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centenary publication

16 A fast riser Past President Alf Pether holds a unique place in the history of the federation. He is the earliest surviving President to be joining the centenary celebrations. Alf, who celebrated his 90th birthday in 1999, joined the federation in Nottingham in 1952. He had been working as a door-to-door salesman for a drapery firm before deciding to set up for himself on the market. Just two years later he attended his first conference and was surprised to find himself elected to the National Executive Committee. “This was largely due to the fact that my proposer was Margaret Rushton, a long standing and much respected member of the Executive who wished to retire,” he said. Alf was “recruited” to the federation by Lew Lewis from Grimsby who served as President himself from 1968-71. “George Bailey was on the Executive too and as we lived near each other we used to travel to meetings together. I learned an awful lot from him about the federation during those journeys,” he said. Alf traded at several local markets and at one time was on both branch committees at Nottingham and Derby. “The attraction of joining the federation in those days was that we could form a united front to tackle issues. At first, the man in charge of the markets in Nottingham was the Clerk of Markets and stood only second in importance to the town clerk himself. He was not the sort of man who was easy to deal with but by approaching him as members of the federation we often made our voice heard,” Alf said. It was not until the 1960s that the federation began to offer insurance cover as part of membership. “Before that we had been through some dire financial times when money was in very short supply. I served as treasurer in the 1960s when we had to decide to put the subscriptions up. Although people said we would lose membership, that didn’t really happen and once the insurances were introduced, numbers started to rise swiftly,” he said. Alf has many memories of the people and history of the federation. He was with Edgar Hunt at a meeting in Stafford when the former General Secretary collapsed and died. “The Chairman for many years at Nottingham was Harry Handley and I used to attend conference with the late Des Kennedy. There were others such as Rube Sunshine and Bert Perkins (a former President) who gave a lot of time and effort to the federation,” he said. Alf served as President in 1963-64. During his time on the “Top Table” he travelled all over to AGMs and other meetings, often accompanied by his wife, Winnie. He retired from the market in 1980, by which time he was selling carpets. He continued to attend meetings for a number of years and still enjoys keeping in touch with the progress of the federation. And of the future? Alf believes that under private ownership markets will contract and that people need convincing that markets offer quality goods at value for money. “I don't think there are the same opportunities for people to set up in the industry now,” he said. Alf Pether, National President 1963 - 64, was elected to the National Executive at his first attendance at annual conference


centenary publication
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