate-glass to a customer near the shop , glass cutting being an early sideline to the Locksmith business .
All the lock installations / repairs were carried out in the evenings , I would go along with dad after school to help him as well as learn the trade . I remember dad letting me fit my first Chubb 3G114 aged just 13 . I hasten to add , this wasn ’ t child labour , I loved going on the jobs and enjoyed carpentry . I also worked in the shop at weekends , serving customers and cutting keys .
As years went by into the late 80s , UPVC doors and windows came on the scene . Initially this was a security nightmare for the police with burglaries because of poor window security with no secondary locks available for us to install . Until my brother discovered a company ‘ up North ’ called Mila Hardware , they designed a lock similar in design to a UPVC door flag hinge that could be added to both windows and doors . So my brother and I visited Mila Hardware and attended a course to learn all about UPVC doors and windows , how to ‘ heel and toe ’ the glass units in order to correct door alignment as adjustable hinges didn ’ t exist at this time and we were taught how to upgrade the Roller Cam door systems to the latest Dead Pin locking systems by KFV .
When I was 21 , I studied for the MLA exam , consisting of both practical testing and theory test / interview , which I managed to pass first time . Thereafter , taking various courses with the MLA including safe picking . In the following years London Borough of Bexley fast became predominately UPVC door and windows and we became the ‘ go to ’ company for all domestic and social housing council properties . Then housing associations were forming in Bexley , London Quadrant on the North side and Orbit Housing took the South side . Our company handled all of the lock work for both of these companies , changing hundreds of locks a week . In more recent years the housing associations turned to national Multitrade companies to handle all of their repairs . We began supplying these companies and supporting them with our expert product knowledge of this ever-growing industry of new and discontinued locking systems .
Although we as a company , stock probably one of the largest ranges of UPVC hardware of any retail locksmiths , we can ’ t stock everything as there are 400 + multipoint systems alone . So , we began stocking universal hook bolt systems for the desperate need where a door needs to be secured on the same day . We sold five of these systems and all were returned to us with various reasons that they couldn ’ t install them . This being a national problem for the entire maintenance industry as well as the locksmith ’ s industry , particularly with the increasing discontinued systems . I began studying the existing systems for a solution , the objective being it had to
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JUL / AUG 2021
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