Our own Aston Born Genius : George Flanner - The Inventor

By Stan Wood

[Viewings: 127]

This true story is about a friend of mine named George W. Flanner, born 13 February 1925 in a back house in Walmer Place 3/192 Aston Brook Street.

Later on they moved up in the world to a double house, No. 194, at the front with a back garden. He was the youngest of the family. He had a sister Eva, two brothers, Louie and Frank, and his mom Alice and dad Bob, who worked at the Dunlop for many years as did Louie and Frank.

I met George in 1954. He was a brilliant self-taught electronics inventor, light years ahead of his time. He went to Burlington Street School, a poor scholar, too busy with his radios. He joined the boy scouts 226th Group at St. Stephens, Newtown Row, Aston, but he did not like taking orders especially off the troop leader who happened to be his brother Frank. George always had to be the boss, as he was later in life.

In 1939, at the outbreak of the war, he got on his bike and became a police messenger all through the blitz bombing. He had no fear. One day during a lecture, the officer said they were now transmitting on FM to stop the public listening in but George shouted out, 'Arm, but I can hear you". They were dumfounded and when he proved it, he was offered a job with them. Later on he worked for The Monitor Radio Co., making secret clandestine radio equipment for the war department. After the war, he started up on his own as G. W. Flanner repairing radio's and T V sets at home in the attic. He could find the faults like lightening and if he thought they were not worth repairing, he slung the chassis out of the attic window into the back garden.

George kept himself very busy building video recorders, remote camera controls, smoke alarms and Video phones. George built his own TV camera and transmitted live pictures. I had an O.A.P customer that I rented a TV to. She lived near George and one day she complained that it used to change stations on its own and make some funny noises. A quiet word with you-know-who, soon cured it, but sadly like most Geniuses he was a very poor business man. I met him a few times in my pal’s shop Billy Warrel's Radio, on Bracebridge Street.

Bill was a good friend of his. He used to send him round to my shop on his old bike for cut price radio valves. One day he did not have enough money with him, so we swapped a valve for a dozen eggs that he had bought off Bill who used to keep chickens in his smallholding in Stourport. George later started up in business with two partners, his pal, next door neighbour George Tidmarsh and John Smith, calling themselves F.S.T electronic consultants. Bill told me that the head men at Millers lamp factory, which I believe was once owned by the German firm Mullersi, paid George a lot of money to work for them on his new inventions. They supplied him with an office, plenty of free food, vodka, cigarettes and a very beautiful young secretary, to keep him happy. Bob set his own hours to work. He only lived just round the corner. They asked him once to go to their German factory behind the Iron Curtain but he did not fancy that in case he could not come back home. I did not see him again after that, and do not know if he ever went over there.

I later learned from his brother Frank who has been a great help in putting this story together, that George was looked after by the excellent local, Dr Kelly, who called most days to see him. Sadly George could not cope with the heavy burdens of business and chronic asthma and diabetes that he had suffered with all his life and on 28 February 1969, he took an over-dose of medication and passed away at the young age of 44. What if he had kept that cushy job at Millers? Maybe he would still be here but George could not take orders. He always had to be the boss. He could have been a Bill Gates and a multi-millionaire if he had lived. What a sad loss for Frank and his family, his pal George Tidmarsh who lived next door, and all his friends. He must never be forgotten. God bless him.

GEORGE FLANNER REVISITED

By HOWARD REE

Stan Wood writes an entertaining article, in respect of his knowledge about George up to a certain stage of his life. I though, had connections with George right up to his untimely departure but knew nothing of his family or private life. Thanks to Stan for bringing these perspectives. I knew only too well of his illnesses and of his battles to overcome them. I could well have met Stan because there was hardly a day which I did not visit Bill's shop on the way through.

At that time George had been working on what I can only describe as the miniaturization of a television camera. It was around this time he attended, what we call today a Seminar, a large number of very eminent technicians of the day were also there. George, the visionary, addressed this assembly stating that he saw in the future the demise of the ordinary camera and how we would be using a hand-held assembly which would take both still and moving images.(1950’s) He saw our mobile phone type cameras of today, way back then.

An eminent member from the technical department of the BBC, listened to George and then gave a reply. I think this was something along the line of the fact he was well aware of George's capabilities but this time he had not given enough thought to the tremendously high frequencies and other considerations that would be required to make it possible and it was all ‘pie in the sky’. How wrong he was!

Soon after this event, George approached me, as I was involved in both engineering and electronics, explaining at length that he had realised that a basic screen of moving imaging data contained a large proportion of information that didn't change. Remember, we are in the 1950’s when, straight out of the box, most electronic equipment needed a friendly slap or tickle to ensure it worked. George asked for a little help with the supply of parts and equipment, which I gladly did and low and behold, he produced a working camera and proceeded to take a picture of a large cross on a white background and then transferred the image via a domestic tape recorder to a standard television screen, panning the camera across the subject and explaining to me the thinking behind his ideas. I did have some camera shots of this event but unfortunately, over the years, they have been lost, however the following week the whole event was reported in a Saturday edition of, ‘The Evening Despatch’ occupying a full half page.

