President: Doug Llanwarne was Assistant Director Design & Development when he retired from Royal Ordnance in 1986, after working there for thirty years. Prior to this he had worked at a number of engineering companies including 3 years at RO Birtley, 3 years at Royal Aircraft Establishment Famborough, and a 5 year apprenticeship at Jowett Cars Ltd, Bradford.
In 1995 he became a Networker for RO pensioners with the expectation of being able to speak up on behalf of pensioners benefits & rights. Although this proved to be a very frustrating time, the Networkers did achieve a major success in persuading the company to establish one Pensioner Trustee. However, frustrations continued, until a number of networkers got together and set up the inaugural meeting of 'ROPA" in August 1998. Doug was appointed chairman at this meeting and only relinguished it in 2001 due to ill health, when he was appointed Life President.
In 1995 when he became a Networker he played a major role in setting up the
Nottingham Group of RO Pensioners as a social organisation, and was its chairman until 2002 when he was made Life President. He still actively supports this local group. He is married and lives in Nottingham where he fills his time playing bowls, and visiting his 3 married children and 9 grandchildren, who are spread throughout the country.

Chairman: Eric Goulding has been a member of the ROPA Council since 2006. He joined Royal Ordnance in 1977 and worked at Head Office in Mottingham, London and finally Chorley. He left RO in 1997 to become Corporate Risk Manager in BAE at Farnborough, where he was heavily involved as Risk Advisor to the BAe Year 2000 Project. He left BAe on early retirement at the end of 2000. During the following 4 years, he worked as a risk management consultant for his own company. He lives in Farnham in Surrey and spreads his time working as a volunteer adviser with Citizens Advice, helping out at the Farnham Oxfam Bookshop, working with ROPA and playing golf. He is married with 2 grown-up children and 3 grandchildren.

Secretary: Maureen Sawtell joined RO Radway Green Personnel Dept in 1976. In 1985 she transferred to Head Office in Griffin House, London as Personnel Manager, later re-locating to Chorley with the majority of Head Office. Due to a number of reorganisations she had various roles that included education and training projects and secondments to BAE Chadderton and RO Bridgwater. Following early retirement in 1994, she worked for an Industry/Education Partnership organisation enabling her to maintain her connections with RO and BAE Warton. She is the Pensions Networker for Radway Green and organises local meetings and social events. When she is not involved with pension matters, Maureen enjoys travel in UK and abroad, and attends art, line dancing and Italian classes with Crewe & Nantwich U3A -  a nationwide organisation she heartily recommends. She has one son and one grandson.

Treasurer: Norman Cowdrey: He has been a member of council since 2006. Following National Service he started his working life at AWRE Aldermaston in 1958 and then transferred to RO Radway Green in 1973 where he ran the Progress Department and later, Stores & Transport. He retired in 1992.

Member Nominated Trustee: Brian Johnson: I started working life as a commercial apprentice with Schweppes (Foods) Ltd in 1962. On completion of a 3-year training period I resisted attempts to make me into an accountant and opted to go into their Personnel Department. In 1968 I left Schweppes and joined the Ministry of Defence at ROF Leeds as a Labour Officer. In addition to Leeds I worked at ROF HQ Mottingham with brief spells at Patricroft, Bishopton, Blackburn, Nottingham and Glascoed. On privatisation in 1985 I was appointed to the Ammunition Division Headquarters and later to the Company Headquarters at Chorley.

Throughout my personnel management career I was of course involved with pensions issues.  Initially, as a Labour Officer, I would be called upon to give explanations of the rules and estimates of benefits. In 1984-85, as with all ROF employees, I was concerned about the post privatisation pension arrangements and had to decide whether or not to transfer my accrued Civil Service pension rights to the new fund. In the early 1990s, I was a member of the Company Industrial Relations team charged with discussions on pensions and general contractual negotiations. Finally in 1994 I accepted an early retirement package.

That might have been the end of my involvement with pensions matters but, along with a number of other RO pensioners, I began to be concerned about the security of our fund and we therefore established the Royal Ordnance Pensioners’ Association. Our prime objective was to ensure the proper funding and safe investment of the scheme’s assets. For over ten years the generous dowry transferred to the Company from the Civil Service grew and grew. The Fund enjoyed significant funding surpluses. The Company ceased its contributions and subsequently introduced a contributions holiday for employees. Early retirement packages saved the Company from having to make redundancy payments and some benefits were improved for current employees. Our concern was that no effort was being made to use the surpluses to ensure the future security of the fund. Specifically we sought an investment strategy which held more gilts/bonds and fewer volatile equities. Eventually a slight change of emphasis was achieved, but the collapses in equity values in 2002 and 2008 suggests that “the roof really should have been fixed whilst the sun was shining”.

In 2004 I was elected to be the pensioner nominated trustee for the scheme. Looking at the current funding position you might question what change I have managed to achieve. As politicians often say, “that is a very good question” and then they ignore it and answer one which they would have preferred. All I will say is that I now believe that the trustees are properly addressing the situation and adopting policies which will see us fully funded on a gilts basis. I was recently asked by a pensioner “are our pensions safe”. I hesitated over the “that is a very good question” response and simply indicated that the parent Company is strong, a funding recovery plan is in place and I personally have fewer concerns over my pension than I had ten years ago.

