Page 14 - A Century Of Service
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Tribute to the federa
 Russell Crawford
An
ideas
man
The National Market Traders’ Feder not be where it is today without the d and hard work over the years of mem National Executive Committee — in that of its 52 Presidents.
Here we feature three: Hampton Flin in August of centenary year; Russell current President who is one of the been elected for a second full term o Alf Pether, the federation’s earliest s President.
This board, always on display at head office, carries the names of all the Presidents of the
 Russell Crawford earned and after just one year on the
himself a place in the history
of the federation when he became one of the few Presidents to be elected for a second full term.
Russell started working on the market because of problems with his hands caused while working in the building trade and boxing. He and his wife Margaret set up on Rugby market selling household goods, but soon moved over to pans and other kitchen items. By 1968 they were regulars at Oxford market where they still stand every week.
He became a member of the federation in about 1970 and was ‘recruited’ as a life member by the late Hampton Flint at Tenby Fair. As well as being a member, and chairman, of the Oxford branch Russell is a member of the Fairs branch and serves as its secretary.
In the early 1990s he was elected to the National Executive Committee,
 committee he became Senior Vice- President.
Russell and Margaret have worked at a lot of the big fairs over the years and have visited many markets.
“Looking back, there are many things which we can be very proud of.
“In recent years we have seen success in fighting the deregulation of markets bill, the introduction of Great British Market Week and the appointment of the first mobile officer.
“I like to think of myself as an ideas man — anything which can help the industry has to be welcomed. Publicity is the key to everything and we need to get that message across any way we can. If we do not publicise ourselves then we cannot hope to prosper,” he said.
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