Also in the same article was mention of a new idea of George's - what he called a presence alarm, to us today a burglar alarm. The Birmingham City Police were interested in this and it was, to my knowledge, the first time any such product had been mentioned either here or abroad.

These are some of the fond memories that I have of this inspiring man, called George Flanner, who unfortunately died before he could reach the full heights of his great potential.

The amazing God of Surprises

Written by: John Flanner

[Viewings: 141]

Three years ago I was a bit like the shepherds in the Christmas story who were abiding in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. I was abiding in the typing pool where I had been for 23 years keeping watch over my letters by day. I was in a most sweet and comfortable rut, but with a burning passion inside me to share Jesus and his love with all around me.

Then suddenly, just as the Angel appeared to the shepherds, so an Area Director appeared with some wonderful words of encouragement. They were as welcome as they were rare and so empowering . This AD had a reputation of being a hard-nosed businessman, from Yorkshire no less, but he brought me good news of great joy, telling me that he had read an article I had written and that it clearly showed I had excellent communication skills and he wanted to see my career develop. I had not come across a manager like this before, was he an Angel sent from Heaven? Well if he was an Angel disguised as an AD then he certainly did frighten me initially just like the shepherds were terrified by the angelic visitation. After all those years I was now being provoked to move out of my comfort zone and embrace some personal development training.

The response of the shepherds to their amazing visitor from outer space was to talk among themselves before deciding to go and check it out; indeed we are told that they made haste to go and find the baby Jesus. I did something similar in that I talked with colleagues about these alien words of encouragement and I came to the same conclusion as the shepherds. I needed to check out what was being suggested to me and to do so with some haste.

Just as the shepherds went to Bethlehem so I arrived in Coventry to commence a 12 month personal development programme and I returned to my local office never to be the same again. I was genuinely praising God for what I had been privileged to hear - the course had even been written by a Christian.

This was only the beginning however for just as the shepherds were destined to be known far and wide so God was about to launch me out on a journey that would take me way beyond the comfort zone of the typing pool.

Part of my personal development was to undertake a project that would as they say "benefit the business". That kind of language was foreign to me however and I had no real idea what to do. Someone, however, (could it have been another Angel I wonder?) suggested that I should undertake a Diversity Awareness project and make it available at team meetings in our Area. With a little more of that magical ingredient called encouragement, I put together a short talk called "Celebrating Diversity (Fear, Fun & Faith" telling my very personal story of how I became blind at the age of 19, the challenges I have faced and overcome since then and of how my Christian faith has enabled me to become a much more positive person.
Our Business Support Team were the first to take up my offer and I made my 15 minute presentation at their regular team meeting. This set the trend for what was to come as people both laughed and cried at what they heard.
Questions came thick and fast and it was clear that 15 minutes was much too short a time as we overran some 30 minutes into the lunch break. Nobody minded however and comments such as "This should be compulsory listening for all staff" and "That was the best talk I have ever heard in my working life" became typical of many comments that would follow in the months that lay ahead.

My presentation was extended to 30 minutes, then to 45 minutes and now to one hour as I spoke at many team meetings in our building and then to an Area Directors Management Board Meeting in Kettering. From there I received invitations from right across the country to give the talk to staff of all grades within HMRC. Some gatherings were as few as half a dozen but then going right up to a memorable day at the Walker Stadium in Leicester were over 150 managers attended a regional conference.

The journey has been and still is proving to be amazing and I was, as they say, gobsmacked to receive notification that I had been selected as a finalist at the first Civil Service Equality & Diversity Awards luncheon back in October. I was even more startled to be announced as the winner of the Outstanding Achievement category and to pick up my award from Sir Gus O'Donnell.

Now the invitations have spread outside of HMRC to the wider Civil Service and the ripple effect just goes on and on. I am by the grace of God doing what I really want to do and that is to be good news and to make the love of Jesus known to a wider audience. I am so deeply grateful to God for allowing me this privilege and I want to run with this just as long as the Holy spirit is in control and blessing the message to the hearts of people.

My typing job has now ceased as the job became defunct with so many people able to type their own letters. With the advance of technology, I am now able to work E Open Cases (checking Tax Returns on line) thanks to my screen-reading software called JAWS (Job Access With Speech). It is a pioneering job that is blazing a new career path for other blind people in the future, but ultimately it is not what "floats my boat" and what I really want to be doing.