Brian is also the North Area and Crown Service representative on the Joint Pensioners Committee

Co-opted Member: Gordon Williams, formerly an academic research scientist at both Cambridge and the University of Washington, joined Westcott in 1968 eventually becoming a project manager for the R&D of rocket motors. He was transferred to Summerfield in 1989 and made redundant from there in 1991. He subsequently worked part-time for the Ordnance Board at the Ministry of Defence and also System Design & Evaluation, a consultancy group but is now fully retired. He has been a member of the ROPA Council since 2000, representing it on the Occupational Pensioners' Alliance and also acting as webmaster. He divides his spare time between his 2 children and 3 grandchildren, gardening and (from 1999 to 2009) as secretary to the UK Hash House Harriers, an international, social, non-competitive running organisation.

Malcolm Phillis, Nottingham: He first joined RO Nottingham straight from school in 1953 and did his apprenticeship training there. In 1960 he was made redundant but re-joined RO Nottingham again in 1965. In 1994 he took up the offer of early retirement but then worked part-time as a "Tooling Goods In" Controller for both Cromwell Tools and RO Nottingham until 2001 when Nottingham's activities were transferred to Barrow-in-Furness. He continued to work for Cromwell Tools until retirement in 2003. In 1995 he became a Networker for RO Pensioners, and is secretary of the ROPA Nottingham Group. He is married with four children (two of each), three grandchildren(two girls and a boy) and three great grandchildren(all girls). His hobbies are fly tying & fly fishing for trout, and gardening. He also keeps fit in his retirement practicing Pilates and swimming a minimum of ½ mile a week.

Bernard Moore, Westcott: Following National Service with the RAF he joined AWRE Foulness in 1953 but then transferred to RARDE, Fort Halstead and thence in 1977 to Westcott which became part of the ROFs in 1983. There he worked as a project officer in the Solid Rocket Motors Division on the R&D of various motors but mainly on those for the Starstreak weapon system. In 1989 the work on solid motors moved to Summerfield where he briefly worked before accepting early retirement terms in 1990. Throughout his career he was active in the IPCS (now Prospect) where he served as a Branch Treasurer. He also developed a passionate interest in archery and he was Chairman of the Civil Service Archery Association for 31 years. He is currently one of the Vice-Presidents. He is married and has four sons and 5 grandchildren.

Bob Smith, Chorley: He has been a ROPA Council member since 2007 and a Member Nominated Trustee of the Royal Ordnance Senior Staff Pension scheme since 2008. He joined Royal Ordnance in 1973 and worked at Mottingham, Patricroft and Chorley. During that period he also had working associations with Nottingham, Westcott, Summerfield, Bishopton, Bridgwater and Muiden. He moved out of RO in 1999 into the wider BAe before retiring from Barrow in 2003. In 2005 he was engaged by the company as a part-time consultant on commercial work which he continues to do. He is married with 2 children and 2 grandchildren, all boys. He enjoys hill-walking, motor sport and travelling.

Frank Spencer, Glascoed: I became a Council Member in 1996 having taken early retirement from my post as Company Industrial Relations Manager based at Chorley.

My working path commenced with a five-year engineering apprenticeship in 1957. I then later joined the Rover Car Company as it was then known, and spent the next twenty years in various manufacturing, training and personnel roles in the motor industry. In 1986 I left Land Rover Ltd in Solihull to take up the position of Personnel Manager, RO Glascoed where I stayed for three years before emigrating to Chorley.

Since my retirement I have been the Networker for the Glascoed Pensioners and Treasurer of the Networkers Group. In addition to my role as a ROPA Council Member I also perform the task of Membership Secretary and I am the JPC West Representative on the BAE Joint Pensioners Committee.

Married to my wife Doreen for 45 years our three sons and a daughter have provided us with 7 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. If that does not keep me busy enough I still manage a game of golf a couple of times a week on top of my rugby club commitments.

For a significant part of my working life I have had an involvement with pensions and Pensioners. A desire to help protect the pensions of RO Pensioners has never waned.

Rod Rawson, Faldingworth: He joined the British Manufacture and Research Company Ltd in 1963 and worked for that company until he took early retirement in 1996. The majority of his 33 years at BMARC was concerned with Quality. From being an industrial inspector on Ammunition Production he went through a number of staff positions until he became Chief Inspector of the Ammunition Division. After a short period as Chief Inspector Armaments he moved from Grantham to Faldingworth as Quality Manager, concurrent with RO taking control of BMARC. In his final three years before retirement, he was both Quality and Production Manager.
Whilst at Faldingworth he was elected, as an employee representative, to be a trustee of the BMARC Pension Fund. Since retirement he has kept active in the pension field by being on the ROPA Council since its inception and also being an original member of the JPC.
He has been married for 43 years and has two sons and three grandsons. His main hobby is golf and he has served on his club's committee for over 40 years.

Jim Kelly, Birtley: Having initially worked at Caterpillar as a tool maker, he joined ROF Birtley in 1965 as a machine tool setter and was appointed Union Convenor in 1980.

He served on the National Joint Negotiating Committee from 1981 to 1993 when he retired. He became a Networker and a founder member of ROPA in 1998 representing the North and Scotland and subsequently served as the ROPS Pensioner Trustee from 2000 - 2003.

He has two children and three grandchildren and now spends his time gardening and also golfing having been a member of the same club, (Houghton Le Spring Golf Club) for 51 years, being a Past Captain in 1962 and President from 2005 - current.