6 • INDUSTRYNEWS
PROUD SPONSORS OF THIS PAGE
The Man, the Mariner, the Mastermind
»»
CHRIS BELCHER IS TO THE minds of many, a lock genius. He created many tools that have opened up the industry for skilled, practising locksmiths. The way Chris could simplify difficult lock problems was astonishing. Sadly, Chris has advanced lung cancer and is receiving palliative care.
UAP Tradelocks has worked with Chris, and his wife Suzzie, for the past 8 years, first buying his tools, then licencing them, then entering into developing products with him. David Jennings, UAP Managing Director, writes in tribute to his friend and mentor, Chris …
Soon UAP will be launching a new tool to open and decode the almost impossible Polish Gerda Lock. The engineering involved in the tool is complex but the solution to the problem is beautifully simple. So simple that you can explain the concept to a child in a minute. That is Chris Belcher’ s fingerprint. Simplifying the complex, and doing it with humour and humility.
I visited Chris and Suzzie recently in the Bristol Royal Infirmary where Chris is receiving palliative care for advanced lung cancer.“ What the bloody hell have you been doing to yourself you silly sod?” I said.“ Yep, I’ ve really buggered myself up this time,” he replied with a smile. A few minutes later Suzzie was telling the Oncology Doctor that she had been giving Chris natural iron medication to help his tiredness for months.“ Oh what sort of medication?” asked the doctor,“ Guinness,” Suzzie replied with a grin.
Morecombe and Wise, Yin and Yang, Ant and Dec, Chris and Suzzie. All natural partners. Suzzie and Chris have enviable warmth between them as they talk to locksmiths and students at trade fairs and open days – passing on their considerable knowledge without even thinking about being rewarded for doing so. There are very few people who would have anything negative to say about these two wonderful people.
I also make no secret that Chris’ s input into our locks has, in part, been responsible for our growth over the last 8 years. His timing pin solution to cure Euro Cylinder lock bumping rather than using trap pins, and other elaborate solutions, is a case study in the Chris Belcher fingerprint. The system features in all our BSi Kitemark cylinders. He took a really difficult problem. He studied it closely. He considered Newtons laws of physics, and then he developed a beautifully elegant and simple solution to cure it. His genius is right there in every cylinder we sell. And his genius protects every householder who has one of our Kitemarked locks fitted. If you want to see poetry in motion, and British design and engineering at its very best, then go and open one of these cylinders and see the system in action.
Suzzie asked me if I had any miracles up my sleeve. Sadly I do not. But what I can do, and what I will do, is make sure that the Chris Belcher legacy lives on. It will live on in every Kitemarked cylinder we sell, it will live on in the way we look at design and development and testing of all our products.
Chris Belcher is a phenomenon. The locksmith industry, and UAP, will be the lesser without him. But we have all been graced by his gentle genius, and we are all the better for it. As for me, I am proud to call Chris Belcher a personal friend, and I am proud too of mine and UAP’ s association with him. – David Jennings. In a response to comments on the Chris Belcher Appreciation facebook page, Chris’ s wife Suzzie said,“ One of the things that drove Chris to being a locksmith for so many years was the daily sense of achievement that he was able
to help someone in a difficult situation. To fix their security problem was indeed a huge feel-good factor for him. We were lucky enough to have some of the nicest customers in the Devon and Cornwall area for almost 30 years. Doing a job that helps others and makes you feel that you have done good, is important. And in Chris designing tools to make locksmith’ s work easier was a massively important factor for him. He didn’ t design them for the $$ s, he designed them to help locksmiths do their work.”
Suzzie added,“ We’ d like to thank the doctors and medical staff at BRI, Southmead, St Michael’ s and BHOC Hospitals for everything that they are doing for Chris, along with our G. P. and Sirona Nursing support.”
LOCKSMITHJOURNAL. CO. UK | MAR / APR 2017 Sponsored by Insafe International