TWO men, each with more than 70 years continuous service, were among members of an engineering union honoured at a presentation.

Henry Rigby joined on January 4, 1925, and Thomas Aldred Metcalfe on January 1, 1927.

With nearly 3,000 members, the Burnley district Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union is the second largest in the country.

It has 211 members who have completed more than 40 years service and their combined membership spans 10,959 years!

Branch secretary Terry Burns said the Burnley branch handed out certificates to honour its members for their long service. He went on to say that the idea had now been taken up by head office and the certificates would be presented at branches nationwide.

The certificates were given out at the Irish Democratic League Club, Burnley. Padiham's Jack Frost, who has been a member for 40 years, worked on the world's first Hurricane fighter in 1937.

Other members who received certificates were: Keith Sheperd, Birrell Holburn, Ernest Rushton, Edwin Collinge, the late Fred Burns, Ron Spencer, Leonard Airey, Robert Bell, CW Coventry, EH Bartram, Brian Stansfield, John Lees, Lawrence Ingham, Ronald Whittaker, Arthur Parsonage, William Entwistle, AE Read, MF Mooney, George Chistofides, CJ Rowley, Wilfred Walker, R Rogerson, Norman Spencer, Jack Morville, Jack McCreary, Edward Charles Ingham, George Arroll and Terry Darcy.

Members paid respects to former branch secretary Tommy Jackson and former member and ex-Mayor of Burnley Tommy Bradley.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.