Since winning the Outstanding Achievement award the invitations have kept coming in for me to make the Fear, Fun & Faith presentation and so I have taken the advice of various people and set up a business called Perfect Vizion through which I can now offer this and other presentations to the wider business world at what I trust is a reasonable rate to myself and my customers.

In July 2007 I will be a very young 60 years of age, but God has clearly said to me that I am to refire and not retire. If therefore I can be of service to you in bringing the joy of the Lord to your office, putting a smile on the face of your staff and leaving them with a definite feel good factor then please be in touch with me.

I have talked in this article about the shepherds in the Christmas story, but now you can be like one of the wise men who brought gifts to Jesus. You can bring me and my message as a gift to your staff throughout the coming year.

Every blessing

John Flanner

Comments

If you have any comments on the above article or would like to communicate with John Flanner about any matters or need encouragement in any way, please email him at:

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What should happen to convicted murderers?

Written by: John Flanner - 2006

[Viewings: 144]

I am writing this article to help clarify things in my own mind as much as for anyone else's benefit. It is of course a highly emotive subject and one which has concerned me for many years. In trying to answer the question, "What should happen to convicted murderers?" , I am not the slightest bit interested in offering my own personal opinion. Indeed, on this and many other issues, I am weary of the opinions of men, no matter how well thought out or well intentioned they may be. I am a committed Christian and as such above everything else I want to know God's opinion on this very important subject.

Right at the outset I need to say that I am not a theologian, or indeed a scholar of any kind. I am an ordinary bloke with a deep concern about the subject. I am, as I said, a Christian and as such I have been in relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ for over 35 years.
Hopefully during that time I have come to know god a little and to feel a bit of his heart in certain situations. With regard to matters such as life and death I feel these are very important issues that relate to God himself.
They are sacred topics which affect the whole world and the societies in which we live.

I have to admit that I have through the years changed my stance on the matter of capital punishment. I have, since becoming a Christian, tried to reflect God's heart on this and many other matters. As a young Christian however I just had a few Scriptures at my disposal like "You shall not kill"
and "Whoever has anger in his heart is guilty of murder" to back up my mainly sentimental approach to this question. I had an impression of an all forgiving God (which he is) who was a big softy (which he most certainly is
not) who would not dream of appointing any of us to execute in cold blood another of his created human beings. I have, as I said, changed my mind on this however and set out below the reasons why I now do believe in capital punishment.

I begin by stressing this great truth - GOD IS LOVE. God's character is love and as such it is impossible for him to act in anyway contrary to his character. All of his laws and judgements are completely just and true. He does everything out of a heart of love.

Having firmly established that overriding truth on the foundation of love let us now look at the issues involved.

Firstly the victims of murder. These are the person who has been murdered along with their grieving family and friends. God loves them, he promises to comfort them in their mourning and he wants them to have justice.
Justice is an important part of the healing process. Grieving people need to feel that appropriate punishment has been meted out to the person who has violated them so deeply. I make the point again that God is both loving and just at all times. There is no way in my mind that I can conceive that putting a person into prison to serve a term for murder is sufficient justice for the victims of such an heinous crime as murder. I can only imagine that if one of my family was murdered and the convicted killer was in prison, my mind would be in turmoil thinking about that person, wondering what they are doing, when they will be coming out etc. In other words there is no closure to the nightmare. If capital punishment were the sentence then relatives and friends would feel in part compensated for the loss of their loved one and would in time be able to bring some kind of resolution to their suffering. As things stand at the moment, with our soft laws, there can be no end to that suffering for the victims of the crime of murder.

Now let us consider the convicted murderer. Here again I have to say that even this person was created by God and no matter how bad our lives become, where a person is truly repentant then god is merciful and will forgive sin.
I have already said that leaving a person in prison prolongs the agony for the victims, but also a long prison sentence extends the mental and emotional torture for the guilty person. To be forced to live in that way is unnatural and dehumanises an individual. I have come to believe that God's way of dealing with convicted killers is that they too should die by being executed on a given date. This ultimate penalty ensures that the person does not have to suffer needless torment but even more importantly gives that person the opportunity to make his peace with God. Most of us do not have the luxury of knowing what day we are going to die and it is therefore of vital importance to our own eternal destiny that we make our peace with God before it is too late. The person who is under a death sentence does know the day and time of his death and so has every opportunity to honestly repent and ask God for forgiveness and so escape the Hell to come. My understanding of god is that he is not sadistic, his judgements are short and sharp rather than being of the long and lingering type.

Critics of this approach say, "What about the executioners? Aren't we forcing them to kill and therefore break God's commandment?" My response to that is to say that God sets people in high office in the nations, be they Kings, Queens, Prime Ministers Judges/Executioners. They have a special dispensation from God to carry out the duties of their office and they do so as true public servants.

