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Trevor Thornton
• When I visited Belfast in May 1965 to write about the newly established Northern Ireland Carriers I speculated on just what might happen "when an ebullient Dubliner like Trevor Thornton, son of an Orangeman, but who has spent most of his working life in England, takes an appointment in the capital of Ulster to run a company jointly owned by the British and Northern Ireland governments!" A short answer might be that the mixture proved volatile but not explosive: as detailed on another page, NIC, created out of the rubble of the loss-making Ulster Transport Authority monopoly, has been turned into a lively and profitable commercial organization.
Many people have shared in that achievement but the undoubted architect is Trevor Thornton, still a compact ball of restless energy at 67. Asked how he's done it, he grins like an Irish Pixie and says: "By picking the right chaps and throwing them in at the deep end. They've never let me down:'
He has no time for managers who delegate responsibility without the power to go with it. "You must have absolute trust in the men you choose.The proof of the pudding is in the happy, as well as successful, ship he's created at NIC.
Now Trevor is retiring as managing director of NIC to make way for Torn Ennis. He'll still be on the board in a consultative capacity, with one or two special tasks to oversee, but he'll have more time for his beloved golf ("I wouldn't miss my weekend game for all the tea in China") and his equally beloved garden at Craigavacl, overlooking Lough Belfast. He's a proud family man, too, with two sons and a daughter—Maureen is a professional actress and has been playing in a Sean O'Casey play in Belfast.
NIC has been the roost rewarding job of Trevor's life the chance to start something from scratch and put his management beliefs to the test. He speaks warmly of George Quick Smith, who saw the possibilities in Ulster and offered him the job when he was sitting in an office in London as managing director of the ill-fated British Roadrailer Services.
Trevor Thornton started his transport career with Pickfords in Dublin in 1925 and came to England with the company in 1932. He's been with the Road Haulage Executive and British Waterways, too, in quite senior positions.. "I've been bought, borrowed, seconded and sold, but I've spent 46 unbroken years in transport." That bronzed countenance and those twinkling eyes make it sound like the best advertisement for a transport career that you'll meet in a day's march.
B.C.