In Memory of Alfred Thomas Burton Longhurst and Theresa Alice Mary Burke

Alfred Thomas Burton Longhurst and Theresa Alice Mary Burke, Memoriam, Memorial.


Back to Longhurst / Burke ancestry, main page...


A few photos taken over the years...

(Click on any picture to enlarge it.)


As a young man in the Royal Canadian Navy...

Fred, portrait of a young sailor Fred, as a young man, unknown location Fred, with children Colleen, Cam, and Chris, 1959

Fred, Navy group portrait Fred, aboard the H.M.C.S. Quebec


Family matters...

Fred, with his father and mother visiting Fred, with son's Chris and Cam, c1960

Fred and Terry, late seventies, perhaps an anniversary Fred and Terry, children and two grandchildren, mid-eighties


Sporting life...

Fred, on a Navy hockey team

Fred, playing squash in the 80's. Fred, a golfer during six decades


Fred, at work at Northern Electric / Nortel...

Fred, working as a cable former in the 60's

After retiring from the Canadian Navy in 1962 (he had a few months of leave remaining and took them at this time), Alfred came home to Ontario to look for work here. He took some odd jobs to earn pocket money while looking around. He stayed at a rooming house in Brampton and often ate at a restaurant named Perk's, on Queen Street. He applied at CN Railways, where his brother and father worked, but did not get a job there due to significant hearing loss (high-pitched sounds, which made hearing birds and smoke detectors impossible, and understanding multi-person conversations difficult). The hearing loss was directly attributed to working with the booming guns aboard ship.

Alfred knew of Northern Telecom from having an uncle ("Don", or Randall) who worked at Northern in Belleville. He applied, and got a job there. He worked first in the shop as a cable former. He later moved into the office and worked as an expediter. His work would sometimes take him to other Northern Telecom plants, like the one in Montreal. As an expediter, he was on call to provide urgently-needed circuit packs to installers and repair crews arond the world. Alfred retired from Northern in 1990, after 27 years there.


Fred, with a group of fellow Nortel employees

(If I have understood everyone's directions) here are the names of some of these people. Let me know if I should make corrections.

Back row, left to right: Dave Champagne, Leo Carrier, may be George Gunn, Ken Dodd, _____ , _____ , _____ .

Middle row: _____ , Ken Allen , _____ , Alfred Longhurst, Fred Buchanan, _____ , _____ , Ron Cote.

Front row: Jim Elliott, _____ , _____ , _____ , may be Sandra Aldrit , _____ , _____ .

Fred, with another group of fellow Nortel employees

Back row, left to right: _____ , Alfred Longhurst, Terry Jones, may be Carl Todd.

Front row: _____ , _____ , _____ , _____ , _____ .


Some colour...

Bill Burkett: "At one time in my NT career. I was (Fred's) manager. I remember he along with Bill Chapman were my Production Control Clerks. I think he used to smoke a pipe and he was always on the go. He kept to himself and was a good worker. I remember him tell me that he was in the Navy and at one time he was assigned to take some special Navy personnel from one ship to another and in doing so he banged into the other ship. No one was hurt, but they would not allow him to transport Navy personnel any more." (Cam's note: wouldn't surprise me if it was no accident.)

Art Baker: "(Fred) was probably one of the first hundred employees hired in Brampton. I was his trainer in the cable forming area at the time. He worked for Pete McKellar (who was a fighter pilot in the 2nd World War) and as far as I remember (Fred) was a chief Petty Officer in the Navy - we had another lad by the name of Lang Gehman who also came out of the Navy and we used to sic (Fred) on him when he got out of line. I have nothing but good memories of (Fred)."

Roberta Thompson: "I don't know if I can tell you much about Fred's employment at Nortel, but I have a few great memories about him. One of my favourites is how he always kept a perfect spit-polish on his shoes. I don't know anyone who was as well turned-out right down to his shoes as Fred was. He told me that was due to his (Navy) training. He frequently gave his shoes a spit-polish in the office..." (Cam's note: see the photo above where he is standing on the curb, shoes shined.) Roberta: "I worked with Fred for a few years after I joined Customer Service doing Data Entry and eventually took over his duties as a Customer Service Rep. It gave me a great respect for his knowledge and experience."

Jim Elliott: "Our 'old salt', as we called him at work, was always fun to work with and to be around."

Cam Longhurst: "He wasn't above slyly putting a rubber worm in someone's coffee cup."


This file last modified 3/9/2016...

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