A legitimate concern raised by those who oppose the death penalty is the danger of executing the wrong person. This is not an easy one because from time to time it is clear that there are miscarriages of justice. IN life, however, we should never allow the fear of failure to cloud our judgements.
Had that approach been taken then ships would never have sailed the high seas, planes would not have flown and men would never have walked on the moon. Human error will always be with us, but it must not cause us to shrink back from making the tough decisions.

Other critics will say that killing someone in cold blood is just as bad as the original crime and barbaric too. Many of those same critics are just as opposed to corporal punishment being used in schools. I grew up at a time when the slipper and the cane were used as objects of discipline. We all knew the boundaries and within those boundaries we felt secure; step over those boundaries however and we all knew what to expect. I was capable and indeed did step over those boundaries once or twice and received the appropriate punishment. I also know that I am capable of murder. It is a shocking thought, but it is true of all of us. If I should knowingly and consciously take a life then I would expect to lose mine - that is justice for me and for the people I would have wronged. The punishment should be death by the least barbaric means possible.

Finally there are economic benefits for the nation when we take this approach. In the United Kingdom at the moment our prisons are bursting at the seams. Thousands of convicted killers are serving time, being policed by well paid staff, having two or three meals a day, receiving medical treatment and all in all being a drain on the nation's economy. Capital punishment would save a lot of unnecessary expenditure, money which could go into funding the ailing Health Service for instance. Added to this a lot of further serious crime, because many of these people re-offend when they get out, would be avoided.

There you are then. I said it wasn't going to be a very scholarly, or theological piece. Just an expression of my heart which I hope has found an affirming echo in the heart of God. If you know God better than me and have a greater understanding of the Biblical Scriptures so as to illustrate where I may be in error, then I look forward to hearing from you.

Comments

If you have any comments on the above article or would like to communicate with John Flanner about any matters or need encouragement in any way, please email him at:

Email:    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

It's Marvelous in My Eyes!

Written by: John Flanner

[Viewings: 176]

You could be forgiven for thinking that things may have quietened down for me since that euphoric day at Lancaster House last October when I was so amazed to pick up the "Outstanding Achievement" prize at the first Civil Service Diversity & Equality Awards. Not a bit of it, however, for the God who I believe inspired my "Fear, Fun & Faith" Diversity presentation in the first place, has continued to bless it and open further doors of opportunity.

Invitations have come in at a steady pace for me to make the 60 minute presentation inside and outside of the Civil Service. I have been to HMRC offices as far apart as Southend and Liverpool and still have outstanding engagements to fulfil in London and Newcastle. Even though these have all been work-based talks it has been clearly evident to me that God has turned up to touch people's hearts with his love. Tears and laughter have been present at all of the sessions as God by his Holy Spirit has been reaching deep into people's emotions. I have emails from two ladies saying that as a result of hearing my presentation they have been inspired to quit smoking. Two other emails relate to blindness. One lady was given strength and inspiration to be able to cope with her own degenerative eye condition, whilst another received some guidance from my own story of losing my sight at the age of 19, as to how she could help her beloved, elderly Auntie who has just gone blind. Someone else has written to me to say that even though not at my seminar, she was just told about it and given the notes; she had been so inspired that she has decided to call the little girl she is pregnant with by the name of "Faith" in honour of my talk. I am now praying for mother and baby every day because I believe god's hand is on those two lives.

News of my award spread by word of mouth and this has led to a variety of fresh opportunities. Firstly I have had the privilege of visiting a few churches to make slightly adapted versions of my presentation and then apart from Civil Service-based publications I have also been interviewed by local newspapers and Inspire, the magazine that goes out to Churches.

I have a particularly strong interest in the media and it was therefore thrilling to receive an invitation to be interviewed by Carl Chinn, on BBC WM one Sunday afternoon in December about my life, Christian faith and how I came to win the Diversity award. A visitor in the studio on the day filmed the interview on his mobile phone and with my permission put it on Youtube. To date in excess of 5,000 people have viewed the recording and if you want to do the same then you must go to youtube.com and type in the key words "blind man football" to get the first part of the three part interview, which lasts in all for 27 minutes.

Since becoming a Christian at the age of 21 life has been far from dull, but the last three years have been nothing short of sensational as God has taken me on this journey of faith to tell my story and in so doing inspire so many people. I have now, fulfilled the desire of my youth and written a book about my experiences (which is currently being proof-read, before I start the search for a publisher). It all goes to show that it is never too late to realise your dreams, especially when they are God-centred ones. In this year when I could be retiring, God has clearly said "You will be re-firing at 60".

"This is the Lord's doing - it's marvellous in our eyes" Psalm 118:23

Comments

If you have any comments on the above article or would like to communicate with John Flanner about any matters or need encouragement in any way, please email him at:

Email:    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.