17 Sep 2016
I must firstly say that I am deeply saddened and shocked to only now have just read about the death of an old colleague and friend of mine, Robert Radmall. He often crosses my mind at times and for some reason I decided to look him up online this morning.
I first met Robert when I was 19 and he was 37. We both started working at Mitsubishi Electric in Hatfield and as we both lived in Hemel Hempstead and as Robert didn’t drive, we arranged that I would pick him up in the mornings and take us to work on a 13 mile journey and back again. There he would be in the mornings dressed in his Levis jeans and denim shirt as always. We both worked side by side in a projects workshop where we would solder or de-solder components to various items such as mobile phones, timelapse videos and computer monitors as well as testing and packing.
My time with Robert was never a dull moment and always a humorous and educational one. We both shared a love for music and the more I told him about my knowledge of playing the piano and wanting to produce dance music the more encouraging he would always be. He would say, ‘Just go and do it, don’t think about it, find a magazine, find a band or someone you can play with and just do it and start from there’. I would make him listen in the car to countless mixed tapes that I had made on my friend’s record decks of 90s dance music and he would certainly share his views whether it was good or bad, this must have driven him up the wall.
It became very apparent in the beginning of knowing Robert that he was starting to venture into the photography world and if ever there was somebody who wanted to succeed in this profession it was him. I had never met anyone so passionate and professional about a subject so meeting Robert at a fairly young age of 19 became an inspirational time for me. I still say to my wife now that it was only for meeting Robert that my confidence grew in all walks of life plus gaining an uncanny same sense of humour as his which sometimes not everyone gets, especially my Finnish wife, I tell her it’s just banter.
I would hear stories about him catching the train to London in the evenings after work to try and make contact with certain photographers at meetings and pick their brains or generally just go there to meet new professionals and like minded people.
He often spoke of meeting Page 3 models i.e Belinda Charlton and Vicky Lee. He would offer to take their photos (fully clothed) and print for their portfolios in exchange for a free photoshoot from them. I still have a few of these photos in the attic that he printed for me (as you can imagine a 19 year old guy would appreciate).
I worked with Robert for about 3 and a half years and some time after for personal reasons I moved to Exeter, Devon in 1998 and lost touch with him. Although I still had his mobile number in my head I only called him about 8 years ago to see how he was and he was very happy doing what he loved.
There is some irony to Robert’s departure that when I first met him I discussed with him my father taking his own life when I was aged 17 and we both agreed that this must be a selfish act to leave the people behind to wonder why and for them to pick up the pieces so I can only imagine that Robert must have been in a very dark place in his mind to leave this way.
I must end this on a lighter note and mention a funny, witty memorable Robert Radmall moment. We were working together testing and packing some very heavy computer monitors that required two people to lift in to a box. We had a large Mancunian oath of a line manager (I don’t think he liked us very much) that decided to wander to our workshop and throw his weight around and brag about his strength and masculinity. He came in shouting in his northern accent and rolling up his sleeves, ‘You couple of poofs, it don’t take two of you to lift that into the box’!! He picked up a monitor and with a purple look on his face and a few grunts here and there, put it in the box and continued to shout, ‘I’ve put f’ing loads of people in hospital’!! And with a sharp response Robert replied to him, ‘Oh right, so you used to be an ambulance driver’. The manager had nothing to come back with after that and waddled off. Priceless.
It was a pleasure to have known you Robert Radmall.
Jamie
If you would like to add your remembrances or pictures of Robert to this website, please email them to Tom: [email protected].